Soluzione rugged per il settore ferroviario

The context

The rail transportation industry is changing, as digitalization and smart connectivity redefine safety, efficiency and maintenance standards. Integrating IoT systems for real-time fleet monitoring now constitutes a strategic factor for rail operators, who must ensure service continuity, maximum reliability and compliance with increasingly stringent safety regulations.

Key challenges in the industry include the need to operate in extremely harsh environments featuring constant vibration, a wide range of temperatures, elevated electromagnetic disturbances and certified safety requirements. Embedded systems must guarantee excellent up-time and withstand mechanical and electrical stresses far in excess of traditional industry standards. The convergence of advanced communication technologies, edge computing, and rail security protocols is creating new opportunities to optimize operations, in predictive maintenance based on real-time data, and to reduce operational costs through continuous monitoring of critical safety and performance parameters.

The customer and their needs

Our customer is a leading solution provider in the rail fleet management industry, which required an industrial solution to monitor and control distributed convoys. The application demanded an embedded system that could operate as an intelligent node to collect data from distributed sensors on trains, process critical parameters locally and provide secure transmission to central control systems.

There were a number of key technical challenges:

• Mechanical robustness: The HMI was required to withstand continuous vibrations and mechanical shocks that are typical of the railway environment, with certification for on-board installation on trainsets
• Robust environmental protection: An industrial case with IP65/IP67 rating was needed to withstand dust, moisture and weather in critical operating conditions
• Certified electrical safety: Compliance with railway standards regarding power supply, galvanic isolation and resistance to severe electrical transients
• Multi-protocol connectivity: Simultaneous support for 4G/LTE cellular communications, Wi-Fi, industrial Ethernet, and serial interfaces for integration with legacy systems
• Mission-critical reliability: Continuous 24/7 operation and self-reset capability in the event of anomalies
• Extended thermal range: Guaranteed operation from -40°C to +70°C to cover the full range of operating climatic conditions

The customer had previously experimented with standard commercial solutions; these proved inadequate for the unforgiving nature of the railway environment, with frequent breakdowns and the need for costly maintenance.

The solution

Elettronica GF developed a custom rugged HMI solution based on the NXP i.MX8M platform and specifically configured for the railway environment. Our engineering approach involved:

• Industrial HMI: An hardware platform based on the NXP i.MX8M Quad processor, with architecture designed for safety-critical applications with native support for virtualization and process isolation
• Custom ruggedized case: Design of a ventilated metal enclosure with optimized thermal dissipation.
• Multiple connectivity: Integration of a 4G/LTE cellular module with dual SIM for automatic failover, dual-band Wi-Fi, dual Gigabit Ethernet, and serial interfaces
• Industrial storage: Industrial-grade SLC eMMC memory with advanced wear-leveling and power-fail protection to ensure data integrity in all conditions
• Multi-level hardware watchdog: Redundant monitoring system with automatic recovery and event logging for advanced diagnostics

This architecture provided the customer with a certified custom HMI solution that dramatically reduced maintenance costs while guaranteeing total operational continuity. Elettronica GF's contribution went beyond hardware supply, creating a strategic technological partnership through sector expertise, custom engineering capabilities for the use case and electronics, mass production of the product and it’s maintenance over time.