A software architecture for autonomous maintenance scheduling: Scenarios for UK and European Rail

A new era of automation in rail has begun offering developments in the operation and maintenance of industry standard systems. This article documents the development of an architecture and range of scenarios for an autonomous system for rail maintenance planning and scheduling. The Unified Modelling Language (UML) has been utilized to visualize and validate the design of the prototype. A model for information exchange between prototype components and related maintenance planning systems is proposed in this article. Putting forward an architecture and set of usage mode scenarios for the proposed system, this article outlines and validates a viable platform for autonomous planning and scheduling in rail

D5.2: Digital-Twin Enabled multi-physics simulation and model matching

This deliverable presents a report on the developed actions and results concerning Digital-Twin-enabled multi-physics simulations and model matching. Enabling meaningful simulations within new human-infrastructure interfaces such as Digital twins is paramount. Accessing the power of simulation opens manifold new ways for observation, understanding, analysis and prediction of numerous scenarios to which the asset may be faced. As a result, managers can access countless ways of acquiring synthetic data for eventually taking better, more informed decisions. The tool MatchFEM is conceived as a fundamental part of this endeavour. From a broad perspective, the tool is aimed at contextualizing information between multi-physics simulations and vaster information constructs such as digital twins. 3D geometries, measurements, simulations, and asset management coexist in such information constructs. This report provides guidance for the generation of comprehensive adequate initial conditions of the assets to be used during their life span using a DT basis. From a more specific focus, this deliverable presents a set of exemplary recommendations for the development of DT-enabled load tests of assets in the form of a white paper. The deliverable also belongs to a vaster suit of documents encountered in WP5 of the Ashvin project in which measurements, models and assessments are described thoroughly.Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::9 - Indústria, Innovació i InfraestructuraPreprin

Emerging Informatics

The book on emerging informatics brings together the new concepts and applications that will help define and outline problem solving methods and features in designing business and human systems. It covers international aspects of information systems design in which many relevant technologies are introduced for the welfare of human and business systems. This initiative can be viewed as an emergent area of informatics that helps better conceptualise and design new world-class solutions. The book provides four flexible sections that accommodate total of fourteen chapters. The section specifies learning contexts in emerging fields. Each chapter presents a clear basis through the problem conception and its applicable technological solutions. I hope this will help further exploration of knowledge in the informatics discipline

Whole system railway modelling

There has been a general view articulated within the railway industry that there needs to be greater systems thinking and systems engineering applied to major projects within the industry (Network Rail, 2013 and Rail Safety and Standards Board, 2012). However, there are many differing ideas held by practising engineers of exactly what systems engineering is and how it is applied within the industry. There are also barriers within industry in general, management and practising engineers to using systems engineering techniques. They can be seen as an overhead in terms of, training, tooling, effort and costs. Also the benefits to be gained from applying these techniques are not easily seen when they work well. A key pillar of systems engineering and systems thinking is the ability to look at a system as a whole. Part of this is getting to grips with what a system really is, it’s interaction with its operational environment and the world around it and to understand the various subsystems that the system is comprised of and their interaction, including people. This is particularly difficult when it comes to complex systems like railways. This project attempts to develop an approach to modelling a whole railway system (or Guided Transport System (GTS) as it is defined in this project) by implementing a Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) approach and techniques. It also proposes definitions of a system and system engineering that are applicable to the Railway industry. Through a common view of a GTS as a whole and a common approach to modelling it, it should be possible to address some of the barriers to systems engineering techniques that currently exist. MBSE has three pillars, a method, a modelling language and a modelling tool (Delligatti, 2014, pp. 4-7). The author has developed a method that can be applied to a whole complex system, such as a GTS, supported by the SysML modelling language implemented through the Enterprise Architect modelling tool (other languages and modelling tools could also be used). The method developed was then tested on a body of students studying for an MSc in Railway Systems Engineering and Integration at the University of Birmingham. This body was chosen because the course is part time and the majority of the students work full time in the industry. Thus the author was able to gain an insight into how diverse the opinions on systems engineering and its application actually are within the industry and get valuable feedback on the systems modelling methodology developed during this research. It has been demonstrated through the development of a partial model of various representative parts of a GTS, that it is possible, within a single model, to capture and represent a large and diverse amount of information about a GTS as it is defined within this thesis. This includes: • its context within the wider world and its operational environment; • its physical structure; • the relationships between its various subsystems and the outside world; • the views of a diverse stakeholder group and their Requirements; and • critical system properties and how these are derived from the various layers of abstraction within the system. The methodology drives the user to develop a model that: 1. is re-usable, e.g. applicable to different railways at different times; 2. is extendable in length (be able to model more railway) and depth (greater levels of detail); 3. allows the inclusion of existing quantitative and qualitative models from other sources; 4. encourages the use of data from existing sources; 5. is open and transparent to allow others to use and add to them; and 6. enables the production of outputs that are readily understandable across disciplinary divides e.g. common representation

A New Formal Methods Guidebook for the Railway Signalling Domain

Considerable know-how about formals methods (FMs) exists in the railway signalling domain, and FMs have been successfully applied e.g. for verification of interlockings or development of computer-based train control systems. But FMs expertise is not generally available or widespread, and there is a lack of FMs integration into standards, of recommendations for FMs use and of guidance on where and how to employ them. For these reasons, TD2.7 of Shift2Rail is currently preparing a FMs guidebook which aims to document know-how, experience, and recommendations, to pave the way for wider use of FMs for today's and future railway signalling systems. In this contribution, the guidebook contents are briefly presented, including why, when and for what purpose to apply FMs, what FMs are and which steps their application follows. Afterwards, an example application of the guidebook's FMs concepts is described

EG-ICE 2021 Workshop on Intelligent Computing in Engineering

The 28th EG-ICE International Workshop 2021 brings together international experts working at the interface between advanced computing and modern engineering challenges. Many engineering tasks require open-world resolutions to support multi-actor collaboration, coping with approximate models, providing effective engineer-computer interaction, search in multi-dimensional solution spaces, accommodating uncertainty, including specialist domain knowledge, performing sensor-data interpretation and dealing with incomplete knowledge. While results from computer science provide much initial support for resolution, adaptation is unavoidable and most importantly, feedback from addressing engineering challenges drives fundamental computer-science research. Competence and knowledge transfer goes both ways

Mapping Big Data into Knowledge Space with Cognitive Cyber-Infrastructure

Big data research has attracted great attention in science, technology, industry and society. It is developing with the evolving scientific paradigm, the fourth industrial revolution, and the transformational innovation of technologies. However, its nature and fundamental challenge have not been recognized, and its own methodology has not been formed. This paper explores and answers the following questions: What is big data? What are the basic methods for representing, managing and analyzing big data? What is the relationship between big data and knowledge? Can we find a mapping from big data into knowledge space? What kind of infrastructure is required to support not only big data management and analysis but also knowledge discovery, sharing and management? What is the relationship between big data and science paradigm? What is the nature and fundamental challenge of big data computing? A multi-dimensional perspective is presented toward a methodology of big data computing.Comment: 59 page