Radiolabs role on the VICE4RAIL project
EGNSS – the European Global Navigation Satellite System – is one of the game-changing technologies for the evolution of the ERTMS train positioning and for the digitalization and optimization of the European Rail system. Before the adoption of the EGNSS technologies, a standard validation process is needed to comply with the ERTMS safety requirements.
VICE4RAIL (Hybrid Virtualized Testing for Certification of EGNSS in Railway Train Positioning), funded by the European Space Programme Agency (EUSPA) focuses on one of the European Union’s strategic objectives to accelerate the integration of satellite technologies into the European rail traffic management system, ERTMS, to increase its safety, interoperability and efficiency.
The kick-off of this new project took place in Prague on November 19th at EUSPA premises. The purpose of this project is to fill the gaps still preventing the utilisation of the EGNSS for the ERTMS. RFI (FSI group) is the VICE4RAIL project coordinator with SNCF, Italcertifer, Bureau Veritas, CEDEX, Sogei, the University of Pardubice, the University Eiffel and Radiolabs members of the consortium.
A novelty of VICE4RAIL is HyVICE, a hybrid test environment that combines real data collected on the Bologna San Donato railway circuit with laboratory’s simulations and system performance assessment performed at the CEDEX’s ERTMS accredited laboratory in Madrid. This architecture – scalable and standardizable – represents a follow-up of the GATE4Rail project coordinated by Radiolabs in the frame of the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking, who at the end of the project has claimed the importance to exploit the results through an higher TRL project, having recognised GATE4Rail a key project of their multi-annual action plan.
Radiolabs main responsibility on VICE4RAIL are the development and deployment of the Hybrid Virtualized Testing Certification platform and the dissemination tasks (involving in particular Europe Rail R2DATO consortium) and in synergy with the on-going P-CAR project dedicated to the connected and autonomous cars. In fact, these technologies – common to both sectors – must be evaluated with a set of standard tools to manage the validation process in all the foreseeable scenarios in which the positioning device must operate. Once completed, the new validation and certification ecosystem can be used by Rail Infrastructure Managers, Rail Signalling industries, Satellite system integrator, GNSS positioning suppliers and Notify Bodies.
VICE4RAIL is part of the outstanding Radiolabs roadmap to exploit the EGNSS technologies for Rail applications leveraging on the synergies with the automotive and ships applications both requiring a comprehensive evaluation of the EGNSS rare threats which impact on the safety and are difficult and costly to assess only with field tests.
RFI with Europe towards an increasingly digital, safe and sustainable railway system
