Page 96 - 360.revista de Alta Velocidad - Nº 5

Meyer zu Hörste, Michael. Asbach, Lennart. Hardi, Hungar. Lemmer, Karsten.

1. Introduction

Today functional testing becomes more and more important, as complex train control systems
(e.g. ETCS) offer a lot of functionalities but specifications, written in natural language. The
tests are necessary to reach real interoperability but also offer a chance to reduce the field
tests. DLRs research aims to reduce time and costs of test runs and increase the scope of the
tests to make the final European admission as easy as possible.

Main focus of the research is testing for ETCS and the standardized interfaces for field
components and interlocking (e.g. Eulynx, DB NeuPro). In the field of ETCS especially the
onboard (OBU) and radio-block centre communication is focused. Due to the increasing
demand for ATO this gets more and more into the focus of DLR s research as well.

With its laboratory RailSiTe. DLR is researching tomorrows testing methods in the railway
domain. The paper will show the current approach of conformity testing in a test bench
for the entire system. It includes interfaces for OBU, RBC, Interlocking and field elements
to allow a comprehensive test execution and evaluation. By now the test bench is able to
connect to almost every RBC in the world using internet protocols and special tools for GSM-R
adaption.

The goal of the research work on OBU testing is attained when the following scenario is reality:
All ERTMS tracks are virtually rebuild in a test bench. All European operational scenarios have
been created and formalized. Assuming this, there cannot be any requirement in the system
specification, which is not tested in one of the operational scenarios. If there is any, it can
be removed from the specification, because it is obviously not needed. By testing every
new onboard system on the entire European network virtually, in all operational situations,
interoperability is proven and inherits conformity.

Today s testing process of conformity tests and interoperability tests offers high potential
for implementation. A first step has been made by formalizing some selected tracks in the
European network. By creating an RBC-Proxy, DLRs laboratory is able to behave exactly like
certain RBCs, which allows testing of tracks without a real RBC connection. This is important
to accelerate the process massively.

The expected result is the reduction of field and manual parts of the laboratory tests to a
minimum. At least on the functional layer the field tests can be replaced by laboratory tests
more or less easily. This contribution shows first ideas to reuse existing tests for testing ATO
systems.

Right now there are already many ATO systems, or at least driverless systems, available and in
service. The real challenge will be the implementation of those systems on main-line tracks.
Having a look to the current train control systems, on the functional level there is only a very
small gap between driver-operated and automatic trains.

The track-train communication is safe and ready for automatic train operation. Thus we can
assume that the ATO for main line tracks will be an add-on module for train control systems
(red box in figure 1). This includes track-side and on-board systems. This contribution shall
focus on the testing of the on-board part, the driver-replacement.

94 360.revista de alta velocidad