- Bombardier Transportation receives ERCI Innovation Award for ODAS – Obstacle Detection Assistance System
- Best SME Award goes to German company SIUT GmbH for Smart train platforms tiles 4.0.
- Italian company – MER MEC S.p.A. receives “Coup de Coeur” Award for Railway Network Asset Inventory
Gdańsk, 28th September 2017:
The European association of railway industry clusters ERCI awarded the trophies for its annual Innovation Competition at TRAKO 2017 in Gdańsk in the afternoon of September 28 2017. The event was hosted by ERCI member Southern Railway Cluster, one out of 11 European railway cluster that represent the interests of more than 1,000 European railway companies, mostly SME’s.
Bombardier Transportation received the award for the innovative system “ODAS – Obstacle Detection Assistance System”. ODAS is part of the active vehicle safety system and supports the driver to detect and assess potential collisions with other road users and to react accordingly. The main advantages are: assistance to the driver in critical situations, increase of active safety of passengers, drivers, pedestrians and cyclists, reduction of collisions and consequential cost. Driver assistance system based on 3D vision technology. It is an optical process for the three-dimensional detection and analysis of objects on the track, whereby a processing unit is comparing the needed deceleration to a safe stop in front of an obstacle which is within the “envelope” of the tram.
The „best SME“ award went to German company as well. SIUT GmbH received the award for Smart train platforms tiles 4.0. SIUT invented an innovative composite material. This composite material is marked by a specific integration of light conductive fiber optics into prefabricated concrete elements. When planning intelligent safety concepts this light emitting concrete can be applied as floor tiles with clear safety markings in form of luminous lines, symbols and pictograms. Having concrete as a basis, those tiles are safe against vandalism and climate influences such as heat, humidity and frost. These stones are called smart and active because they automatically communicate with the trains which will soon arrive.
The “Coup de Coeur” was awarded to the MER MEC from Italy for the service: Railway Network Asset Inventory. The railway asset inventory provides a comprehensive overview of the traditional rail infrastructure. Acquisition and visualization systems, both through aerial and terrestrial equipment, allow the three-dimensional reconstruction of the Railway Infrastructure, thus providing a complete physical description of the asset. Each railway infrastructure object is identified and georeferenced. It overcomes current limitations and inefficiencies resulting from poor detail and exclusive focus on maintenance needs.
About ERCI Innovation Award:
The ERCI Innovation Award recognizes companies from ERCI member clusters that have successfully introduced innovative products or solutions to the market. The prize is initiated by the European Railway Clusters Initiative (ERCI).
The ERCI Innovation Award has three categories: „best large enterprise“, „best SME“ and „Coup de Coeur“.
The winners of the 2017 award are:
- Large enterprises: Bombardier Transportation (Germany)
- SME: SIUT GmbH (Germany)
- Coup de Coeur: MER MEC S.p.A (Italy)
The term of the award is annually. Hosting of the award ceremony rotates among the ERCI members. The 2017 award ceremony was hosted by Southern Railway Cluster at TRAKO 2017 on Thursday, September 28, 2017.
About European Railway Clusters Initiative (ERCI):
The European Railway Clusters Initiative was founded in 2010 with the signature of the cooperation treaty on InnoTrans 2010. Member clusters of ERCI are:
- i-trans competitiveness cluster (Famars, France)
- BTS Rail Saxony (Dresden, Germany)
- Cluster Mobilität, Verkehr und Logistik Berlin-Brandenburg, c/o Berlin Partner for Business and Technology (Berlin, Germany)
- CNA Cluster Bahntechnik Bayern (Nuremberg, Germany)
- DITECFER (Pistoia, Italy)
- Inno-Pro (Karup, Denmark)
- Järnvägsklustret (Västeras, Sweden)
- Logistics in Wallonia (Grace-Hollogne, Belgium)
- Railalliance (Birmingham, UK)
- Railgrup (Barcelona, Spain)
- Southern Railway Cluster (Katowice, Poland)
The 11 member clusters represent more than 1,000 companies from the industry from all over Europe. The goals of ERCI are the strengthening of the competitiveness of the European railway supply industry by developing joint innovation projects among its members as well as establishing stronger business relations among them. ERCI projects include the PERES 4i partnership under the roof of the European Cluster Collaboration platform.
Contact:
ERCI European Railway Clusters Initiative
c/o Dirk-Ulrich Krueger (spokesperson)
BTS Rail Saxony
dirk.ulrich.krueger@bts-sachsen.de
mobile: +49 151 4026 2521
