Overview
Shunting personnel has multiple organisational and technical duties during day- and night-time and is exposed to various weather conditions. To support their work, various electronic (handheld-) devices are currently used. Handling multiple devices requires multiple, associated operational processes (training, maintenance, distribution, etc), as well as a higher load to carry, and additional gear to mount devices to individuals’ workwear. Furthermore, future innovations have to be considered, which might require additional functionalities or devices.
To maintain usability, Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) seeks for innovative approaches to unite the functionality in a single device. Additionally, the bidding consortium PASOS combines the following competence and expertise from different fields in order to generate new findings and knowledge for both ÖBB and the project partners:
- Expertise in railway operations, technologies and strategies
- User centred design in prototyping and development processes
- Technical development of safety relevant devices in the railway sector
The compact platform for shunting operations PASOS is an innovation, which combines four devices in a single unit. PASOS provides a structured, layer-based architecture that is ready to include additional future applications. PASOS increases wearing comfort and usability and supports the daily work for shunting personnel. The innovation can reduce costs, simplifies daily workflows, and particularly considers ergonomic aspects (e.g. weight and mobility) to maintain the staff’s health. Project PASOS generates multiple elaborated results that are provided toÖBB:
- A catalogue of functional, technical and user experience requirements
- A concept for an innovative, single platform for shunting operations
- Findings of evaluation of a demonstrator
- Recommendations based on assessment of results and requirements PASOS will provide a solid, well-documented basis for further steps regarding development and implementation of technologies for shunting operations.
It will support future developments forÖBB’s shunting personnel to increase performance in a safe and usable way.