KI-Systeme – AI processes for safety-critical railway applications

The approval of railway technology innovations in safety-critical applications is particularly complex and strictly regulated, especially in rail transport, where the use of artificial intelligence (AI) methods will play an increasingly important role in the future.

Railway technology innovations in safety-critical applications must be approved. In the field of rail transport, this process is handled particularly strictly due to the severity of accidents and is therefore particularly complex. Many innovations in the field of intelligent rail transport will also utilise artificial intelligence (AI) methods in the future, either because no efficient solution strategy is possible using "conventional" methods or because no clear technical specification can be formulated for the task to be solved. However, the usual procedures for verifying the safety of AI-based systems are currently lengthy or cannot be used at all or only to a very limited extent without operation.

Chemnitz University of Technology and the Smart Rail Connectivity Campus Annaberg-Buchholz have therefore initiated a project to investigate the use of AI processes for safety-critical railway applications. The aim of the project is therefore, on the one hand, to develop a general user compass for the testing and approval process in rail transport. On the other hand, the procedure serves to identify possible ways of demonstrating the safety of AI procedures and to derive requirements for adapting or revising the applicable authorisation regulations.

The DLR Institute of Transportation Systems is supporting the project by defining railway-specific examples of the use of AI and reflecting on the project results using these examples.

Project title:
KI-Systeme - AI-related testing and authorisation methods

Duration:
08/2020 to 01/2022

Contracting authority:
Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) (SRCC-Research project as a whole - Support programme: WIR! - Wandel durch Innovation in der Region) bzw. TU Chemnitz (Subcontract to the DLR)

Project coordinator:
Chemnitz University of Technology with the Chairs of Operating Systems, Media Informatics, Private Law and Intellectual Property Law and the Centre for Knowledge and Technology Transfer

Project participants:
German Aerospace Center (DLR) - Institute of Transportation Systems Braunschweig
Fraunhofer Institute for Electronic Nano Systems Chemnitz
Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology Chemnitz
IFB Institut für Bahntechnik GmbH
IVS Ingenieurgesellschaft für Verkehrssicherungstechnik GmbH
IAV GmbH
Siemens Mobility GmbH
Smart Rail Connectivity Campus e. V. Annaberg-Buchholz