Optimal Inspection Scheduling Model for Monitoring Railway Track Grids

Abstract

The optimization of railway track inspection schedules is of great significance for the monitoring of railway track conditions and reasonable organization of track maintenance tasks. Here, an optimal inspection scheduling model for monitoring railway tracks is proposed. Railway track inspection activities are divided into equal-length units in the time and spatial location dimensions. The various constraints and objectives on the time and location of different track inspection activities are defined in detail regarding subdivisions of individual management units. The objectives of the model development are to achieve a more optimized equilibrium and robustness of the track inspection schedule. Based on the maximum entropy criterion, entropy is used to measure the distribution equilibrium of the inspection schedule in the time dimension. The proposed model is verified using actual data from the Lanxin railway.