A railway norms application for small traffic railway lines autonomous vehicle

Proposing new solutions for low traffic secondary railway lines is a challenging task. The current study details the industrial context of a potential solution related to a business model which forbids to invest a lot. Considering the need of flexibility associated to a small quantity of passengers, a low capacity vehicle seems to be the most adapted design. Consequently, an 8-capacity vehicle is proposed. The choice of adapting a road vehicle to the considered specific need is argued. The present paper focuses on using the railway industrial norms to insure the respect of signals and speed limits. Assumption related to the specific case study of a driver-less minibus rolling on railway tracks are systematically mentioned and discussed from a safety point of view containing the need of certification. The main proposition is to build a SysML model of the normative documents which are transformed into a formal model. This formal methods allows design assessment by the mean of theorem proving. The hard scientific point comes from continuous equation describing the braking curves of the vehicle which have to be respected from a safety point of view. Some propositions ensuing from the state of the art are mentioned in order to demonstrate the global design strategy.