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Analysis of institutional authors

Barbero-Garcia, InnesCorresponding Author

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April 14, 2025
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A Robust Tool for 3D Rail Mapping Using UAV Data Photogrammetry, AI and CV: qAicedrone-Rail

Publicated to: Drones. 9 (3): 197- - 2025-03-10 9(3), DOI: 10.3390/drones9030197

Authors:

Barbero-García, I; Guerrero-Sevilla, D; Sánchez-Jiménez, D; Hernández-López, D
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Affiliations

Univ Castilla La Mancha, Inst Reg Dev, Albacete 02071, Spain - Author
Univ Politecn Valencia, Dept Cartog Engn Geodesy & Photogrammetry, Valencia 46022, Spain - Author
Univ Salamanca, Higher Polytech Sch Avila, Dept Cartog & Terrain Engn, Avila 05003, Spain - Author
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Abstract

Rail systems are essential for economic growth and regional connectivity, but aging infrastructures face challenges from increased demand and environmental factors. Traditional inspection methods, such as visual inspections, are inefficient and costly and pose safety risks. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have become a viable alternative to rail mapping and monitoring. This study presents a robust method for the 3D extraction of rail tracks from UAV-based aerial imagery. The approach integrates YOLOv8 for initial detection and segmentation, photogrammetry for 3D data extraction and computer vision techniques with a Multiview approach to enhance accuracy. The tool was tested in a real-world complex scenario. Errors of 2 cm and 4 cm were obtained for planimetry and altimetry, respectively. The detection performance and metric results show a significant reduction in errors and increased precision compared to intermediate YOLO-based outputs. In comparison to most image-based methodologies, the tool has the advantage of generating both accurate altimetric and planimetric data. The generated data exceed the requirements for cartography at a scale of 1:500, as required by the Spanish regulations for photogrammetric works for rail infrastructures. The tool is integrated into the open-source QGIS platform; the tool is user-friendly and aims to improve rail system maintenance and safety.
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Keywords

Computer visioMultiviewPhotogrammetryRail altimetryRail mapping

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal DRONES due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2025, it was in position 15/65, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Remote Sensing.

Independientemente del impacto esperado determinado por el canal de difusión, es importante destacar el impacto real observado de la propia aportación.

Según las diferentes agencias de indexación, el número de citas acumuladas por esta publicación hasta la fecha 2026-04-26:

  • WoS: 1
  • Scopus: 1
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Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2026-04-26:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 12.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 12 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 1.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 1 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
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Leadership analysis of institutional authors

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (Barbero García, Inés) .

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been Barbero García, Inés.

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Awards linked to the item

This work is part of the project "AICEDRONE-Sistema de Inteligencia Artificial Aplicado a la Modelizacion Geometrica de Precision en Ingenieria Civil Empleando Camara y Lidar en Drones", with reference number 2021/C005/00141824, developed in collaboration with Rover Infraestructuras, S.A., and funded by NextGenerationEU in the Plan de Recuperacion, Transformacion y Resiliencia. IBG received funding from Generalitat Valenciana with the postdoctoral grant CIAPOS/2023/395.
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