Last week, Volker Wissing (Federal Minister for Digital Affairs and Transport) and Michael Peterson (Member of the Executive Board of Deutsche Bahn AG) visited the ICE plant in Cologne-Nippes, which is one of a total of five E-Check plants.

With E-Check, the maintenance and general inspection of the ICE is to be partially automated. The E-Check consists of several components:

Inspection of the outer skin of the ICE train by passing through a gate equipped with 32 cameras. The data is sent to the IT in the factory. There, an Artificial Intelligence identifies deviations from the target condition.
Robots are also used to take photos of the underside of the train and the bogies. Others take care of waste water disposal and refilling. Employees can take care of more demanding tasks like repairs during this time.

Thomas Staufenbiel, Managing Director of Gestalt Robotics:

“In E-Check, we can demonstrate our entire know-how and experience in the field of intelligent automation solutions. The use of AI-based testing methods for high-speed trains, as technologically realised in the project, is unique within the industry."

We are proud to be involved in this great project together with Strama Group and Götting KG as part of Deutsche Bahn “Starke Schiene” strategy.

Copyright Images: Deutsche Bahn AG / Oliver Lang

E-Check: AI based inspection for the ICE