FR8RAIL II: Digitalization and Automation of Freight Rail

Project Description

The project is part of Shif2Rail Innovation Programme IP5 and contributes to further develop technologies relevant for the rail freight sector to reach the goal highlighted in the S2R Master Plan.

The work partly bases on results achieved in the foregoing projects of the AWP 2015-2017 (FFL4E, ARCC, FR8RAIL, FR8HUB) and seeks to increase the TRL of the specific technologies.

To be consistent with the expected results, FR8RAIL II addresses following challenges:

• New Automatic Couplers, provided with electrical power supply and data transmission functionalities, need to be implemented.
• Telematics and Electrification will enable Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) and Cargo Monitoring System (CMS). Within this work stream, a service transponder for freight, the wagon On-Board Unit (wOBU), will be developed.
• Improved methods for annual and short-term timetable planning in traffic operations will increase overall capacity, raise punctuality for both passenger, and freight traffic.
• The work stream of Real-time network management aims at reducing or even eliminating manual communication by integrating medium to short-term and operational planning at yards/terminals and in the railway network.
• Future freight wagon design for the core and extended market will contribute to increased reliability of the freight transport due to its integrated solutions for telematics and electrification. Challenges are to increase the payload per meter of train by means of lightweight design.
• Future main line electric freight locomotives must feature highly flexible freight propulsion systems with reduced operational costs. The challenge in this call is to merge all results from the projects FR8RAIL and FR8HUB and demonstrate the performance.
• Major boundaries are the readiness of infrastructure for longer trains and the maximum load on the coupling hook, which limits the maximum weights of trains. Distributed Power in freight trains will contribute to solve this problem by distributing the traction and braking forces for long freight trains up to 1,500 m.
• The connection of Automated Train Operation (ATO) and Connected Driver Advisory Systems (C-DAS) to the Traffic Management System (TMS) in train control centers of the Infrastructure Manager (IM) in order to allow transferring the traffic regulation information to the driving system.

Collaborating Companies or Organisations

Indra's Role

Indra participates in the work package "WP2: Wagon Intelligence", which is responsible for the specification of the intelligent wagon and the development of subsystems, as well as the integration of telematics that allow the implementation of new services. Indra specifically leads the tasks of system analysis, definition of system architecture and system integration with other IP5 systems.

In addition, Indra participates in the tasks of Management and Dissemination of the project (WP9 and WP10)

Univesities and technologies centers

Technologies used

Indra brings to the FR8RAIL II project its vision of technologies for a sustainable and attractive European railway transport.

In order to define these technologies, we are following standards and techniques such as:

• TAF-TSI standard/li>
• Definition of suitable interfaces in on-board wireless communication
• Refinement of use cases and specifications
• Modelling SYSML based tools
• Safety analysis of the system
• Development of new algorithms for goods status
• • Development of Specific Application of wireless-backbone technology for on-board End Of Train (EoT) solution

More Information

This project, under reference nº H2020-826206, has been funded through the Horizon 2020 Programme of the European Commission within the Shift2Rail initiative, of which Indra is an associate member.