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Rail vehicle applications such as public address or track fault monitoring systems require position information, which is often delivered by GPS. But GPS might not always be available, for example in tunnels or valleys. Televic and Flanders Make profile a new vehicle positioning system suitable for these kinds of applications.
TELEVIC Rail together with Flanders Make are currently developing an accurate and reliable localisation system for estimating train position and speed using on-board measurements. The technology can be used in public address systems to accurately locate the train for use in announcements, for example when arriving at a station, and a track fault monitoring system that accurately indicates the location of detected track faults.
GPS positioning provides a good solution when sufficient numbers of non-obstructed satellite signals are available. Usually a minimum of four signals are needed to achieve a correct position estimation.
When GPS fails, for example when trains pass through tunnels and valleys, dead-reckoning becomes necessary. Dead-reckoning is the process of calculating the current position of the train based on the knowledge of the previous position and other parameters, such as acceleration, speed, and angular rate, which are permanently available because they are measured within the vehicle, usually by an inertial measurement unit (IMU).
As part of the Mechatronics 4.0 project, Flanders Make and Televic Rail have...