Periodic Reporting for period 1 - FP3 - IAM4RAIL (Europe’s Rail Flagship Project 3 - Holistic and Integrated Asset Management for Europe’s RAIL System)
Reporting period: 2022-12-01 to 2023-12-31
The FP3 – IAM4RAIL flagship project aims to transform the rail sector by providing innovative technical solutions and services, leveraging cutting-edge technologies to minimize asset lifecycle costs, enhance safety, and improve the reliability, availability, and capacity of railroad systems. It focuses on infrastructure and rolling stock, aiming to establish a common European asset management framework comprising green, digital, and safe solutions. The project emphasizes cost-effective asset management, advanced automated construction techniques, and environmentally friendly asset production. The ultimate goal is to integrate asset status information with TMS to optimize decision-making and improve asset lifecycle management. Through research, development, and demonstration in various European scenarios, the project aims to achieve TRL 6/7 for its integrated solutions, with a focus on certification and validation of new technologies and processes.
The three main objectives of FP3 – IAM4RAIL are:
1) Cost-Effective Asset Management with Digital Technologies: Develop a common European asset management framework using digital technologies and data analytics to address short, mid, and long-term interventions for both infrastructure and rolling stock. This involves integrating information across the supply chain, including Traffic Management Systems (TMS), to reduce life-cycle costs and extend asset life cycles. Advanced diagnostic technologies and efficient maintenance planning will be employed, including the development of Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) methodologies and algorithms for freight rail applications.
2) Advanced and Holistic Asset Decisions: Develop methodologies and technologies for advanced and holistic decisions throughout the life cycle of railway assets. This includes probabilistic models for life cycle cost determination, cooperative diagnosis between assets, and AI-based hybrid decision support. By combining operational and IoT data with additional information and knowledge, these solutions enhance decision-making accuracy, predict anomalies, and optimize maintenance strategies.
3) Environmentally Friendly Asset Production: Establish environmentally friendly production processes for resilient assets by leveraging new design principles, fabrication techniques, and materials. This objective focuses on reducing the environmental impact of asset production while ensuring high-quality and durable results.
All these objectives are encompassed in demonstration activities, which have been grouped in five different clusters each addressing distinct facets of rail asset management.
Cluster B - Wayside Monitoring and TMS Link: Focuses on designing, deploying, and validating an IAMS for wayside assets. Activities include securely collecting, storing, and analyzing data from wayside assets and sharing it with the TMS.
Cluster C - Rolling Stock Asset Management: On-board and Wayside Technologies: Demonstrations cover on-board and wayside technologies for monitoring rolling stock assets.
Cluster D - Infrastructure Asset Management: Demonstrations address various aspects of infrastructure asset management, including long-term maintenance planning, track systems management, innovative infrastructure applications, and civil asset management.
Cluster E - Railway Digital Twins: Focuses on implementing railway Digital Twins to optimize asset-related processes.
Cluster F - Environment, User, and Worker Friendly Railway Assets: Showcases environmentally, user, and worker-friendly railway assets.
The three main objectives of FP3 – IAM4RAIL are:
1) Cost-Effective Asset Management with Digital Technologies: Develop a common European asset management framework using digital technologies and data analytics to address short, mid, and long-term interventions for both infrastructure and rolling stock. This involves integrating information across the supply chain, including Traffic Management Systems (TMS), to reduce life-cycle costs and extend asset life cycles. Advanced diagnostic technologies and efficient maintenance planning will be employed, including the development of Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) methodologies and algorithms for freight rail applications.
2) Advanced and Holistic Asset Decisions: Develop methodologies and technologies for advanced and holistic decisions throughout the life cycle of railway assets. This includes probabilistic models for life cycle cost determination, cooperative diagnosis between assets, and AI-based hybrid decision support. By combining operational and IoT data with additional information and knowledge, these solutions enhance decision-making accuracy, predict anomalies, and optimize maintenance strategies.
3) Environmentally Friendly Asset Production: Establish environmentally friendly production processes for resilient assets by leveraging new design principles, fabrication techniques, and materials. This objective focuses on reducing the environmental impact of asset production while ensuring high-quality and durable results.
All these objectives are encompassed in demonstration activities, which have been grouped in five different clusters each addressing distinct facets of rail asset management.
Cluster B - Wayside Monitoring and TMS Link: Focuses on designing, deploying, and validating an IAMS for wayside assets. Activities include securely collecting, storing, and analyzing data from wayside assets and sharing it with the TMS.
Cluster C - Rolling Stock Asset Management: On-board and Wayside Technologies: Demonstrations cover on-board and wayside technologies for monitoring rolling stock assets.
Cluster D - Infrastructure Asset Management: Demonstrations address various aspects of infrastructure asset management, including long-term maintenance planning, track systems management, innovative infrastructure applications, and civil asset management.
Cluster E - Railway Digital Twins: Focuses on implementing railway Digital Twins to optimize asset-related processes.
Cluster F - Environment, User, and Worker Friendly Railway Assets: Showcases environmentally, user, and worker-friendly railway assets.
The relevant reporting period has primarily focused on delineating technical specifications and requirements, alongside defining the demonstration activities, which encompass 57 Use Cases. Technical and scientific efforts have been concentrated on various fronts to meet the project's objectives. These include defining KPIs, designing technologies, and initiating data collection across different use cases. The overarching aim is to enhance asset management through predictive maintenance and intelligent system integration, improve the reliability, availability, and capacity of the railway system, optimize LCC and resource utilization, and develop innovative technologies for monitoring, inspection, and maintenance.
The project has made significant progress in defining technical specifications and requirements for innovative rail asset management solutions. By focusing on digital technologies and data analytics, the project aims to revolutionize asset management practices, thereby minimizing lifecycle costs and enhancing safety. The development of methodologies and technologies for advanced and holistic asset decisions, including probabilistic models for life cycle cost determination and AI-based hybrid decision support, demonstrates the project's commitment to pushing boundaries in railway asset management. Environmentally friendly asset production processes are being established, marking a significant departure from traditional manufacturing techniques. By leveraging new design principles, fabrication techniques, and materials, the project aims to reduce the environmental impact of asset production while ensuring high-quality and durable results. In terms of potential impacts, the project's integrated solutions have the potential to revolutionize the railway sector by optimizing asset lifecycle management and enhancing reliability, availability, and capacity. By achieving TRL 6/7 for its solutions, the project aims to pave the way for widespread adoption and commercialization.