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número 5 - junio - 2018. Pág 93 - 103

Test and Certification of Railway automation and digitalization

approaches (Rail 4.0)

Meyer zu Hörste, Michael

Asbach, Lennart

Hardi, Hungar

Lemmer, Karsten

German Aerospace Centre (Deutsches Zentrum für- Luft- und Raumfahrt – DLR)
1
Abstract

The current industry mega-trend of digitalization –sometimes called “Rail 4.0”, too - will lead
to a major change in railway automation. The automation of railway operations will increase
significantly in the coming years and will help to meet the challenges of the railways. Which of
the approaches discussed currently will come into operation is depending on technical, operational
and legal requirements. Many projects in Germany and Europe are currently dealing with the
automation of railway operations. Therefore pilot projects can be expected in the near future.
Improved concepts for railway operation e.g. the level 3 of the European Train Control System
(ETCS) using moving block, on-board integrity supervision or virtual train sets will result in even
higher requirements to the accuracy and reliability of the localization. Hence some major issues
are still to be solved. It is among others: Precise and reliable localization, e.g. based on sensor data
fusion based on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), reliable communication technologies
robust against obsolescence, obstacle detection systems fulfilling civil and criminal law as well as
cost requirements and cyber security. The contribution will focus on the last aspect: Tests need
to be developed to ensure the safe and reliable behaviour of automated trains under normal and
disturbed conditions. In current practice, highly automated, mechanically evaluated tests need
strictly formal test cases which are unambiguously defined. If these preconditions are not met, the
automation effort is high, so that it is often better to only aim for a partial solution. To get test cases
of high quality, the choice of tools used for test defining them is crucial: The tools must restrict the
engineer to prevent unclear definitions being introduced. They must enable the domain expert to
write test cases which can readily be translated for use in the test bench.

Keywords: Train Control, Testing, Conformity, ERTMS, ETCS, ATO

1 Meyer zu Hörste, Michael. Institute of Transportation Systems. Email: Michael.MeyerzuHoerste@dlr.de. (Corresponding author)
Asbach, Lennart. Institute of Transportation Systems. Email: Lennart.Asbach@dlr.de
Hardi Hungar. Institute of Transportation Systems. Email: Hardi.Hungar@dlr.de
Lemmer, Karsten. Transport and Energy. Email: Karsten.Lemmer@dlr.de

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