How CSX Transportation is Mitigating Rail Risks using Autonomous Drone Ops in US

Introduction

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During one of the NestGen 2025 sessions, we spoke with Patrick Barnett, Technical Director of GIS Services, and Anthony Foisy, Senior GIS Engineer at CSX Transportation, a premier freight railroad provider servicing the Eastern United States with a vast network spanning 20,000 route miles across 26 states, Washington D.C., and parts of Canada.

CSX Transportation stands as a critical infrastructure provider in North America, moving freight efficiently with trains that can transport a ton of cargo more than 500 miles on a single gallon of fuel. The company's rail network serves nearly two-thirds of the American population, making it an essential component of the nation's supply chain. Here's what they had to say about implementing autonomous drone operations to mitigate rail risks

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The Challenge

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"Safety is our number one pillar here for CSX Transportation. We want our employees, we want the public, we want everybody to go home the way they came to work that day," - Patrick Barnett, Technical Director, GIS Services, CSX Transportation

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CSX faced several critical challenges in maintaining their extensive rail infrastructure:

• Safety Risks to Personnel: Traditional rail inspection methods required workers to physically examine tracks, switches, and joint bars, exposing them to potential hazards in active rail yards.
  
  
• Inspection Precision Requirements: Rail components require extraordinarily precise measurements—such as detecting switch point gaps greater than 1/8 inch (about the width of a credit card) and rail gaps exceeding 2 inches—where even small defects can lead to catastrophic derailments.
  
  
• Operational Disruption: Conventional inspection methods often interrupted rail operations, creating scheduling conflicts and reducing overall network efficiency.
  
  
• Consistency Limitations: Human visual inspections inherently introduced variability in defect detection, potentially missing critical issues that could compromise safety and operations.
  
  

The stakes were particularly high for CSX, as undetected rail defects could lead to derailments—with potential consequences including equipment damage, service disruption, environmental hazards, and most critically, threats to human safety.

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The Solution

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CSX implemented a comprehensive autonomous drone inspection system that combines cutting-edge hardware, specialized software, and machine learning capabilities to transform their rail inspection processes.

The hardware foundation of the solution includes the DJI Matrice 350 RTK drone equipped with a Phase One IXM 100 camera featuring an 80mm lens. This combination delivers highly accurate geotagged imagery while flying at a precise height of 100 feet above the tracks. The drone operates from a Hextronics Atlas drone dock that provides shelter and automatic battery swapping capabilities, enabling continuous operation.

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"The FlytBase team was very adept at developing advanced editing capabilities where we can import our data and ensure the drone flies over the exact location needed over the track, take pictures using basic photogrammetry principles, and then save all of those preprogrammed missions," - Anthony Foisy, Senior GIS Engineer, CSX Transportation

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The system architecture includes:

• Flight Control: FlytBase autonomous software manages precise flight paths directly over tracks
• Detect-and-Avoid Technology: CASIA G system replaces human visual observers
• Enterprise Integration: Custom workflows connect with CSX's enterprise GIS data and operations systems
• Edge Processing: Machine learning models run locally to identify defects

This integrated approach allows CSX to automate inspections without disrupting rail operations while maintaining FAA compliance through specially obtained waivers for operations beyond visual line of sight.

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How It Works

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The autonomous inspection workflow follows a carefully orchestrated sequence:

1. Mission Planning: CSX's GIS team imports enterprise track data into FlytBase to create 50-80 preprogrammed missions at each yard location, with each mission containing as many as 70 individual waypoints.
   
   
2. Autonomous Flight: When a track becomes available for inspection, the system receives a notification through Microsoft Azure and FlytBase Links. The drone automatically launches from its dock, flies the predetermined route over the track at 100 feet altitude, and captures high-resolution images.
   
   
3. Data Transfer: After completing the mission, the drone returns to the Atlas dock where imagery is wirelessly transferred from the Phase One camera to an edge computing device located in a secure bungalow at the rail yard.
   
   
4. Defect Detection: Machine learning algorithms process the images to detect critical defects including:
   
   
   • Switch point gaps greater than 1/8 inch
   • Joint bar issues (missing/loose bolts, cracks)
   • Rail gaps exceeding 2 inches
   • Track gauge problems
5. Results & Alerts: Detected defects appear on a dashboard that maintenance crews access via tablets, directing them to exact locations requiring inspection or repair.
   
   
6. Battery Swap & Relaunch: While data transfers, the Atlas dock automatically replaces the drone's battery, allowing it to launch for its next mission within minutes.
   
   

The system includes multiple failsafes to maintain operational safety, including automated procedures for handling signal loss or other contingencies.

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Implementation

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CSX's implementation journey involved close collaboration with regulatory authorities, particularly the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The team spent several years building relationships with regulators and developing a compelling safety case for beyond visual line of sight operations.

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"We have had the opportunity to work with the Federal Aviation Administration here in the United States for several years now, and we have progressed our operations to the point where we have a remote operation center here at our headquarters in Jacksonville, Florida," - Anthony Foisy, Senior GIS Engineer, CSX Transportation

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The implementation strategy leveraged the physical infrastructure of rail yards, using high-mast light poles as natural barriers that allowed for "infrastructure masking" arguments to support FAA waiver applications. This approach, combined with comprehensive failsafe mechanisms in the FlytBase system and CASIA G detect-and-avoid technology, provided the foundation for regulatory approval.

CSX established a hybrid operational model with a primary remote pilot in command (RPIC) on location and a secondary pilot at their Remote Operation Center (ROC) in Jacksonville, Florida, who handles the actual flight controls through the FlytBase interface. This arrangement maintains regulatory compliance while maximizing operational efficiency.

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Impact

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The autonomous drone inspection system has delivered substantial benefits across multiple dimensions of CSX's operations:

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Enhanced Safety

By removing personnel from trackside inspections, the system significantly reduces workplace hazards. Employees no longer need to physically access potentially dangerous areas of active rail yards to perform inspections, aligning perfectly with CSX's primary pillar of ensuring everyone "goes home the way they came to work."

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Improved Defect Detection

The combination of high-resolution imagery and machine learning algorithms enables the detection of extremely small defects—as narrow as 1/8 inch—with consistent accuracy. This precision exceeds what human inspectors could reliably achieve, particularly when inspecting the numerous switches in busy rail yards.

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"Measuring the width of a credit card from over a hundred feet and at seven miles an hour is a challenge. So we definitely wanted to go for the hardest stuff first so that everything else is going to be easy as we move forward," - Patrick Barnett, Technical Director, GIS Services, CSX Transportation

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Operational Continuity

Since drone inspections occur above the tracks rather than on them, rail operations can continue uninterrupted during inspection activities. This eliminates the operational conflicts that previously occurred with manual inspections and helps maintain fluid movement through CSX's network.

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Rapid Response to Defects

The system not only detects issues but immediately directs maintenance crews to specific problem locations through an intuitive dashboard interface. This streamlined workflow drastically reduces the time between defect detection and remediation, preventing small issues from developing into major problems.

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Way Ahead

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CSX is poised for significant expansion of their autonomous drone operations in 2025, with plans to activate the system at numerous locations across their network. The company has already identified approximately 30 total use cases for the technology, with eight currently implemented and more in development.

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"This is the year that we will turn this system on at numerous locations across our network, inside our rail yards," - Patrick Barnett, Technical Director, GIS Services, CSX Transportation

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Future applications include expanded track inspection capabilities such as measuring cross-level issues and detecting sun kinks—rail deformations caused by thermal expansion in hot weather. The team also envisions extending inspections beyond rail yards to "line of road" applications that would help monitor the full 20,000-mile network.

Additionally, CSX is exploring use cases beyond engineering applications, working with their transportation and mechanical departments to identify new opportunities for leveraging autonomous drone technology across their operations.

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Conclusion

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CSX's implementation of autonomous drone operations represents a transformative approach to rail infrastructure inspection that prioritizes safety while enhancing operational efficiency. By combining precision hardware, autonomous flight capabilities, and advanced machine learning, CSX has created a system capable of detecting even the smallest rail defects that could potentially lead to derailments.

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"This has been a huge collaborative effort with technology operations, our engineering workforce, our federal government, and all our tech partners. The more safe we can be, the better everyone is going to be at the end of the day—our employees, our communities, our shareholders, and all of our partners," - Patrick Barnett, Technical Director, GIS Services, CSX Transportation

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FAQs
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Q1. How does CSX use drones to inspect railroad infrastructure?
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CSX uses autonomous drones equipped with high-resolution cameras that fly predetermined routes over rail yards to capture detailed images of tracks, switches, and joint bars. These images are analyzed by machine learning algorithms that can detect defects as small as 1/8 inch, with results immediately shared with maintenance teams via tablets.
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Q2. What regulatory approvals are needed for autonomous drone operations at railroads?
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Railroads need specific waivers from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations. CSX secured these approvals by developing a comprehensive safety case, implementing detect-and-avoid technology, and utilizing an operational model with both on-site and remote pilots.
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Q4. What defects can autonomous drone systems detect on railroad tracks?
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The system can detect critical rail defects including switch point gaps greater than 1/8 inch, joint bar issues (missing or loose bolts, cracks), rail gaps exceeding 2 inches, and track gauge problems. These capabilities help prevent derailments by identifying problems before they become critical safety hazards.
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Q3. What is the return on investment for implementing autonomous drone inspections in rail operations?
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While specific ROI figures weren't disclosed, the value comes from preventing costly derailments, reducing operational disruptions, enhancing worker safety, and enabling more frequent and consistent inspections. The system also allows for trending analysis to identify developing issues before they require emergency maintenance.

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