UQ and QR get signals on track

University of Queensland (UQ) researchers are teaming up with Queensland Rail (QR) in a signalling project.

Researchers from UQ’s School of Information Technology & Electrical Engineering (ITEE), headed by Associate Professor Paul Strooper, Dr Kirsten Winter, and Dr Peter Robinson, are working on a project to automate parts of the checking of designs for signalling interlockings, which control the safe movement of trains.

Researchers Lionel van den Berg and Wendy Johnston said the Siglink project would help detect errors early in the design process to avoid costly fixes further down the track while helping to maintain Queensland Rail`s high level of safety.

“QR is a long-established, well-reputed modern railway, that said there is always room for improvement,” Mr van den Berg said.

“The purpose of the research is to eliminate the tedium aspects of the railway signalling design process whilst at the same time improving the accuracy of the design.”

Mrs Johnston said the team had achieved exciting results.

“We can now automatically perform a number of checks in just a few hours that takes weeks to do manually,” she said.

“Our work supports and complements current processes by detecting errors earlier in the design phase and automating the process to reduce costs.

“Siglink will deliver results that will improve the current state-of-the-art process in the practical application of model-checking technology and check complex safety properties.

“This is an excellent example of research put into practice.”

The research follows on from another successful collaboration with QR, that has resulted in Sigtools, which supports the generation of control tables that define how the railway interlocking should behave.

Sigtools performs some early checks to eliminate errors during the design and generation of the control tables, while Siglink checks the tables more extensively for safety problems once they are fully defined.

Mrs Johnston said Siglink extends Sigtools using model checking software that tests the system to guard against derailment and collisions.

The Siglink project is jointly funded by QR and an ARC Linkage grant and is one of many projects that QR has been involved in with UQ in recent years.

Media inquiries: Lionel van den Berg (07 3365 1652) or Andrew Dunne (07 3365 2802).