Project Description

Subway Sentinel is a robot that operates on existing subway tracks to help keep New York’s heavily used system safer and in better condition. Built around a rail-mounted platform carrying an industrial robotic arm, the system positions a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) unit to scan beneath the track bed and adjacent tunnel interfaces—revealing conditions that are difficult or impossible to verify visually. By enabling repeatable subsurface inspection without requiring personnel to enter hazardous or hard-to-access tunnel environments, Subway Sentinel is designed to support routine scanning and data-driven decisions that protect infrastructure over the long term.

Innovation Claim

The core innovation is the inspection platform itself: a rail-mounted, six-axis industrial robotic system engineered for tunnel environments to deliver precise, repeatable GPR positioning at scale. This approach enables faster, more consistent subsurface inspection than manual methods and reduces operational risk by shifting high-detail scanning to a controlled robotic workflow. The result is safer inspection practices and higher-quality data to support predictive maintenance planning.

Key Features

• Rail-Integrated Platform Mounts directly to existing subway tracks for stable, corridor-wide inspection without disrupting infrastructure.
• Precision Robotics Industrial arm enables controlled, repeatable GPR placement for consistent subsurface data acquisition.
• GPR Subsurface Inspection Detects voids, water intrusion, displacement, ballast degradation, and anomalies beneath track beds and tunnel interfaces.
• Worker Risk Reduction Reduces the need for manual inspection in confined, hazardous tunnel environments.
• Scalable Inspection Architecture Designed to support future sensor integration and expanded diagnostic functions.
• Predictive Maintenance Enablement Provides early detection insights to support data-driven maintenance planning and long-term asset preservation.