Latest project dissemination: article on Global Railway Review, poster at Big Data Conference, presentation at Europe’s Rails Innovation Days, and more

We are glad to report on the latest project dissemination events, including an article published on Global Railway Review (link below), a poster on “Dataset Challenges in Railway Machine Learning Applications” (see picture below) presented at the LNU Big Data Conference 2022, project status presentation at Europe’s Rail Innovation Days, and a research seminar given at Linnaeus University, where project-funded PhD student Lorenzo De Donato is currently spending a visiting period.

Towards ‘Roadmaps for AI Integration in the Rail Sector’

 

AI4RAILS 2022: keynote announcement

The program of AI4RAILS 2022 is now out !

The workshop will be held on September 12, 2022 in Zaragoza (Spain).

The program includes a keynote on Artificial intelligence, case of the railway sector: state of play and perspectives from Christian Chavanel, Director of the Rail System Department at International Union of Railways (UIC).

AI4RAILS 2022 is colocated with the EDCC 2022 conference.

Information regarding workshop registration and conference logistics may be found on the EDCC 2022 web site.

 

Trustworthy AI for safe autonomy of smart railways: directions and lessons learnt from other sectors

Our PhD student Lorenzo De Donato will present a talk “Trustworthy AI for safe autonomy of smart railways: directions and lessons learnt from other sectors” in the The 13th World Congress on Railway Research is coming to Birmingham, UK 6-10 June 2022 (https://www.wcrr2022.co.uk/website/938/ ). See here for details:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/361114998_Trustworthy_AI_for_safe_autonomy_of_smart_railways_directions_and_lessons_learnt_from_other_sectors

AI4RAILS 2022

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

Slides from our RAILS Mid-term Workshop

Slides from our RAILS Mid-term Workshop (25 February 2022) are now available on our website:

Invited speakers:

“New steps forward in railways smart maintenance”: In2Smart2

“Electrical and electronic applications for railways”: Cenelec_TC_9X_SG34

“Validate AI Based Perception”: Validate_AI_Based_Perception

“The need for standard XAI — Explainable Artificial Intelligence”: ExplainableAI

RAILS:

Bird’s eye view: RAILS_MT

WP1: RAILS_MT_WP1

WP2: RAILS_MT_WP2

WP3: RAILS_MT_WP3

WP4: RAILS_MT_WP4

RAILS Mid-term Project Workshop (online)

The RAILS mid-term workshop will be held online (MS Teams) on 25th February 2022.

The main objectives of the workshop are:

  • to present the results of the analysis phase;
  • to introduce the next steps and the pilot case studies identified so far;
  • to discuss the safe integration of AI in autonomous driving, predictive maintenance, and traffic management.

Talks from RAILS researchers and invited speakers are planned for the morning.
A panel of experts will be held early in the afternoon to discuss aspects related to the development of roadmaps for the integration of data-driven and AI techniques in the rail sector.

The draft program of the workshop is now available here!

To attend the workshop, please register here.

 

RAILS will attend several conferences

Members of RAILS will attend several conferences presenting output of the project in 2021.

– RAILS at 2021 INFORM Annual Meeting

(https://meetings2.informs.org/wordpress/anaheim2021/)

 

– RAILS at IsoLa 2021, DisCoRail Session

(http://isola-conference.org/isola2021/)

 

– RAILS at INNORAIL 2021

(https://innorail2021.hu/en/)

Lorenzo DE DONATO PhD Student in Computer Engineering, RAILS Ambassador, University of Naples Federico II, Italy: Roadmaps for the Integration of Artificial Intelligence in Railways

 

– RAILS at SmartRail Europe 2021

(https://www.smartrailcongress.com/)

Suicide prevention strategies & effective track detection technologies

RAILS Technical Manager

Wed 24, Nov 3:00 pm3:20 pm

During this session we examine the links between fatalities and factors such as homelessness and lifestyles and the strategies and technologies being used to effectively reduce occurrences in what is a difficult but important issue to address. We will also consider new developments in track detection technologies to prevent trespassing incidents.

Challenges and State-of-Practice Survey of Artificial Intelligence in Railways

(Original webpage: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeUNBU3VUCBXzaM5O3sqM4kpMM8GgwPTs7wpU_zXkmecOTO3g/viewform)

This survey aims at obtaining a deeper understanding of the Challenges and State-of-Practice (SoP) of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in railway transportation from the perspective of diverse stakeholders. Results are collected in the context of the H2020 Shift2Rail project RAILS (Roadmaps for A.I. integration in the raiL Sector), to understand priorities and requirements when defining the roadmaps for AI integration in the rail sector.

The survey is distributed to Shift2Rail members, project partners and other project participants, as well as to other railway organizations and regulatory bodies. Aggregated and anonymous results will be disseminated primarily through the project website https://rails-project.eu/.

You are welcome to add customized answers by using the text box “Other”.

We would like to thank you in advance for the time you will invest in filling this survey!

IMPORTANT NOTE:
Please note that at the end of the questionnaire you can decide whether to share your personal data with the project team and if you are available to be contacted, otherwise you can remain fully anonymous.
Please note that even if you agree to be contacted, we will not share your name and affiliation with anyone except the project team. Only aggregated and anonymous results of the survey will be publicly disclosed.

If you encounter any problems, need clarifications, or want to report your feedback on the questionnaire, please contact:
Prof. Valeria Vittorini (project leader): valeria.vittorini@unina.it
Prof. Francesco Flammini (technical leader): francesco.flammini@lnu.se

THE SURVEY WILL CLOSE ON 31st MAY 2021!

First Advisory Board Meeting

We successfully ran the first Advisory Board Meeting on 1st March 2021 online. We would like to thank all AB members who participated in this meeting and for their valuable contributions! We saw many interesting presentations there and would like to keep this momentum in the future.

AB memebers to joined the meeting:

  • Aitex (IT)
  • Comesvil (IT)
  • European Union Agency for Railways – ERA (EU)
  • Hitachi Rail STS (IT)
  • Netherlands Railways (NL)
  • NextTechnologies Ltd. (HU)
  • ProRAIL (NL)
  • SYENMAINT (IT)

Second AI4RAILS Workshop

The 2nd International Workshop on “Artificial Intelligence for RAILwayS”(AI4RAILS)

co-located with EURO 2021

11-14 July, 2021

Athens, Greece

The impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques on 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, in order to get higher levels of automation of railway processes. On the one hand, this opens for unprecedented scenarios for railway systems, and on the other hand, 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 effective, reliable, safe and secure. In such a context, building upon the ongoing Shift2Rail project RAILS (Roadmaps for the AI integration in the raiL Sector), the aim of AI4RAILS is to provide a forum for researchers and practitioners to discuss and share new perspectives, ideas, technologies and solutions for an effective and dependable integration of AI techniques in rail-based transport systems.

More details can be found at: https://rails-project.eu/ai4rails/