Railways have already introduced satellite-based localization systems for non-safety related applications. Driven by economic reasons, the use of these systems for new services and, in particular, their introduction in signaling system is seriously investigated today and tested all around the world. Because of the weight of their history, their strong normative context, and the high requested level of safety, the introduction is relatively slow. The aim of this paper is to provide a survey of past and current programs dealing with global navigation satellite systems as a basis to introduce main issues relative to context, standards, performance requirements, and safety proofs. Links with aeronautical concepts are also presented, illustrating the transposable principles and the limits due to the land transport environment.

/pdf/a-survey-of-gnss-based-research-and-developments-for-the-13xo8zy7pj.pdf

A Survey of GNSS-Based Research and Developments for the European Railway Signaling

The accurate and reliable localization of the trains is one decisive factor for a lot of specific location-based railway applications. Considering the cost-efficiency of construction and maintenance, the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is an effective approach for train localization systems which aim to replace the track-side Balises with on-board sensors. Thus, the accumulative error of the odometer is calibrated by the GNSS receivers and the autonomy of the on-board equipment is surely improved. In order to cope with the uncertainties in raw sensor measurements, the Bayesian filtering frame is adopted to obtain an accurate estimation of the train's state. Based on that, an enhanced particle filter solution is presented to realize iterative estimation. In this method, the cubature Kalman filter (CKF) is involved to generate the proposal distribution by using the track constraint, which indicates a modified kinematical model and an extended measurement model. The coupling of track constraint is designed to generate the importance proposal distribution for the update stage of the sequential importance sampling. Results from simulation with field data demonstrate the capability of the track-constrained particle filter for train localization using GNSS and odometer, which is with great potential for enabling the next generation GNSS-based railway systems.

Track-constrained GNSS/odometer-based train localization using a particle filter

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are potentially applicable for various railway applications, especially the safety-related applications such as train localisation for the purpose of train control. In order to integrate GNSS for train localisation, a trustable stand-alone GNSS-based localisation unit should be developed. Then to comply with EN 50126 (reliability, availability, maintainability, and safety; RAMS) standards, the demonstration of GNSS quality of service (QoS) should be evaluated in consistent with RAMS. However there are currently no appropriate performance evaluation methods on GNSS for railway safety-related applications.
This dissertation identifies the required performance for train localisation in consideration of GNSS QoS and railway RAMS. The common and different properties of the performance are analysed in detail using consistent attribute hierarchy structures based on UML class diagram. Then formalised performance requirements are proposed quantitatively on four properties (accuracy, reliability, availability, and safety integrity). After that, the evaluation and verification methodologies are introduced. The evaluation methodology is using a reference measurement system for GNSS receiver measured train location accuracy identification, and a stochastic Petri net (SPN) model for GNSS receiver measured train location accuracy categorisation. The SPN model illustrates the GNSS receiver measured train locations into three states (up state, degraded state, and faulty state). Then the four proposed properties are allocated and estimated formally using the three states in the SPN model. The verification methodology is used to verify the GNSS receiver measured train location in real time based on a localisation unit. The GNSS receiver measured train locations are verified using hypothesis testing methods based on the accurate digital track map provided beforehand. Then train location estimation from the localisation unit is verified according to the mileage of the train. With the verified train location estimation from the localisation unit, the corresponding safety margin for each train location is calculated.
The data for evaluation and verification methodologies are collected from a test train running on a railway track in High Tatra Mountains. The results show an approach of the possible certification procedure for the GNSS receivers in railway safety-related applications.

GNSS for Train Localisation Performance Evaluation and Verification

Independently on the business case addressed, one of the main drawbacks of the railway use cases that need continuous Global Navigation Satellite Systems data is the lack of availability for the 100% of the time of the journey. Additionally, the integrity assessment of the position estimation given is also mandatory for safety critical applications. Thus, tunnels and multipath effects are one of the most challenging situations for the continuous positioning systems. In this context, an autonomous on-board Complementary Positioning System has been proposed to overcome the limitation of Global Navigation Satellite System based positioning systems. This paper proposes a positioning enhancement solution by means of fusing data from the satellite navigation system and inertial measurement units. That hybrid solution provides higher availability and accuracy to the positioning specially on known blocked scenarios, such as tunnels, or urban canyons, by means of a novel environment aware map aided software technique named Known Blocked Scenarios algorithm… This paper describes the Complementary Positioning System and the field test carried out in a challenging environment to validate the enhancement proposed by the authors, which demonstrate the benefits that this system has in known harsh environments for railways.

/pdf/map-aided-software-enhancement-for-autonomous-gnss-1y30ms2s23.pdf

Map-Aided Software Enhancement for Autonomous GNSS Complementary Positioning System for Railway

The European Union (EU) is bolstering the railway sector with the aim of making it a direct competitor of the aviation sector. For that to occur, railway efficiency has to be improved by means of increasing capacity and reducing operational expenditure. Tracks are currently used below their maximum capacity. Given this fact and the EU’s goals for the railway sector, research on solutions for on-board positioning system based on global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) have arisen in recent years. By taking advantage of GNSS, safety critical positioning systems will be able to use the infrastructure more efficiently. However, GNSS based positioning systems still cannot fulfill current normative validation processes, mainly, due to the fact that GNSS based positioning performance evaluation is not compatible with the key performance indicators (KPIs) used to assess railway systems performance: reliability, availability, maintainability, and safety. This paper proposes a methodology and unified key performance indicators (KPIs). Additionally, it shows real examples to address this issue. It aims to fill the gap between the current railway standardization process and any on-board positioning system.

Methodology and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Railway On-Board Positioning Systems

GRAIL-2 is the evolution of the GRAIL project (GNSS introduction in the RAIL Sector), a project funded by the GSA (GNSS Supervisor Authority) with the aim of facilitating the introduction of GNSS (Galileo and EGNOS) in the Rail sector GRAIL-2 takes over it predecessor focusing on the development of a GNSS based Enhanced Odometer with high integrity and safety level in a context of High Speed Lines (HSL) The purpose of a GNSS based odometer is to integrate and/or replace the traditional odometric systems currently used in the ETCS environment (tachometers, INS, Doppler radar etc) GRAIL-2 inherits the know-how acquired by GRAIL improving the accuracy of the computed Position-Velocity-Acceleration solution by means of an advanced data fusion algorithm The safety level is guaranteed introducing RAIM and Protection Level computation algorithms The purpose of this paper is to describe the results obtained analyzing the preliminary data captured on the train

Cristina Pecchioni

Papers

GNSS for Enhanced Odometry: The GRAIL-2 results