AIVR Cloud Agent
What is it
AIVR Cloud Agent is an intelligent cloud-based program within One Big Circle’s AIVR Cloud, which manages the movement of railway video and sensor data between edge devices and the cloud. It sits inside the company’s cloud-based infrastructure for Automated Intelligent Video Review, coordinating hundreds of rail infrastructure monitoring devices across rail networks such as the UK’s.
Why it matters
The main value of the AIVR Cloud Agent is efficiency: instead of manually downloading all large video files that have been collected, the system decides what data is worth sending and what can be held back. This means that engineers can access high-quality visual, geometric and third-party data within hours rather than days, supporting faster analysis, safer inspections and better maintenance planning. This is especially useful on in-service trains where the same route is repeated many times a day.
When and where
One Big Circle developed the AIVR platform, introduced in 2019. From an early stage, Dynamic Demand evolved within AIVR – a function executed by the Cloud Agent.
The AIVR platform supports rail infrastructure engineers, data analysts and inspection teams, including UK users at Network Rail and related operators. It works across data streams captured by train-mounted devices on measurement, In-Service TOC, FOC and Plant trains. The Cloud Agent plays a crucial role in intelligently managing that data and orchestrating its transmission to the AIVR Cloud.
How it works
Each edge device continually captures high-resolution video and sensor data and performs pre-processing on it. This combines local data and any insight derived from the processing. It then sends this lightweight information to the AIVR Cloud. The Cloud Agent continuously assesses this data, evaluating current coverage needs and provision from other devices. Based on this judgement, it then dynamically requests the sections of data it needs.
It also manages demand elastically, scaling data requests up or down according to cloud capacity and operational need. This approach reduces congestion, avoids unnecessary transfers, and keeps the cloud focused on coordination, storage and analytics rather than raw data transport. In practice, this is what lets AIVR aggregate large datasets from across the network and present them through a single online platform for inspection and review, all in line with data sharing policies and the requirements of the relevant data owners.
AIVR Cloud Agent is an agentic system, but is not fully autonomous, as it operates within defined rail parameters but has continual oversight by skilled service engineers. They are able to step in and override decisions or enter a manual mode if the need arises. There is also complete transparency on the decisions the Agent is making. The result is a clearer, more current view of the railway for AIVR users, aiding tasks such as asset monitoring and maintenance planning.