Kontron and Intel combine technologies for enabling smart rail solutions
Governments around the world are setting new goals for improving mass railway transportation to accelerate the delivery of goods, alleviate congestion, and increase sustainability. Welcome to the age of the Smart Railway. Advancements in smart rail technology offers operators exciting opportunities to meet these goals and to actively improve railway operation and management.
Equipped with hundreds of IoT sensors and cameras, today’s trains, railcars, stations and other infrastructure offer the potential for operators to capture unprecedented data volumes. When processed and analysed in real-time, this sea of data can be turned into actionable information which can help them transform their operations: by increasing capacity without having to build new infrastructure; maximising ROIs, improved sustainability, enhanced customer experience; greater security and safety for passengers and staff.
However, and as discussed in Kontron and Intel’s E-Book, Intelligent Railways for the Future, the challenges involved in unlocking the kind of end-to-end visibility needed to drive these crucial insights across the railway network should not be underestimated: Smart railway solutions necessitate the orchestration of Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) systems across the entire rail journey.
Without adequate nodes to bridge the divide between endpoint and cloud there are major obstacles in the path of a truly smart railway network of the future.
After all a Smart Railway is driven by data. Therefore, the most important considerations for delivering a smart railway must be those which allow end-to-end connectivity and solutions with the ability to compute and transmit data in real-time from anywhere.
On the one hand, this will assist passengers by keeping them informed, entertained and secure throughout their journey, whether on the train or at the station. For example, with digital signage and wayfinding, infotainment and synthetic vision capabilities. Equally, for enabling operators to perform super-efficient predictive maintenance on rolling stock for realizing maximum uptime, capacity, and cost-savings. And of course, for reasons of safety, such as alerting the driver or Network Operations Center of obstacles on the track well in advance – this becomes even more crucial with the advent of driverless trains.
From the station, to the on-board experience, and to railway operations these increasingly demanding IoT-driven requirements need 5G and highly interconnected edge to cloud embedded computing solutions. Moreover, these must allow operators the performance and flexibility to leverage the exciting and growing possibilities offered by Artificial Intelligence (AI), Deep Learning (DL) and Computer Vision.
More information about enabling the future of railways can be found in our new E-Book
The E-Book includes examples of Kontron’s latest embedded platforms and rail-certified commercial off the shelf (COTS) computers. Built on the latest Intel processor technologies, with long-term availability and featuring support for AI, DL and Computer Vision, these are uniquely positioned to offer rail operators and developers accelerated time to market solutions, helping them deliver the future of intelligent railways - today. Download Intelligent Railways for the Future
{{comment.comment}}