AI-Powered Inspection & Communication of Transit Infrastructure Conditions
Leveraging AI to streamline public service reporting.
Project Overview
Updated June 26, 2024.
The Problem
The need for public transportation services is on the rise across Canada with growing urban populations and targets to reduce pollution. With aging infrastructure and limited budgets, communities can struggle to accommodate growth and maintain service levels. Transit stops and their amenities can experience a variety of failures and issues, with resolving these incidents taking from several hours to weeks to be detected, during which time the public can experience disruption, discomfort or be exposed to potential hazards. Current systems for identifying issues can include inspectors driving around to randomly encounter problems and citizens calling in or navigating portals to report issues, resulting in duplication of reports and long processing times.
Current systems to inspect transit infrastructure and collect amenity and mobility data are costly and limited. Local governments are in need of sustainable solutions that allow them to learn about issues more proactively, effectively and scale their operations to maximize service delivery.
How We Are Solving It
This project will deploy AI camera digital agents on York Regional Transit (YRT) buses and infrastructure to act as virtual inspectors to inspect transit infrastructure and provide mobility intelligence. Led by Visual Defence in collaboration with The Regional Municipality of York and Comm100, their work will aim to integrate the AI camera agents with generative AI, intelligent chatbot functions and queuing (including AI analysis of images) for streamlined public service reporting.
The AI cameras will inspect transit infrastructure, identify incidents and monitor amenity conditions while ensuring privacy by blurring personal information. Data collected will be processed using computer vision and geospatial algorithms in the cloud to then present actionable insights to local governments.
Powerful AI models for superior interaction with the public will be integrated with Visual Defence’s system for comprehensive incident management, resulting in a new vision-based product focused on transit. Comm100’s chat client interface will be enhanced through the integration of text, images and locations for streamlined service ticket intake from transit users. Both systems will integrate with Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Geographical Information Systems (GIS), and Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) systems for automated service ticket generation, issue resolution and escalation.
Ultimately, this project aims to improve public service efficiency, reduce transit operating costs and enhance customer experience to set a precedent for innovative AI-driven solutions in public works.
