Swallow (train)

ES104 is a completely Russian analogue of Lastochka

Main article: ES104 (electric train)

2019

"Ural locomotives" equipped all "Swallows" at the MCC with auto driving systems

On November 12, 2019, the Sinara group announced that 51 trains for the Moscow Central Ring (MCC) were equipped with an auto-driving system - ultrasonic sensors that allow you to adjust the stop on the platform with an accuracy of 50 cm.

According to Oleg Spai, General Director of Ural Locomotives (a joint venture between Sinara and Siemens, located in Verkhnyaya Pyshma, Sverdlovsk Region), the installed auto driving system will significantly simplify the driver's work and reduce the train interval in the next month.

Trains on the MCC now stop on the platform with an accuracy of 50 cm thanks to the auto driving system

Now at the MCC operating site, test checks of new equipment are being carried out in dynamics, - he added on November 12, 2019.

Equipping Lastochek with new sensors was a preparatory stage as part of a global project to introduce an unmanned electric train control system.

By November 2019, testing of "Swallow" with a built-in machine vision system continues at the MCC. During the movement of the electric train, the technology forms a two-dimensional or three-dimensional picture of the surrounding space using optical systems: cameras and scanning lidars. Additional equipment allows you to assess the condition and occupancy of the tracks.

By mid-November 2019, an information base was developed for further analysis of the data obtained. Scheduled tests will last a few more months.

The next stage in the implementation of unmanned technologies will be the development by specialists of Ural Locomotives together with Russian Railways and scientific institutes of technical requirements for an electric train that will work without a driver. It will become fully automated and will be able to move along the route, stop on platforms, board and disembark passengers without human participation.^[1]

Self-driving train demonstration

On August 28, 2019, Russian Railways first introduced the Lastochka unmanned electric train. The demonstration of the novelty took place on the test ring in Shcherbinka near Moscow.

Dear colleagues, we have just made the first passage through our technological landfill on the Lastochka train in absolutely unmanned mode. Having worked out not only the technology of communication between rolling stock and the road, all the technologies in which technical vision is involved, controlling the movement of the composition absolutely without human participation, but also the technology of remote control, - said the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Maxim Akimov through the press service.

Russian Railways first introduced the unmanned electric train "Lastochka"

According to him, an abnormal situation related to finding a person on the way was also worked out. In this case, the technique worked unmistakably, giving signals and stopping in time, he added.

Russian Railways reported that the control of an unmanned electric train can be carried out automatically: from the cab - by the driver, and from the transportation control center - by the operator. The control center is designed to monitor the operation of unmanned trains and make decisions in case of emergency situations. For example, the driver-operator can, if necessary, switch the train from automatic control mode to remote control mode and directly control traffic.

Russian Railways General Director Oleg Belozerov said that Russian Railways "have switched to unmanned technologies." According to international standards, there are four levels of work in unmanned mode. By the end of August 2019, the railway operator successfully tested the third level, he said and stressed that Russian Railways is about a year ahead of their foreign colleagues.

Russian Railways is going to launch the first unmanned electric trains "Lastochka" along the Moscow Central Ring (MCC) in 2021.^[2]

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