China's first smart ballastless track-laying machine was applied successfully on Saturday at the construction site of a high-speed railway in central China.

A pair of 500-meter steel tracks were placed smoothly on the Zhangjiajie-Jishou-Huaihua High-speed Railway in Hunan.

The track-laying machine, or model WPZ-500, consists of tyre, wheeltrack and caterpillar track. Supported by technologies including smart robotics, IoT (Internet of Things), big data, laser scanning for positioning and so on, the machine can precisely complete the steps of pulling and pushing long tracks, setting and retrieving rollers, etc.

Compared with traditional track-laying machines, the WPZ-500 can save manpower by 63 percent and raise mechanization degree to 90 percent with reduced labor intensity.

It is expected to be widely used in alpine and high-altitude regions where there is a shortage of labor.