The rail system is facing major challenges: The climate crisis and sustainability goals call for a strong increase in rail capacity, which cannot be met exclusively by means of conventional technologies. The project TARO "Towards Automated Railway Operations" therefore deals with the possibilities of using automation and digitalization in the railroad system to address the challenges.
Jürgen Zajicek, Research Engineer at the Center for Energy, Markus Hofer, Scientist at the Center for Digital Safety & Security, and Thomas Zemen, Principal Scientist at the Center for Digital Safety & Security, together with other research institutions, industry partners, and rail transport and infrastructure companies, represent a broad alliance that works together on the three interrelated topics of Digital Twin, Processes, and Automated Train Operation. The focus in the total of six technical work packages is on developing solutions to concrete challenges; with the work packages dealing with solutions in the areas of Digital Twin Vehicle, Digital Twin Infrastructure, Network Optimization for Empty Wagon Dispatching, as well as Shunting of the Future and Regional Rail Technology. The latter two topics are the focus of this ETR contribution. The TARO project is funded by the Federal Ministry for Climate Protection (BMK) as well as the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) as part of the Mobility of the Future program and runs from 2020 to the end of 2023.
Read more about TARO here.