Human, Organisational and Societal Factors in Robotic Rail Infrastructure Maintenance

Golightly, David; Chan-Pensley, Jamie; Dadashi, Nastaran; Jundi, Shyma; Ryan, Brendan; Hall, Amanda

Abstract

Robotics are set to play a significant role in the maintenance of rail infrastructure. However, the introduction of robotics in this environment requires new ways of working for individuals, teams and organisations and needs to reflect societal attitudes if it is to achieve sustainable goals. The following paper presents a qualitative analysis of interviews with 25 experts from rail and robotics to outline the human and organisational issues of robotics in the rail infrastructure environment. Themes were structured around user, team, organisational and societal issues. While the results point to many of the expected issues of robotics (trust, acceptance, business change), a number of issues were identified that were specific to rail. Examples include the importance of considering the whole maintenance task lifecycle, conceptualizing robotic teamworking within the structures of rail maintenance worksites, the complex upstream (robotics suppliers) and downstream (third-party maintenance contractors) supply chain implications of robotic deployment and the public acceptance of robotics in an environment that often comes into direct contact with passenger and people around the railways. Recommendations are made in the paper for successful, human-centric rail robotics deployment.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 10, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Feb 13, 2022
• Publication Date: Feb 2, 2022
• Deposit Date: Feb 16, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 16, 2022
• Journal: Sustainability
• Electronic ISSN: 2071-1050
• Publisher: MDPI AG
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 4
• Article Number: 2123
• Pages: 1-28
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su14042123
• Keywords: Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law; Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment; Geography, Planning and Development
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/7469820
• Publisher URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/4/2123