Railergy, specialist suppliers of railway system automation technology, has chosen Aeva’s Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) 4D Lidar for their automatic train operation suite. Aeva’s Aeries II sensors provide critical instant velocity data and high-resolution sensing to identify obstacles preventing the safe passage of autonomous locomotives.
“Aeva’s 4D lidar technology has been transformative in enabling safety for our automatic train operation solution,” said Jakob Gärtner, Founder at Railergy. “Aeva’s technology helps ensure that our solutions are on track to deliver a greener, more efficient rail industry through automation.”
Railergy’s solution automates trains for shunting applications, where trains are separated, moved, and linked together with new cars, allowing the locomotive to safely operate without a driver or remote control. Additional uses for the solution include main line and last-mile applications, for example in seaports and with freight and mining operations.
Railergy selected Aeva 4D lidar for its unique ability to simultaneously detect precise range and the velocity of small obstacles on and around the rails. Aeva’s instant velocity data enables the real-time segmentation of moving and non-moving objects. Velocity data also powers Aeva’s Ultra Resolution perception capabilities which provide higher resolution than conventional time of flight lidar sensors. Together, these features enable Railergy to meet use case requirements that could not be achieved using conventional lidar.
“Railergy is an innovator in the transportation industry, and we are excited to support the development of their automatic train operation solution for customers, starting with one of Europe’s largest cargo train operators,” said Barrs Lang, Vice President of Global Sales at Aeva. “We look forward to working closely with them to scale their solution using our commercially available Aeries II lidar technology to deliver safer and more efficient automated trains.”
DVN comments
The automated management of fret trains in marshalling yards, requires the equipment of locomotives for the peripheral perception of such type of environment. It is particularly required to have an accurate detection of distances and speed between this locomotive and wagons during the docking manoeuvres. FMCW lidars can demonstrate here their advantages through a fast clustering of received point cloud.
