On track for the future
The Digitale Schiene Deutschland programme is laying the foundation for the complete modernisation and digitalisation of Germany’s rail infrastructure. Artificial intelligence and autonomous driving will become the new normal on the rails.
Less traffic, less congestion, less particulate matter — and more people and more goods on the rails. Digital Rail benefits not just passengers but also the environment and Germany as a business location, and all of it without constructing a single new track.
Technology is transforming the mobility industry. Automated and self-driving vehicles will let us move more efficiently and sustainably, and the change is happening not only in cars but also on the rails.
Co-developing the future of rail transport
Leading mobility companies in Germany — Deutsche Bahn, Bosch, Siemens, Here and IBEO — partnered with the software, design and visualisation experts Cirit, DKA and Wakeone to co-develop that future.
Perception and sensors are a critical part of autonomous operation. State-of-the-art sensors on an S-Bahn Hamburg vehicle provide precise information about the train’s surroundings and its exact position. On that data, trains can in future be controlled optimally and, for example, run at shorter intervals, bringing more capacity to the railway.
Cirit’s contribution
Visualising the perception data in a meaningful way required tight collaboration between researchers, engineers, designers and developers. The result was a real-time software solution capable of visualising the perception data both onboard and in the cloud. At the ITS World Congress 2021, the train’s movement and surroundings could be followed at the congress site while the actual train was on its run. A recording of the streamed data is available on the Digitale Schiene Deutschland site.