Magnetic train localisation

Recently work for the projekt IMPACT (“Intelligent Magnetic Positioning for Avoiding Collisions of Trains”) has been finished, where we realized a new generation of a reliable and highly available localisation platform for trains and other railway vehicles. This system is independent of any terrestric infrastructure along the track and uses methods from the field of AI. More concrete, it implements an innovative method to determine the speed and the position of the respective train using the earth’s magnetic field in combination with a learnable calibrated digital map of the railway network. The work has been performed together with the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The results were validated during a two weeks measurement campaign withDB’s advancedTrainLab, a research platform based on a Diesel-fuel high speed train (ICE). It has been shown that the availability of a correct track-selective localisation with the new approach is provided even under critical environmental conditions such as track changes inside the Mündener tunnel which extends over more than 10km.