Bombardier Presents Light Rail Vehicle Safety System
Sweden – Bombardier Transportation unveiled its COMPAS light rail vehicle safety system at UITP 2019 today.
COMPAS: Collision and Overspeed Monitoring and Prevention Assistance System
Bombardier Transportation chose the UITP Global Public Transport Summit taking place in Stockholm 9–12 June to unveil its new safety system for urban light rail vehicles. It is called COMPAS, an acronym for Collision and Overspeed Monitoring and Prevention Assistance System.
Bombardier developed the technology behind it with its research partners, the Austrian Institute of Technology and Mission Embedded. It increases safety for tram drivers and passengers as well as for street users around the tram. It helps prevent tram derailing, for example.
According to Bombardier, COMPAS is the only industry system that combines two features that are most commonly requested. These are vision-based overspeed prevention and automated obstacle detection. The system works by taking digital track data and using visual odometry to ensure that vehicles don’t go beyond their pre-defined speed limits.
COMAS Authorisation
Compas is a development that builds on Bombardier’s Obstacle Detection Assistance System (ODAS). This system has been in use in Frankfurt, Germany, since 2017. Bombardier expects COMPAS to achieve commercial service authorisation by mid-2020. The mobility solutions provider also plans to add additional features in the future, e.g. increased vehicle autonomy, which would enable automated operations in depots.
Christian Diewald, Managing Director of Bombardier Transportation in Austria, said:
“We have completed the development phase of COMPAS and will shortly start the operational evaluation in two existing vehicle fleets. I am especially happy that we are testing this safety innovation in the new vehicles for our customer Wiener Linien in Austria, but also with our customer in Blackpool, UK.”
