Over the past two weeks, validation runs of the collision avoidance system developed in the mFUND research project RailAIxs (Rail automation with Artifical Intelligence for detection of exceptional situations) have taken place. The project is part of the Aachen Rail Shuttle (ARS), which aims to enable driverless local rail passenger transport in rural areas. The function of route monitoring and reaction has not yet been technically solved for open environments. The journeys could be carried out on the Bördebahn during the night and morning hours of public holidays and Sundays before the start of operations.
The collision avoidance system installed on the rail vehicle was developed jointly with the project partners HÖRMANN Vehicle Enginerring GmbH, the MASKOR Institute at FH Aachen and QINUM GmbH and consists of a sensor system comprising cameras, lidars and a satellite-based positioning system. We would like to thank Rurtalbahn GmbH for their extensive support for our test and validation runs.