The on-board railway track & vehicle monitoring system

Project Information

vmRail

Grant agreement ID: 836141

DOI

10.3030/836141

Project closed

EC signature date 27 November 2018

Start date 1 December 2018

End date 31 March 2019

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

VIRTUALMECHANICS SL
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - vmRail (The on-board railway track & vehicle monitoring system)

Reporting period: 2018-12-01 to 2019-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Virtualmech is a spinoff of the University of Seville (Spain) that applies computational mechanics to improve the design of machines, vehicles, and industrial equipment. Developing complex models of all types of machines and simulating their behaviour under realistic circumstances, we help our clients to reduce design costs, while also improving the final product. We are now applying our expertise in simulation, combined with sensor networks and signal processing, to create vmRail, a tool for condition monitoring of railway tracks and rolling stock. Our product has already received interest from Spanish metro and regional railway operators, and from rolling stock manufacturers.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

vmRail has been in development 6 years now. After a preliminary version of the simulation software was created in 2013, and subsequently tested at a Finnish crane company, an early prototype was developed to be used in a project with one Spanish regional railway operator. The next prototype has been repeatedly tested and validated in collaboration with one of our most important partners, Metro Seville. The system has reached TRL6 and is ready to enter the final development stage to reach a commercial product. Meanwhile, a feasibility study performed during Phase 1 of the H2020 SME Instrument has shown that the product can be successfully introduced in the railway maintenance market. It also gave us the opportunity to expand the scope of our development, having a better understanding of client´s needs and the competitor´s landscape.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Maintenance of railway tracks and vehicles represents a huge business opportunity since all stakeholders are searching for solutions to reduce maintenance costs of all the elements of the system, improve user experience through safer and more comfortable travel to the passengers, and increase the efficiency of the system by reducing delays through better traffic control.

testing of vmRail