Improved safety on europe's train tracks

New high-speed trains and railway lines are being developed and built to unlock this potential. But control systems and safety installations in the network must keep pace with the expansion of rail traffi c. Smooth operability by personnel, ranging from drivers to dispatchers, must also be ensured. To meet these goals, the DLR’s Institute of Transportation Systems in Braunschweig, Germany, examines new technologies and test methods in detail years before they are adopted nationwide. In 2011 the team led by Professor Karsten Lemmer, the institute's director, optimised the RailSiTe® railway simulation laboratory, which allows researchers to create realistic and detailed simulations of the complex interactions between control and safety technologies, from virtual control centres to simulated drivers’ cabs in locomotives. Since early 2012, the optimised laboratory has been one of Europe’s three independent reference labs accredited for the new European control and safety technologies of the European Train Control System (ETCS). RailSiTe is supplemented by the RailSET® simulation laboratory, in which test persons evaluate the functionality of new systems, thereby helping to design the railway workspaces of tomorrow. In addition to these simulations at the Braunschweig institute, the RailDriVe® test and measuring vehicle provides researchers with a mobile laboratory for the timesynchronous recording of multiple sensor data, which are used to develop algorithms for train positioning and condition monitoring. It consists of a truck with various measuring systems and an integrated chassis that allows it to be placed on rails. 

Michel Winand/DLR-Kommunikation