CN awards rail-car inspection contract to Duos Technologies

Duos Technologies Group Inc. has obtained a "multimillion-dollar" contract with CN to provide the Class I with high-resolution train imaging systems for security and mechanical inspection.

The award includes four complete rail inspection portals and deployment of Duos' first commercial thermal undercarriage inspection system, which recently was beta-tested at the rail-testing facility in Pueblo, Colorado, Duos Technologies officials said in a press release.

The systems will be based on Duos' proprietary rail-car inspection portal technology, which combines several intelligent technologies and subsystems. Duos also will participate in an upcoming Phase 2 bid, which is expected to expand the projects to include analytical algorithms to process and evaluate rail cars for potential mechanical defects, company officials said.

The systems will be installed at four mainline locations around Winnipeg, Manitoba, and are designed to operate at extreme cold temperatures and at train speeds of up to 70 mph.

"CN is making significant investments in infrastructure and technology, including in Machine Vision and predictive analytics capabilities, to increase the safety, fluidity and efficiency of our railway," said Scott Daniels, senior vice president of strategy and innovation at CN. "The Duos technology is the latest example of how we are innovating with our partners to implement new measures that can better target preventative maintenance, improve reliability, reduce dwell and improve the overall performance of our operations."

Duos Technologies Chief Executive Officer Gianni Arcaini said the company expects to deploy several additional systems throughout the CN network in the near future.

"Our library of automated inspection strategies is rapidly expanding and represents a major growth path for our company in this application space," said Arcaini. "This advanced technology is a complete solution for transportation applications, which is expanding to also cover transit rail and related infrastructure."