Analysis of the potential impacts of automation and robotics on locomotive rebuilding

Maintenance shops appear to be the most likely locations for robots in the railroad industry. The few robots that railroads have installed are found in shops, and shop activities such as welding, grinding, cleaning, and painting are well-suited to the use of standard robots. The study identifies and evaluates more than two dozen technically feasible applications at Conrail´s Juniata locomotive rebuilding shop. Fewer than half showed financial merit, primarily because of the high investment cost and the low potential for labor savings. Proposals to install an automated glass bead blasting booth and an arc welding center were deferred because competing projects had higher returns. In short the application of robotics technology was found to have only a limited potential for improving the productivity of modern railroad shops. As the state-of-the art advances, more applications will be both technically and economically attractive, but the impact on railroad maintenance will likely remain modest until equipment is redesigned to be maintained with simple, inexpensive robots.