Control systems in practice - Safety issues in modern railway traffic control

Friday 19 Sept 2008, 10:30 → 18:00 Europe/Zurich

IT Auditorium (CERN)

Giulio Morpurgo (CERN)

Ansaldo STS has developed architectures for electronic and computer based platforms devoted to railways signalling applications, since the last 70’s. Later CENELEC standards have been produced and issued, and have become the mandatory regulations, both in Europe and worldwide; Ansaldo has adopted the CENELEC “context” and integrated those techniques, where needed, to make those architectures fully compliant with the CENELEC SIL4 requirements.

Ansaldo STS staff is visiting CERN and offer a half-day event on their activities, starting with a general presentation during the morning. The afternoon will be dedicated to more specific presentations although they are equally open to the public.

more information http://cern.ch/Computing.Seminars/2008/main.htm

10:30 → 12:00 Architecture for Signalling applications

A description will be provided of the general purpose architecture, including:

• hardware architecture
• operating systems;
• application software architecture.

Some hints will be given about main applications of those platforms.

slides slides.pdf

11:50 Questions and clarifications

12:00 → 14:00 Lunch

14:00 → 15:00 The Verification and Validation activity

RAMS Department is responsible for the Verification and Validation activity of Ansaldo STS railway control systems. Its independence from development and engineering departments is in accordance with CENELEC standards. RAMS activity ranges from generic products to generic and specific applications; its purpose is to give evidence of the safety of signalling systems through a structured V&V process applied and detailed to the peculiar issues of each application.

A description of the V&V activity for interlocking and ERTMS level 2 systems will be provided, focusing on:

• Test specification and execution
• Code inspection and static analysis techniques
• System data verification process
• Automatic test environments and future development

Some examples and statistics will be provided, comparing the approaches used in different applications.

slides slides.pdf

14:50 Questions and clarifications

15:00 → 15:30 Supervision System

RFI, the Italian National Railways had set up a project for the technological development of the Italian railway network. The project foresaw the realisation and the implementation of new systems, called SCC, to control and regulate the railway traffic of the main lines and junctions. On August 1998 RFI assigned to Ansaldo STS the realisation of 6 SCC on the main lines.

After an introduction on the main function of SCC Supervision System, the presentation describes the Diagnostics and Maintenance Subsystem and Emergency Management in particular:

• the Customer Requirements;
• the Diagnostics and Maintenance Architecture (Sw & Hw)
• the Emergency Management Architecture (Sw & Hw)
• the approach of Service, Maintenance & Customer Care in Ansaldo STS.

At conclusion we describe also the SIL2 approach proposed by Ansaldo STS for:

• Satisfying requirements in internationals offer
• Increasing system robustness
• Respecting the CENELEC Standards.

slides slides.pdf

15:30 → 16:00 Discussion