Industry First | CREG Unlocks a New Drone-Based Inspection Model for Tunnel Belt
October 20,2026
Recently, China Railway Construction Heavy Industry (CREG), targeting the many real-world difficulties of traditional manual inspection of continuous belt conveyors, launched a new drone-based intelligent inspection solution for continuous belt conveyors, injecting new momentum into the intelligent upgrade of tunnel construction.
Tunnel Continuous Belt Conveyor
In long and large tunnel TBM construction scenarios, the continuous belt conveyor can extend with the tunnel to several kilometers in length, running through the entire tunnel bore and undertaking the critical task of transporting muck out of the tunnel. Whether it runs stably directly determines tunneling efficiency and is the core equipment guaranteeing uninterrupted TBM excavation around the clock.
The traditional inspection model relies mainly on personnel walking the route, with low inspection efficiency and high labor intensity. Moreover, because the belt conveyor is installed at a high level, manual on-site inspection is limited and it is difficult to comprehensively check for equipment operation hazards. Hidden dangers such as belt misalignment, idler jamming and bracket deformation are scattered along the entire line, and fault troubleshooting depends heavily on the personal experience of operators, making missed and delayed inspections all too common. The real predicament of long-distance tunnel belt conveyor inspection has long been a pain point the industry urgently needs to solve.
Belt Conveyor Inspection Problems
To solve this problem, CREG actively carried out special research. Targeting special working conditions such as no GPS signal in tunnels, narrow space, dense pipelines, heavy dust and insufficient light, the R&D team conducted research on complete intelligent inspection technology, completing data collection, algorithm analysis, on-site verification and model optimization. At present, the complete intelligent inspection equipment has completed preliminary on-site verification and achieved autonomous drone flight inspection testing in tunnel environments.
Inspection Drone Automatically Patrolling Inside the Tunnel
The tunnel belt conveyor intelligent unmanned inspection system consists of four major modules: inspection drone, data acquisition module, defect recognition algorithm and operation-maintenance management platform. The inspection drone can cruise along a predetermined trajectory in a closed tunnel space with complex working conditions, actively avoiding various on-site obstacles and completing automated inspection of the entire line. The equipment is equipped with a dedicated high-definition acquisition and fill-light device that can resist the interference of weak light and dust in the tunnel and clearly collect image data of equipment along the line.
Relying on AI detection algorithms, the system can identify high-frequency typical faults such as belt misalignment, idler jamming and bracket deformation, accurately locate fault positions, and generate complete inspection reports, realizing intelligent detection of common defects.
Illustration of Belt Misalignment, Bracket Deformation and Temperature Anomaly
After the drone belt inspection system is applied at scale, it will completely break the traditional manual walk-through inspection model for belt conveyors, freeing operators from the arduous in-tunnel inspection work, greatly shortening belt conveyor inspection time, shifting fault handling from post-accident repair to pre-warning, reducing unplanned belt conveyor downtime, and guaranteeing continuous and efficient TBM excavation. The system can also connect to the tunnel smart operation-maintenance platform, accumulate big data on healthy equipment operation, continuously iterate and optimize the recognition algorithm model, realize full-lifecycle digital health management of belt conveyors, and provide an innovative solution for the intelligent construction of long and large tunnels.
Source : www.51cm.org
Views : 7941
Tags : CREG tunnel belt conveyor drone inspec
