Siemens Mobility Achieves Milestone in AutomatedTrain Rail Project

Siemens Mobility, alongside Deutsche Bahn and industry and scientific partners, has developed operational foundations and architectural concepts for driverless rail travel under the joint AutomatedTrain research initiative. The technology suite was integrated into a Siemens Mireo regional train, enabling testing and functional demonstration of automated vehicle dispatch, line operation, and depot stabling sequences.

Operational Sequence and System Architecture
Under test parameters, the train initiates from an external command, runs autonomous pre-departure self-diagnostics, and navigates without onboard personnel from the maintenance depot to its scheduled departure station. Trackward obstacle detection is performed continuously throughout the transit route to trigger automatic responses when path conflicts emerge.

System coordination relies on the integration of Automatic Train Operation (ATO), signaling infrastructure governed by the European Train Control System (ETCS), vehicle control modules, and environment-perception sensor suites. Path monitoring combines high-precision vehicle localization with high-definition digital track maps to identify objects situated within the train gauge.

Advanced Vital Vehicle Operation Platform
Safety-critical execution is anchored by AVVO (Advanced Vital Vehicle Operation), a central onboard platform managing critical operational routines. The system coordinates braking applications, vehicle preparation, motion direction, and travel velocity, maintaining autonomous fallback into a fail-safe state if a malfunction occurs. AVVO also maintains secure telemetry links between the automated rolling stock and traffic control dispatchers.

The project focused on establishing architecture frameworks and technical specifications to support subsequent rail standardization and regulatory homologation for driverless mainline operation. The research initiative was supported by the German Government’s economic stimulus package and co-financed through the European Union via the German Recovery and Resilience Plan.

Additional Context
This section details technical specifications not included in the original news release.

Fully unattended train operation corresponds to Grade of Automation 4 (GoA4) under the IEC 62290 functional classification standard, requiring rolling stock to manage passenger boarding, dynamic train protection, obstacle clearance, and fault handling without operational staff on board. Mainline automated operation utilizes ATO over ETCS Level 2 or Level 3 (compliant with the European Union Agency for Railways Technical Specifications for Interoperability, TSI), communicating movement authorities and speed curves via GSM-R or Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS) radio links to an onboard European Vital Computer (EVC). For environmental awareness, sensor suites combine long-range LiDAR, stereo-optical cameras, and radar arrays running edge neural networks to detect track debris, cross-track intruders, and signal aspects at distances exceeding stopping distances calculated up to 500 to 800 meters. Vehicle safety platforms designed for autonomous rail control are engineered to Safety Integrity Level 4 (SIL4) as mandated by the CENELEC EN 50126, EN 50128, and EN 50129 standards for vital rail software and electronic architectures.

Edited by Romila DSilva, Induportals Editor, with AI assistance.