Kheeran’s railway survey technology combines multi-frequency GPR, high-density LiDAR and precision geometry sensors into one integrated hi-rail platform — so a single mobilisation captures the full picture of your track’s condition.
Purpose-built technology for seeing the whole railway
KHEERAN runs three complementary survey technologies from hi-rail platforms, so a single mobilisation can capture what lies beneath the rail, how the track rides, and everything along the corridor. Each method is grounded in published standards and independent evaluation, and every dataset is calibrated and reported in your maintenance language.
1. Ground Penetrating Radar — the substructure
Multi-frequency GPR (400 MHz to 2 GHz) on a hi-rail vehicle scans the track centre and both shoulders in a single pass. The air voids in clean ballast scatter 2 GHz energy strongly while fouled ballast does not, and 400 MHz antennas profile the full substructure to 1–2 m. Calibrated against ballast samples and the Selig Fouling Index, GPR maps fouling, clean-ballast thickness and trapped water continuously — the methods validated in the FRA evaluation at the Transportation Technology Center.
2. Track geometry measurement — the ride
Hi-rail geometry systems and EN 13848-4 trolleys measure gauge, alignment, vertical profile, cross-level, twist, warp and curvature at fine sample intervals, with mechanical gauge contact that performs in adverse weather and vegetation. Results are evaluated against the governing standards — FRA 49 CFR Part 213, the Transport Canada Rules Respecting Track Safety, and EN 13848 — using chord-based (mid-chord ordinate) or space-curve analysis. A Track Quality Index rates each segment within its class, and run-over-run comparison exposes deterioration rate.
3. Mobile LiDAR — the corridor
A LiDAR scanner array collects thousands of 3D points per second within roughly a 100 m radius while cameras record 360-degree geo-referenced colour imagery. Tightly-coupled GNSS and inertial navigation keeps the solution stable even where satellite signal is blocked, and the track centreline is measured directly from the scan — so every asset carries a chainage and an offset from the rail-head plane. The result is a survey-accurate point cloud for clearance analysis, asset inventory, vegetation and earthworks assessment, and as-built BIM models.
Positioning, processing and AI
Every survey is tied to GPS and your chainage system, with synchronised video. Raw data volumes are enormous — gigabytes of radar and billions of LiDAR points — so our pipeline compresses, filters and, for LiDAR, applies deep-learning point-cloud classification to separate ground from structure and extract assets automatically. The output is decision-ready: fouling categories, geometry exception lists, clearance reports, KML maps and GIS/BIM deliverables.
Calibration and honest limits
Quantitative results require ground truth: GPR is calibrated to sieve analysis, geometry to known standards, and LiDAR to survey control. We are also clear about limits — GPR measures relative not absolute moisture, gradational fouling has no knife-edge boundary, and automated classification is always reviewed by an engineer. Our reports distinguish what we measured from what we infer.