Robotically Assembled Railbeds

1 Oct 2024: I am redacting some of this original post.

20 Oct 2024: Taking more content out.

The recent brief summary of the Defence Strategic Review has some recommendations; they are generally aspirational and unfunded. We all expect many followon studies and things to become more clear. But one of the very few recommendations concerned northern bases, and some money was moved against that need.

No matter who is in charge, or which way the strategic directions take us, this move will stick. It is just a fact of geography that projecting force, defending the nation, and generally making things harder for an adversary will drive a focus on the north.?

Politicians, and quite possibly many in the ADF may not fully appreciate what it takes to establish, sustain, and protect a staging area/base. It takes tons and tons of materiel, fuel, and commodities in peacetime. Military planners surely know the challenges of mobilisation and staging. No military — even the US for which I did relevant planning — has enough capability here. We surely don’t, and what we have in times of stress will be assigned elsewhere.

...

This leads us to railroads. Rail and Defence have been linked as long as rail has existed; any defence planner outside Australia will immediately think of rail when thinking of bases. I understand why we don’t, yet; we are unique in how we sorted ourselves. But the forces that put our cities where they are cannot compromise our safety with blindness.

We’d want rail for all kinds of reasons other than defence; enabling future fuels is by itself something we should be doing. We are the Saudi Arabia of sunshine, and we should be moving ammonia to sell.?

We need rail. But rail is hard and especially hard here. I’ve just been briefed on the amazing story of the Adelaide-to-Darwin route. And that’s likely an easier route than those we’ll need. I’ve also been educated on why we have three different, incompatible gauges here — the distance between tracks. Also that much of the coverage on the headline map is not available for different reasons.

But here’s a reality. Rail beds are frighteningly expensive, even assuming you’ve worked out the rights, and mitigated the often significant environmental impact. In our case, those could be substantial factors.

The conventional way to approach rail is to engineer smooth ways, graded and founded more expensively than roads. Then comes the track ballast, those rocks you see. These aren’t random rocks, but highly engineered and you need a lot of it. Typically, you need a railroad just for this. On top goes the ties and the rails. Where you need trestles, they tend to be crazy expensive. And on top you need signals and crossings, no simple task in sum.

As it happens we may need rail through nice flat areas that often flood, meaning that these need to be built up, requiring yet more material.?

Here’s an idea. When faced with huge challenges — and there are a few — our first response should be to think of some innovative way to approach it. Rail could be a good one. Let’s not discount the skill set from mining. Much of that is in our universities, which I’ve pinged elsewhere as poor incubators of innovation. They are good in this case. We’ve also got some good chops in material science if not manufacturing, and these scientists and their knowledge are portable from overseas.?

And we talk a good game in robotics.

Is there a mini-trestle technology we can devise that has modular space frame components that are lightweight, robot assemble-able, and capable of extreme stresses? If there is, and we can master/certify it, we can envision an approach that:

1) uses drones and land robots to perform detailed surveys of routes, environmental dynamics and engineering properties;

2) employs AI to assist engineers in detailed designs, using modular, reusable solutions and components;

3) devises novel materials, coatings, and fabrication techniques;

4) leverages heavy use of robotics in designing, delivering, and assembling track and foundation space frames;

5) continually inspects and maintains the ways.

We may not be far from this if we leverage mining expertise for the sensor/terrain slices and NASA for the space frame elements. NASA’s work in this area is astonishing it its breadth and longevity. (I cosponsored work on space frames at Langley in the 90s!) Just this week, we have the conference meeting of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures held in Australia.

...