Integration of Artificial Intelligence in the Railway Industry - An Interview

Interview with Mr. Naveen, MD of Sirveen Control Systems by Maya Yadlapalli

What work do you do in the Railway Industry?

We supply various kinds of Electronic Equipment to the Indian Railways such as Platform Displays and Station Displays.

Has your company and companies similar to yours started using Artificial Intelligence in what you do?

Though the term artificial intelligence is being used more nowadays, it has been used in most software and electronics industries for a long time. The extent to which it is used in companies varies by the type of equipment/product it is used or made into. High-level AI, as it is being discussed in the software industry right now, has yet to find widespread usage in the electronic equipment industry due to the existing specifications and costs involved. However, it is being used on a trial basis in some of the upcoming products and solutions. My company is yet to integrate AI fully into our products due to the above

reasons, however, we are improving our existing software solutions incrementally by using AI.

How is it being integrated and what parts is it integrated into?

One of the software solutions we are working on involves working with digital data that shows train movements within the railway stations. We are now implementing AI software on this digital data to automatically track the train movement from station to station without the need for manual dimension. Even though this is going to take some time, once this is implemented, Indian Railways will have access to train arrival and departure data throughout the Indian Railway network without all the issues seen with manual entry for time data.

Do you think that in the future AI will be able to do what you do and how does that affect companies like yours?

We believe artificial intelligence is a tool that will enable companies like ours to be more effective, productive, and efficient. This will be achieved by the engineers utilizing AI tools rather than artificial intelligence replacing them. We do not see the possibility of AI replacing the need for productive engineers anytime in the near future.

Overall, what do you think of the overall impact of AI on companies like yours in the short term (5-10 years)?

Similar to the rest of the world, AI would help improve current and future product development incrementally. We foresee that the pace of improvement, due to AI, to increase exponentially.