AP Sensing and Sercel launch innovative railway infrastructure monitoring solution

AP Sensing and Sercel are pleased to announce the launch of a joint innovative solution for comprehensive railway infrastructure monitoring.


The world’s first Below Ballast Scan (BBS) solution is the result of joint technical work combining AP Sensing’s unique Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) technology and Sercel’s comprehensive geophysical solution for near-surface evaluation using DAS data. The joint solution provides insights to help customers understand the roadbed and underlying geology to better manage their geotechnical risks.

The BBS  monitoring solution provides critical data needed for safe railway operations and is an important complement to existing shallow near-surface inspection techniques and rail monitoring. The use of already-existing fiber optic infrastructure, together with extremely long-range evaluation capability, makes the joint AP Sensing and Sercel solution very cost-effective and non-intrusive. Assessment of rail track subsurface using DAS does not interfere with traffic and allows monitoring changes in real time for more predictive planning of maintenance operations, especially in areas with complex geological conditions or high geotechnical risks.

Find more information on railway infrastructure monitoring here

Read about BBS in action here


About Sercel

Sercel designs and manufactures high-tech solutions for subsurface exploration and infrastructure monitoring. Capitalizing on its more than 60 year world-leading position in the seismic acquisition industry, Sercel also provides innovative solutions and services for structural monitoring, energy transition, defense and underwater acoustics applications. Headquartered in Nantes (France), Sercel operates worldwide and employs more than 1.500 people. More information about Sercel is available at www.sercel.com.