Standardisation Considerations for Autonomous Train Control

In this paper, we review software-based technologies already known to be, or expected to become essential for autonomous train control systems with grade of automation GoA 4 (unattended train operation) in existing open railway environments. It is discussed which types of technology can be developed and certified already today on the basis of existing railway standards. Other essential technologies, however, require modifications or extensions of existing standards, in order to provide a certification basis for introducing these technologies into non-experimental “real-world” rail operation. Regarding these, we check the novel pre-standard ANSI/UL 4600 with respect to suitability as a certification basis for safety-critical autonomous train control functions based on methods from artificial intelligence. As a thought experiment, we propose a novel autonomous train controller design and perform an evaluation according to ANSI/UL 4600. This results in the insight that autonomous freight trains and metro trains using this design could be evaluated and certified on the basis of ANSI/UL 4600 .