Cordel Capture: Detailed Best Practices

Introduction

This article describes best practices for capturing and managing rail inspection data. It is designed to ensure our clients maximise the value of their Cordel solution, generating good quality data that can be used for processing and analysis. It includes information on how to check Cordel capture hardware, monitor for issues during capture, transfer data once capture has concluded and avoid some common pitfalls.

Hardware Installation and Maintenance

Installation of Hardware

Cordel Hardware is installed and commissioned at the start of each project, with careful consideration of the capture vehicle, local terrain and hardware components. You should not need to install or change the configuration of your hardware at any stage.

Maintenance of Hardware

Maintaining your Cordel capture hardware is straight forward and does not involve disassembling or uninstalling the unit.

Safety

• Before maintenance, ensure that the system is powered off and disconnected from any power source.

• Make sure to use personal protective equipment (PPE).

• Follow the safety procedures of the work site.

Visual Inspection

It is recommended you perform a visual inspection of your hardware before each major capture run. When conducting a visual inspection:

• Inspect the unit for any signs of physical damage, such as cracks, dents, or scratches.
  Pay close attention to vulnerable areas like LiDAR, connectors, etc.

• Check all mounting fixtures, brackets, and screws for tightness and security.
  Ensure that the unit is securely fastened to its mounting surface.

• Examine all cables for signs of wear, fraying, or damage.

• Check cable connections are secure and free of debris.

• Verify the power status of the unit and check that the power cables are securely connected and there are no visible signs of damage.

Sensor Cleaning

Frequency: Sensor cleaning frequency should be based on operational conditions; environments with increased exposure to dust or other contaminants may require more frequent cleaning.

LiDAR Sensor: Cleaning the LiDAR regularly is essential to maintain its accuracy and performance. Stains on the LiDAR’s lense, such as dirt, fingerprints, and oil, can negatively affect point cloud data quality.

Camera: Cleaning the camera lens regularly is crucial to maintain clear and sharp video capture.

More about how to clean the LiDAR and Camera sensors on your Wave-Rugged or Wave-OEM is available in the Cordel Knowledge Base and is supplied in the hardware User Guides.

Capture Best Practices

Field Of View

Video: Be Aware Of Your Hardware When Coupling

To ensure the Cordel camera has a clear view of the corridor and is able to capture usable video footage, please carefully consider the placement of coupled carriages. Carriages that are couple to the end of a capture vehicle may block the view of the Cordel capture unit and render all captured data unusable.

Antenna:

Typically, GNSS antennae require a clear sky view in order to maintain an accurate GPS fix. This is defined as being 15° degrees from the horizontal top face of the Rugged Unit.

All Cordel hardware is installed with this requirement.

Note: where a clear sky view is not available (e.g. in tunnels or under ground), GNSS data may be unreliable or unavailable.

LiDAR:

To prevent LiDAR occlusion, ensure that there are no obstacles that could interfere with the LiDAR beam. Even partial blockage of the LiDAR can result in inaccurate data capture.

All Cordel hardware is installed with this requirement.

How To Start/End Capture

Cordel capture hardware is designed for autonomous capture.

Automatic Capture Mode: Capture will begin automatically when motion is detected. Capture will end automatically when vehicle stops moving.

Manual Capture Mode: Use the Start/Stop recording functionality in Ground Station.

Note: To make data files manageable, data is automatically captured in 15 minute segments, referred to as “missions.”

Avoid Short Captures

Due to hardware automatically starting/stopping capture based on velocity, it is possible to inadvertently create ‘short captures’. A short capture is a segment of captured data that is too short to be processed and delivered in Cordel Connect. The definition of ‘too short’ depends on several factors - but as a general rule captured missions should be at least 3 minutes. Short captures may generate errors when users attempt to upload them using Cloud Sync. Whilst this is not an issue in and of itself, users should be aware of this.

Long, continuous capture generates high quality data for processing.

Geometry Car Capture

When Cordel hardware is installed on a geometry car, additional considerations may be necessary to ensure data quality. As noted earlier, multiple stops with limited movement between them can lead to poor-quality LiDAR data. In situations where back-and-forth movement is required to investigate a potential geometry defect, it is strongly recommended this section of track is recaptured in a single, continuous pass to optimize LiDAR data collection. While this is generally less important when capturing single-track territory, it becomes critical in areas with complex track infrastructure components such as switches, turnouts, and other special trackwork, where continuous LiDAR capture is essential.

Monitoring Capture With Ground Station

Ground Station is the software that operates alongside the Cordel hardware to facilitate autonomous, unattended capture of data. It is typically installed on the OnBoard Computer and requires an internet connection to function properly.

Before you begin capture

Once the Lidar is ready and the GNSS is reporting it has a position lock (green across the board) the rig is ready to begin data capture.

During active capture: monitor capture hardware

Use Ground Station to monitor the health of the capture system in real-time, allowing potential capture issues to be identified and resolved in the field.

Ground Station shows health status information for:

• NET: Network Connection.
  Green: Connected to the Control Unit
  Red: No connected to the Control Unit

• CAM: Camera.
  This icon is green when the device is detected and recording; blue when the device is ready but not recording;
  red when no camera is detected.

• STOR: Storage.
  This icon shows the available storage space on the Control Unit. 
  It is red when there is not adequate space to store new capture data.

• GNSS: Location. This icon indicates the current type of GNSS lock. 

• LID: LiDAR.
  This icon is green when it is ready to capture;
  red when it is still starting or no LiDAR sensor is detected.

• CAP: Capturing.
  This icon is green when the Control Unit is recording the mission;
  blue when the system is ready to capture.

What to do if a sensor is red/ not not functioning as expected

1. Check the Hardware unit and Host Machine has power.

2. Check all cables are securely attached to their respective ports.

3. Check any antenna cables for pinches or kinks.

4. Power cycle the Camera.

5. Re-start the Host Machine.

6. Contact Cordel Support support@cordel.ai.

Offline Data Validation In The Field Using Cloud Sync

To prevent the need to revisit and recapture data at a later date, users are encourage to perform a brief validation process at the conclusion of each capture. Keep in mind no internet connection is required to perform this check.

1. Go to C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Local\Cordel\Data (A shortcut to this folder is also available on the OBC desktop page)

2. Search for the folder with today’s capture date and open it. Open 3-5 .MP4 video files and check if they open and can be played/viewed.

3. Open the Cordel Cloud Sync application. 

4. Click the ‘Select Directory’ icon above the file list

5. Select all missions inside today’s folder and click upload

6. Check the map has a continuous blue line, indicating data has been captured continuously.

   

What to do if data has not been captured successfully

1. Re-capture any missing sections of the track

2. Contact Cordel Support support@cordel.ai

Data Management

By default, Cordel Ground Station saves capture data to a sub-folder in the %AppData% directory.

To access this location, open Windows file explorer and paste the following file path after replacing the USERNAME with your Windows username in.

C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Local\MavSystem\Data

Jobs are separated into folders based on capture date. Missions (individual 15 minute captures) are separated by the start time (UTC) using the format “Mon-DD HHMMSS” (Month-Day UTC-time).

Cordel capture hardware employs a “FIFO” (First In, First Out) data management strategy and will delete older data to save newly captured data if the storage reaches full capacity. To monitor available storage space, refer to the Ground Station App and the value shown under 'STOR'. Please communicate closely with our support team once storage drops below 50 GB. At that point, we’ll work with you to clear space by removing data that has already been backed up and uploaded to the cloud.

How to transfer captured data from the hardware unit to the OBC (OnBoard Computer)

Manual Capture Mode: When capture is stopped data will be downloaded from the hardware unit to the OBC automatically.

Automatic Capture Mode: Data is downloaded from the hardware unit to the OBC automatically during data capture.

A progress bar is shown at the top of the screen which displays the status of the download.

Automatic Ground Station Data Validation

On start-up, Ground Station will check for discrepancies between the hardware unit and the OBC. If there are files on the Hardware unit that aren’t present on the OBC it will open the data download tool.

This tool can also be accessed using the “Download Data” button in Ground Station.

How to transfer captured data from the OBC to an external hard drive

To avoid extensive transfer times and minimize the risk of data being lost, it is highly recommended data be transferred from the OBC daily. In areas where there is poor/no internet coverage, users should copy data to an external hard drive. Data should then be uploaded to your Cordel Connect account at a later time using Cordel Cloud Sync.

Transfer today’s data into an external drive by copying the folder with today’s date from C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Local\Cordel\Data to an external hard drive.

How to transfer captured data from the OBC directly to Cordel Connect using Cloud Sync

1. Login to Cloud Sync

2. Load the .cirovermeta for each mission you wish to upload via the ‘Select Directory’ option above the file list. Select a directory or a single file.

Note: selected data is shown in the “Mission to Upload” list, and the associated trajectory is displayed on the map.

3. Click ‘Upload All’

Cloud Sync displays the progress of each file and the combined set of files, including transfer rates:

4. Once the associated data has been uploaded, it will be available in Cordel Connect as ‘uploaded’.

How To Check Data Quality Using Cloud Sync

The “Mission to Upload” list in Cloud Sync represents the quality of each mission using one of three icons:

The mission has been loaded successfully with no errors or warnings. This mission can be uploaded without further checking

The mission has been loaded but has warnings. This mission can still be uploaded - but the user should verify the message/s reported

The mission is corrupt. This mission cannot be uploaded and the user should review messages and confirm mission data has been copied correctly

Warning messages

The following warnings may be displayed and possible resolutions:

• Mission time maybe excessively long
  Missions are typically limited to approximately 15 minutes, and this warning is displayed for missions over 30 minutes

• Irregular file sizes for mission data
  This warning is displayed when mission data files do not meet the average file size for each type of file

• Multiple video files
  More than 1 video file is present

Error messages

The following errors may be displayed and possible resolutions.

Note: for corrupt missions it is likely the mission data has not been copied successfully from Ground Station or the hardware unit.

• Corrupt Mission
  Corrupt *.cirovermeta and/or *.gnc file is missing or corrupted

• Mission cannot be uploaded. LiDAR or gnss file(s) not found
  Missing LiDAR and/or gnss filename from *.cirovermeta

• Mission cannot be uploaded. Invalid Lidar file
  The *.lidar file is not the correct format or corrupted

• Mission cannot be uploaded. The following errors were found:

  • Missing files: listed files not contained in mission data folder. Check for missing file (s) during copy operation

  • Incorrect Size Files: listed files are not the same size as files in the mission data folder. Check the file (s) are copied correctly

How To Use Cordel Connect To Monitor Data Capture

Cordel Ground Station is paired with Cordel Connect, which provides users with access to the web platform the ability to view the location and status of their Cordel capture equipment.

Login to Cordel connect and go to Equipment> Rovers.

Each Rover has an information card and a colour coded map marker that provides a quick visual indication of the overall state of each device, as well as the health of each individual sensor.

When viewing a Rover marker on the map, the marker is coloured according to the overall status of the Rover:

🟩 Good. The device is fully operational.

🟦 Ready. The device is ready to capture.

🟨 Yellow: Warning. There may be issues with the device, or the device isn’t fully functioning.

🟥 Error. There is something wrong with the device.

⬛ Unavailable. The device is not connected to power or is out of 4G service.

Related Links

Wave-Rugged User Guide

Wave-OEM User Guide

Wave -Rugged Maintenance

Wave -Rugged Maintenance

Ground Station User Guide

How To Capture Data Using Ground Station

Cloud Sync User Guide

How To Upload Data Using Cloud Sync

How To Use Cloud Sync To Validate Captured Data In The Field