A Safety Kernel for Flexible Level Crossing Management
摘要
Level crossings (LCs) are considered as safety critical in both rail and road infrastructures, and the absolute priority is always given to train. As part of the FLEXMOVE project, which consists of an autonomous light vehicle running on tires on rails called “ferromobile”, the priority, at level crossings, can vary depending on the traffic, which can be either rail or road. In this paper, in terms of safety, we propose two solutions for managing road/rail cross-flow at LCs, each adapted to a specific type of level crossing. The aim of these proposals is to improve the safety and fluidity of traffic at LC and to reduce waiting times for road users, while increasing the safety level of railway passengers. Considering the importance of the road traffic, being in the neighbourhood of urban areas justifies the potential use of technological device like smart sensors or cameras. An organisational chart outlining the overall operation of the low-traffic level crossing management system, as well as SysML behavioural models, like state and sequence diagrams, specifying the operation of congested level crossings, are presented. The main contribution of the presented work is the identification of a set of system components that belongs to a safety kernel focusing on signalling activities. The behaviour of the safety components is specified, whereas only interfaces of non-safety component are considered. The methodology is illustrated on a busy road level crossing use case. This methodological contribution should be evaluated for tailored safety solutions of ferromobile level crossing in a general case.