MEN Micro automated train operation control

In driverless underground systems up to 500 mobile and stationary control and management systems are needed to monitor the train on a line where the control and monitoring system provides a response channel that allows the permanent transmission of status data of the vehicles back to the control centre.

Train protection and signalling systems are required on board trains and are achievable using MEN Micro products.

Redundant CompactPCI computer systems consist of standard Intel-based single-board computers in single Eurocard format (3U). They feature low-voltage and low-power chipsets, with ethernet and various serial ports.

The serial interfaces and an additional watchdog are implemented as IP cores in the onboard FPGA. The second SBC in the system is populated with eight additional serial interfaces which are all realised in an FPGA and which work in asynchronous RS422 mode and in synchronous HDLC mode.

Another card delivers the remaining I/Os required in the system, consisting of digital I/O channels, analog outputs, counter pulses, a radar sensor to pick up data from the route sensors and interrupt inputs.

All these functions are again configured in the onboard FPGA. If required in a project, a multifunction vehicle bus fieldbus interface card can also be plugged on a mezzanine carrier board. The complete electronics are screened for an operation temperature of -40 to +85°C and conformally coated against humidity and dust.

These systems are configured with these main items: complete 19″ rack-mountable system with redundant power supplies and requisite forced air cooling systems; conduction-cooled CPCI enclosures for harsh environments; 3U CompactPCI SBCs (from low-powered Intel CPUs to the latest high-performance Intel Core i7 CPUs); FPGA processing cores for maximum flexibility in implementing various I/O regimes; standard and customised I/O boards for digital I/O, analog I/O and fieldbus I/O; VxWorks, QNX, Linux, Windows and proprietary OSs supported.