ETS Srl

ARCHITA is a multidimensional mobile mapping system with linked and integrated equipment installed on a vehicle. A large set of information (geometry, status, structural condition) is obtained in a single passage and integrated into one output environment for the maintenance, design and the management of infrastructure.

ETS is an engineering company with a background started in the railway industry. Operating on infrastructures part of “European Core Network” (TEN-T – Trans European Network - Transport), the owner RFI brought the need of the renewal of the railway line to the European standards. The client has foreseen a difficult, long and challenging work for the Italian infrastructure. The requirements involved the quick and reliable survey of 100 km of tunnels and the relative clearance analysis. The activity had to comply with the difficulties of working lines with short disruptions allowed only during the night. ETS has put on the line the knowledge, the investments and the partnerships to take over it. ETS overcome the problem by integrating different tools in one hardware (set-up, electronics, mechanics) on a service train or bi-modal vehicle. The integration regards also the software point of view and the outputs coming from the different instruments. In such a way, it's possible to gather information on geometries and structural conditions in one passage at 15-30 km/h. ETS has taken over this problem going through many challenges and continuous investment to improve the equipment, the mechanics, the software and the skills. ARCHITA reduces the time for decision-making of the client, focusing on the most critical and strategic lines (set of tunnels). Moreover, ARCHITA has given fast and reliable outputs to support design solutions and works strategy (single tunnel). The actual equipment involves laser scanner, linear cameras, thermal cameras, GPRs for ballast (railway) or pavement (road), GPR for tunnel lining and structures. ARCHITA has 3-years of research and more than 1900 km of infrastructure. In progress, ETS is carrying on an ETS all-in-one Platform; AI for defects mapping; Predictive maintenance model with multiple passages of ARCHITA. ARCHITA addresses international challenges: + Ensuring Sustainable Transport: high-detailed info on status and geometry to optimize design and works + Safety and Security: both for workers (during the survey) and users (objective-clear-repeatable outputs) + Strengthening Competitiveness: reduced cost-time, improved back-office, maintenance, design and management + IT solutions for a seamless infrastructure and tunnels: back-office and software development for integrated maintenance and management. - Cost and Time: ARCHITA is a time-effective solution for the clients with shortstop of the railway traffic (on-field activity reduced by 60%) and guarantees reduced cost compared to standard solutions with equivalent output (4 times cheaper) ARCHITA is not just innovative equipment. ARCHITA is the logical answer of the market to the challenges of the industrialized countries where the infrastructure is a fundamental heritage.

This category recognises innovation and excellence in site surveying and monitoring on tunnelling projects. Entrants to this category must demonstrate and provide evidence to show how, on a specific tunnelling and/or underground project, innovative use of existing instrumentation and monitoring techniques or pioneering new technology is contributing to an improved outcome for the project team and/or client.