Page 97 - 360.revista de Alta Velocidad - Nº 5

Test and Certification of Railway automation and digitalization approaches (Rail 4.0)

Figure 1: Overview of current setup of on-board train control
Figure 1 shows a basic setup of today s on-board train control. The communication to the track-
side is available by many technologies, in case of ETCS one of the communication modules
could be the GSM-R channel. The train interface is also already connected to the train control
system. Information and commands are exchanged, e.g. braking, doors, pantograph or
localization information. In most cases the driver has to control the traction lever according to
the information of the train control system. From a technical perspective the main task of the
driver is supervision and responsibility for the train. The first part of this contribution will focus
the influence of ATO systems to the current testing methodologies.

2. Testing on-board ATO modules

2.1 Changes in testing due to ATO

In the current implementations the on-board conformity tests are running 100% automatically.
Since the driver machine interface (DMI) has to be part of the test, because of the current law,
it is controlled by a robot. The train interface is controlled by the laboratory. In case of ATO
functions of the system-under-test these laboratory modules (robot and train interface) can be
replaced by the ATO module. At least if the ATO module is tested together with the on-board
train control (in case of ETCS this is called European Vital Computer, EVC) the test could be
performed in the same manner but with less effort on the laboratory side. The interesting
question is what additional descriptions in the test specification are necessary to ensure the
proper testing of the ATO module. Since we assume a black-box test for the ATO module, the
first inspection has to be done on the interfaces of the module. Today there are many ideas
for these interfaces; one could be the reuse of the interface between the DMI and the EVC, in
case of ETCS. As long as there is a radio connection available between the track-side and the
onboard, all necessary information will be provided. For example a new movement authority is
transmitted to the train control system and the ATO simply has to follow this information. Today
it is shown with permitted speed and many more values on the DMI. I.e. for all information,
which is available via the current DMI, the functional test specification of ETCS
can be reused. Of course, the evaluation methods have to be adapted, because now not only the
train control behaviour has to checked but also the ATO behaviour (train interface unit, driver
machine interface etc.). If there are any additional inputs for the ATO-module, maybe cameras

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