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News19 September 2022Siemens Mobility
Siemens Mobility and Cattron present a remotely operated tram in depot
“We plan to tap valuable synergies with our
partners during the project as part of our work to digitalize
and automate the personnel- and time-intensive switching processes used for
trams,” said Daniel Hoepffner, the project head of
depot automation and autonomous trams at Siemens Mobility
With RTO, we have taken another step forward in the development
of autonomous trams. This step will help our customers create long-term
value throughout a tram’s life cycle and guarantee availability.”
Karsten Nitsch, the Managing Director of
Cattron GmbH, added: “The Cattron components being used in the Autonomous Tram
Potsdam project are based on experience gained in five decades of work with
remote-controlled systems. The base concept has been drawn from practices
traditionally used in switching operations for locomotives. We teamed with
Siemens Mobility and combined time-tested methods with radically new ideas to
create improved solutions that can do their part to overcome the complex
challenges we face in our market.”
Acting as an initial stage in depot
automation, RTO enables personnel- and time-intensive processes at a depot to
be remotely operated by a control center. Such processes involve preparation of
vehicles for scheduled service, switching in the service center or depot and
the trip through the tram washing unit. The principle is based on a system that
uses a SIL-certified radio connection between the land/vehicle side. The
technology platform EC/LO Pro is used to perform the work. This is a system
that was primarily developed to perform switching jobs for freight trains in
accordance with EN 50239 / TSI LOC&PAS. The unique aspect of this platform
is its combination of assistant program that provides the necessary
visualization of the surrounding environment and possible obstacles and a
remote-control system that facilities data transmissions at the required speed
and over long distances while complying with security regulations.
At InnoTrans 2018, Siemens Mobility and
Verkehrsbetrieb Potsdam presented a prototype for use in real tram operating
conditions on a section of the Potsdam tram network for the first time. The
goal of the project Autonomous Tram in Depot that grew out of this work is to
develop a digital depot based on an autonomous tram. For this purpose, a
consortium consisting of Siemens Mobility, ViP Verkehrsbetrieb Potsdam GmbH,
the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, the Institute for Climate Protection,
Energy and Mobility and Codewerk GmbH began to jointly implement a fully
automated tram depot in October 2019. From the start, the development work has
focused on observing legal and commercial conditions required for the approval
and operation of an autonomous tram. The three-year project is being funded by
the German Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure as part of a
program called Modernity Fund (mFUND).