AI4RAILS 2022

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Welcome to AI4RAILS 2022

3rd International Workshop on “Artificial Intelligence for RAILwayS”

colocated with EDCC 2022

September 12, 2022

Zaragoza, Spain

*** The program is now available here ***

The impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the industry has been so disruptive that it gave rise to a new wave of research and applications. Several industries, mainly in logistics and manufacturing, have benefited significantly from AI adoption and this positive trend is planned to be kept in the future. Modern and future railways represent one of the fields in which AI is expected to have a significant impact in a medium to long term perspective, to get higher levels of automation. Despite this opening for unprecedented scenarios in railway systems, it also raises concerns regarding system dependability and new threats associated with a high level of autonomy.

Therefore, the first step towards the adoption of AI in the railway sector is understanding to what extent AI can be considered reliable, safe and secure. In such a context, building upon the ongoing Shift2Rail project RAILS (Roadmaps for the AI integration in the raiL Sector), in 2019 the AI4RAILS workshop series has been started with the aim to provide annually a forum for researchers, practitioners and business leaders to discuss and share new perspectives, ideas, technologies and solutions for effective and dependable integration of AI techniques in rail-based transportation systems.

Themes and Goals

AI4RAILS 2022 is the 3rd workshop in the series, designed to gather the best idea, comments and experiences related to the adoption of AI in railways. The series is supported by an ongoing Shift2Rail project, named RAILS (Roadmaps for the AI integration in the raiL Sector), and represents an open forum for researchers working on these themes. In fact, the Advisory Board of the RAILS project will be invited since it includes railway stakeholders and companies operating in both the AI and railway market as well as the entire set of companies and research centres of the Shift2Rail community.

The themes of the workshop are relevant for the EDCC community and consistent with its aims and scope. The railway domain represents a critical domain in which all the aspects of dependability and security should be continuously addressed as a consequence of technical and technological progress. In the context of AI adoption, current literature includes different attempts of adopting AI techniques for increasing the automation level and the overall dependability of railways. AI4RAILS represents a unique forum for researchers, practitioners and business leaders to present and discuss their latest research results on theory, approaches and tools for the design, validation, operation and evaluation of dependable and secure railways by means of AI techniques.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • AI for railway safety, availability, reliability and security

  • Transferability to railways of AI approaches from other sectors (e.g., avionics, automotive, etc.)

  • Autonomous and cooperative driving, including virtual coupling

  • Automatic detection of signals, pedestrians and obstacles

  • Predictive maintenance and defect detection

  • AI for traffic planning and management

  • Adversarial perturbations to AI with a focus on railway case-studies

  • Cognitive Digital Twins for Railways

  • Resource allocation with a focus on railway case-studies

  • Run-time model checking and AI with a focus on railway case-studies

  • Explainable and trustworthy AI in railway applications

  • Safe autonomy standards and railway certification of compliance

  • Datasets and real-world case studies

Important Dates

Paper submission deadline: June 20th, 2022 (EXTENDED)

Author notification: July 2nd, 2022 (EXTENDED)

Camera-ready paper due: July 9th, 2022 (EXTENDED)

Paper submission

Submitted papers must be unpublished and not considered elsewhere for publication. Submissions will undergo a rigorous review process handled by the Technical Program Committee. Papers will be selected based on their originality, significance, relevance, and clarity of presentation. Only electronic submissions in PDF format through the submission site (https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=ai4rails2022) will be considered.

The AI4RAILS proceedings will be published by Springer in the series Communications in Computer and Information Science (CCIS).

Papers must be in English, up to 12 pages in Springer format, including references and appendices. Information for authors, LaTeX and Microsoft Word templates, as well as formatting guidelines, can be found here.

Submitting authors are requested to note that the publication of the paper in the proceedings will be subject to attending the conference and presenting in person (unless the pandemic situation does not allow it) and register their attendance upon submitting the camera ready version.

Workshop Steering Committee

Workshop Chairs & Organizers

Program Committee Members

  • Nikola Bešinović, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands

  • Lorenzo De Donato, Unversity of Naples Federico II, Italy

  • Francesco Flammini, Mälardalen University & Linnaeus University, Sweden

  • Rob Goverde, TU Delft Transport Institute, Netherlands

  • Ronghui Liu, University of Leeds, United Kingdom

  • Fredrik Heintz, Linköping University, Sweden

  • Leonardo Impagliazzo, Hitachi Rail STS, Italy

  • Zhiyuan Lin, University of Leeds, UK

  • Stefano Marrone, University of Naples Federico II, Italy

  • Claudio Mazzariello, Hitachi Rail STS, Italy

  • Roberto Nardone, University of Naples “Parthenope”, Italy

  • Alberto Petrillo, University of Naples Federico II, Italy

  • Danijela Ristic-Durrant, University of Bremen, Germany

  • Carlo Sansone, University of Naples Federico II, Italy

  • Stefania Santini, University of Naples Federico II, Italy

  • Valeria Vittorini, University of Naples Federico II, Italy