Formalisation of test procedures for a high level of automation

Abstract

The European Train Control System (ETCS) is currently taken into operation on more and more lines inside and outside of Europe (e. g. [5]). The number of ETCS suppliers is increasing driven by the openly available specification [2]. This opening of the market is required and important to shift freight and passenger traffic from road to rail [4]. State of the art train control systems, like ETCS have to apply increasingly technologies from information and communication science to optimise the use of the limited track capacity by precise and safe information distribution (e. g. Onboard positioning, moving block). The combination of complex specification, the required consideration of national conditions and components provided by several suppliers results in incompatibilities of the systems. These incompatibilities hinder the realization of consistent and interoperable train control technology in Europe (see [5]). The Institute of Transportation Systems of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) operates the independent and accredited testing laboratory RailSiTe® in Braunschweig to identify and help to avoid those incompatibilities. The RailSiTe® is used to execute tests of conformity and interoperability for ETCS components and supports the suppliers in taking their products into operation. The importance of independent tests like the ones done in the RailSiTe® is continuously increasing in the European certification process due to requirements from infrastructure managers or the European Railway Agency (ERA) [6]. This contribution discusses under which conditions test automation can be applied efficiently and how formalisation can help in that matter. The ETCS conformity tests according to ETCS subset 076 are used as an example [3]. The goal of the automation is to improve the test quality while reducing the effort. Especially the time needed for the test needs to be reduced to simplify the integration of the lab tests into the development timeline of the supplier.