Hitachi Rail Unveils the ‘HMAX’ AI Solution, Accelerated by NVIDIA, to Optimize Trains, Signaling and Infrastructure
- Hitachi Rail’s ‘HMAX’ suite offers digital asset management solutions for the entire rail ecosystem – trains, signaling and infrastructure – and is being pioneered with transport operators globally
- Collaboration with NVIDIA means Hitachi Rail’s digital solutions will be powered by the NVIDIA IGX industrial-grade, enterprise-ready edge AI platform, providing powerful AI computing on every asset
- Data-driven advanced AI analytics are used to optimize operations and maintenance, offering major benefits to railways
BERLIN, Sept. 23, 2024 – Hitachi Rail’s digital asset management suite – powered by NVIDIA AI technology – launches today and is transforming the way transport operators run and maintain railways.
The HMAX (Hyper Mobility Asset Expert) suite is an all-in-one digital asset management platform that provides transport operators with an array of AI-enhanced digital solutions to optimize trains, signaling and infrastructure management.
Hitachi’s digital tools already use digital sensors to remotely monitor the health of assets and improve their performance. The HMAX platform offers a leap forward as live data collection is combined with powerful AI technology to dramatically enhance the speed, ease and depth of analysis. Using the powerful insights offered by HMAX, operators can now more accurately predict, optimize and transform their services.
Hitachi Rail is leveraging NVIDIA’s industrial AI platform and software tools, and Hitachi Digital’s AI Centre of Excellence and software engineering expertise, to offer operators more advanced, innovative solutions. The HMAX digital platform’s “edge to cloud” architecture means Hitachi Rail’s customers will be able to remotely access these innovations all through a single portal, as well as at operational centers. The solutions are part of Hitachi’s vision to bring the power of AI into the world of Operational Technology, equipping frontline workers, engineers and operators with the powerful benefits of AI.
The collaboration with NVIDIA incorporates the industrial-grade NVIDIA IGX platform with NVIDIA Holoscan sensor processing platform, allowing volumes of data to be processed at the ‘edge’ (on the trains or infrastructure) in real time, with only relevant information sent back to the operational control centers. This enables an unprecedented improvement in the speed that actionable insights reach transport operators, as previously it could take up to ten days for data to be processed in maintenance locations.
Speaking at the company’s showcase at InnoTrans, Berlin, Hitachi Rail CEO, Giuseppe Marino, said:
“At Hitachi Rail, we believe AI has immediate and very impactful applications that will make the railways run more efficiently. Our AI-enabled digital asset management is a solution for optimizing customers’ rail services and enhancing railway performance. We are delighted by our collaboration with NVIDIA, which will combine the power of AI with advanced Hitachi Rail technologies to enhance railway outcomes for operators.”
Yogesh Agrawal, Vice President of Data Center Business at NVIDIA, said:
“The railway, a system strengthened by the first industrial revolution, is at the forefront of the latest paradigm shift toward a digital transformation with AI. Hitachi Rail’s HMAX solution, powered by NVIDIA IGX and Holoscan, will offer the real-time computing capabilities needed to help boost the manageability, safety and availability of rail systems to meet the needs of operators and today’s travelers.”
