Systems and methods for identifying railroad track rails and determining railroad track characteristics using lidar

A method by a computing system for identifying railroad track rails and determining railroad track characteristics using light detection and ranging (LiDAR), the method comprising:

• accessing LiDAR point cloud data stored in one or more memory units, the LiDAR point cloud data comprising locations of objects and surfaces within a railroad track environment;
• identifying, using the LiDAR point cloud data, a plurality of rails of a railroad track within the railroad track environment;
• determining a track centerline point using the identified plurality of rails;
• determining, using the determined track centerline point, a track characteristic of the railroad track;
• and
• displaying a graphical user interface on an electronic display, the graphical user interface configured to display:
• an image of the identified plurality of rails;
• and
• the determined track characteristic of the railroad track.

One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

• accessing light detection and ranging (LiDAR) point cloud data stored in one or more memory units, the LiDAR point cloud data comprising locations of objects and surfaces within a railroad track environment;
• identifying, using the LiDAR point cloud data, a plurality of rails of a railroad track within the railroad track environment;
• determining a track centerline point using the identified plurality of rails;
• determining, using the determined track centerline point, a track characteristic of the railroad track;
• and
• displaying a graphical user interface on an electronic display, the graphical user interface configured to display:
• an image of the identified plurality of rails;
• and
• the determined track characteristic of the railroad track.