Rail Summit to discuss automated operations in Aviation and Rail, Vienna

The often repeated comparison between the levels of automation in the aviation and rail sectors will come under scrutiny at the Intelligent Rail Summit Vienna 28 – 30 November, according to a report in rail knowledge sharing platform Railtech.com. Dick Terleth, director mobility at ADSE consulting and avionics specialist Sander Van Lochem, will discuss automated operations and focus on the introduction, operation and lifecycle
October 4, 2017 Read time: 2 mins

The often repeated comparison between the levels of automation in the aviation and rail sectors will come under scrutiny at the Intelligent Rail Summit Vienna 28 – 30 November, according to a report in rail knowledge sharing platform Railtech.com.  

Dick Terleth, director mobility at ADSE consulting and avionics specialist Sander Van Lochem, will discuss automated operations and focus on the introduction, operation and lifecycle management of automated train operations. Terleth stated that the main differences is that unlike with rail, in aviation sector there is constant communication between the pilot and ground control but there is no active automated interface between the airplane and traffic control as happens with signalling and control systems in rail.

“This is completely different in the railway sector, where space is more confined to the rail track and a much higher level of interaction between the vehicle and the rail infrastructure takes place. Also, there are more factors, like people walking along the track, to take into consideration. A lot more needs to be done to successfully implement an automated driving system on rail, as the prerequisites are much harder to fulfill,” he added.

Referring to a safety culture developed to the aviation industry, he recognised that it is not as paramount in the rail industry, but a similar focus in inevitable to a successful implementation.  He added that overcoming challenges caused by system malfunctions and acceptance among passengers are two challenges that need to be overcome.

Related Content

  • AVs need to be ‘100 to 1,000 times better than humans’, says Intel
    January 14, 2019
    Autonomous vehicles (AV) need to have a robotic system which is better than a human driver, because society will not accept machines killing people, according to Intel. Speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show 2019 in Las Vegas, Intel senior vice president Amnon Shashua said AVs probably need to be 100 to 1,000 times better than the human experience - which presents the question of how to validate such a system. “When you do your calculation, the amount of data you need to collect to verify somethi
    Read More
  • Columbia goes intermodal to support sustainability
    April 10, 2014
    David Crawford on the ups and downs of a Latin metropolis. Medellín, Colombia’s second city and a recognised leader in sustainable transport thinking, is rapidly extending its substantial existing investment in modern mobility. It is deploying both an enhanced integrated traffic management array and the country’s first intermodal public transportation management system. The supplier of both, under separate €9 million (US$12.3 million) contracts, is Spanish engineering company Indra, a major exporter
    Read More
  • Weigh in Motion gets smarter
    January 4, 2023
    Weigh in Motion technology is at the forefront of protecting road surfaces and helping enforcement activity – but could it also play a key role in the development of Smart Cities?
    Read More
  • Smart Spanish city trials cell-based traffic management
    November 7, 2013
    David Crawford reports on an urban electronic nervous system. The northern Spanish city of Santander – historically a port - is now an emerging technology showcase attracting global attention as a prototype for a medium-sized smart city of the future. In a move to determine the optimal use of available data, it is creating a de-facto experimental laboratory for sensor and mobile phone-based urban traffic management and environmental monitoring innovations.
    Read More

Highlighted Content