Safety concepts to enable autonomous train operations in semi-restricted industrial areas

Risto Tiusanen, Risto Öörni

    Research output: Book/ReportReport

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    Abstract

    The work performed has been enabled by Business Finland, which provided funding for a research project ‘Autonominen juna -kehityshanke’ - VTT (45715/31/2020), which included collaboration with Proxion Oy, Electric Power Finland Oy, and Steel Wheel Oy for the development of autonomous train in industrial sites. Typically, these sites have small internal rail network for
    low-speed transportation of raw materials, semifinished goods, and final products. Since most of the traffic within these sites is caused by the trucks and trains of the industrial site itself, and since the vehicles and persons from outside would need permission to enter, many of such sites can be described as semi-restricted.
    The study considers other (manual) train traffic in semi-restricted industrial areas but does not consider the driving of an autonomous train on the public main line. The study had two main research objectives. The first objective was to identify and analyse safety risks related to the daily operation of the autonomous train on its route in a semi-restricted industrial area: charging / refuelling station, loading / unloading places, railway switches and level crossings. The second objective was to define concepts to secure the path of an autonomous train and principles to control level crossings and their safety-related systems in three different train traffic control concepts:
    − An autonomous train has a static local permit in a semi-restricted industrial area
    − The autonomous train has a dynamic local permit in a semi-restricted industrial area
    − The rail yard traffic control sets the access permit for the autonomous train in a semi-restricted industrial area
    This report summaries the analysis of new safety risk related to autonomous train operations in semi-restricted industrial areas, including the concepts for safe pathways and safe level crossing controls for autonomous train operations.
    Original languageEnglish
    PublisherVTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
    Number of pages26
    Publication statusPublished - 3 Oct 2023
    MoE publication typeD4 Published development or research report or study

    Publication series

    SeriesVTT Research Report
    NumberVTT-R-00375-23

    Keywords

    • Autonomous train
    • safety analysis
    • rail traffic control
    • safe path

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