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*As Featured on NI.com Original Authors: Anthony Afonso, Thales UK Edited by Cyth Systems The Challenge Upgrading traditional methods of testing the rails used in the London underground system, which has traditionally been costly to revenue and time. The Solution Automating the testing of rails used in the London underground system and automating the communication of rail health and integrity with the use of virtual test trains (VTTs) created by using NI CompactRIO hardware and NI LabVIEW system design software. This is used to mimic an actual passenger train while saving vast amounts of time and money. History Traditional methods of testing railway systems require the use of a fully operational train and full closure of the track, usually for days at a time. The process is expensive, time-consuming to arrange, and inconvenient to the public. The automatic signaling system upgrade project for the Jubilee and Northern lines promised to boost capacity by 33 percent (the equivalent of carrying approximately 5,000 extra passengers each hour) and cut journey times by 22 percent, according to the Transport for London website. This massive upgrade offered an opportunity to revolutionize testing within the rail industry. The challenge was to generate an alternative testing solution that could alleviate many of the burdens of this traditional method and ultimately lead to a less costly and more time-efficient means of testing new technologies that is in line with the Underground’s highly stringent health and safety policy. Left: VTT in Use, Right: London Underground Our Approach Thales UK is a world leader in transportation solutions, and we were commissioned to install the automatic signaling solution for the Jubilee and Northern lines. The project involved installing a Thales S40 SelTrac Transmission-Based Train Control (TBTC) system on both the track and the entire rolling stock fleet of trains. Before these retrofitted trains could use this new system in service, the track installation needed to be tested. The engineering team devised an innovative test rig that could mimic a passenger train fitted with a Thales TBTC system. It needed to be portable and quickly assembled in almost any location along the Underground. Another goal was to reduce the quantity of test staff and test time so that standard engineering hours could be followed instead of requiring costly weekend closures. From an environmental perspective, the system needed to run reliably in any environment that could be experienced on the Underground network. This can vary from snow and rain to deep, dark, and dusty tunnels. Additionally, the solution needed to be bidirectional to offer a massive advantage during testing/fault finding, thus increasing efficiency and optimizing track time. Finally, the software needed to be intuitive to reduce the impact on test engineers during the transition from real trains to the new design. Implementation The solution was to create several VTTs with CompactRIO at the heart of each VTT system. The VTT system operates as a portable, battery-powered railway trolley that carries a testing staff and the Thales communications equipment used to test the SelTrac TBTC system. It is already installed on the Jubilee line and installation on the Northern line (the busiest on the Underground network) is due for completion in 2014, per the Transport for London website. The VTT runs with the CompactRIO control system interfaced to custom hardware. We used a CompactRIO real-time controller, an FPGA-equipped chassis, and flexible modular signal interfaces to implement the system, all of which were programmed with LabVIEW system design software. We perform both control and monitoring simultaneously with CompactRIO. For the control we use simulated signals from the interactive dials and switches on the front panel and preset values to imitate a real train. The monitoring portion of the system consists of several assigned test points, signal communication antennas, and CPU serial data, which we record from the VOBC. This platform provides the onboard SelTrac TBTC signaling equipment with the appropriate signals to mimic an actual passenger train, hence the term “virtual test train.” Additionally, gathering of all this data allows us to view how a train's VOBC would react to its surroundings. The reaction of the VOBC is imperative to us since it is this data that allows us to have confidence that the systems were installed and commissioned correctly. We also programmed data-logging functions in the LabVIEW application to easily record technical data on an SD memory card. We did this in case the data was required for the testing and commissioning of the SelTrac TBTC system. To review the test data, a VTT viewer program was also developed using LabVIEW. This VTT viewer program means that the testers on-site can review data immediately to make necessary corrections and ensure the appropriate signals are monitored. Success of the New Solution While initial trials on the Jubilee line were promising, VTTs that are now being used for routine programmed testing on the Northern line have surpassed our expectations. Use of the VTT has dramatically increased and diversified. In addition to serving as a testing tool, the VTT is a useful fault-finding tool. Another major advantage is the VTT’s bidirectional ability: A normal test train is only permitted to travel forward, but the VTT can reverse, and retest missed track, rather than loop around the line, which inevitably takes time. Another bonus is that the VTT can perform testing whilst other work is being performed in parallel. This is not possible using traditional methods because a train requires that power be available on the trackside. Besides providing the control element, CompactRIO can automate data capture. The user can test, gather data, and analyze it all in a short amount of time, which speeds up testing and commissioning. The use of the VTT has already proven to be invaluable. Traditional methods that normally take days have now been reduced to hours and require around half the manpower to operate. Our solution, powered by CompactRIO and LabVIEW, has saved vast amounts of time and money, increased productivity, and helped us take a huge leap forward in signaling testing innovation. Impact of Using National Instruments Hardware and Software A key factor in the success of this project was the use of LabVIEW. The software offered several benefits, such as graphical programming, easy-to-read code, maintainability, and scalability, that all proved essential for a large project. It also featured built-in tools that reduced development time by providing proven sections of code. Finally, the user interface design, which is usually every programmer’s nightmare, was simple because LabVIEW offered tools for quick customization. We chose NI hardware due to the versatile, reliable, and high-performance CompactRIO platform. The platform incorporates an accessible FPGA built directly into the backplane of the chassis, which was one of the most valuable features. NI hardware, coupled with the simplicity of programming the PC, real-time processor, and even the FPGA—all with LabVIEW—made us choose the NI platform. From a software point of view, LabVIEW was the ideal environment to use because of its graphical and intuitive approach to programming. It was simple enough to demonstrate sections of code to someone who had no programming experience, which helped greatly with instilling confidence in our customers and bidding to get approval. The choice of a modular signal interface meant that specification changes and revisions were accommodated by swapping the relevant interfaces, rather than abandoning the entire system. The graphical system design approach not only met our needs but also helped us remain flexible in our methodology while developing a prototype. NI customer care has always been first-class, and we highly recommend them to potential customers. Overall, from start to finish, NI provided an excellent, complete platform so that we could intuitively and easily create programs to control reliable, versatile, and modern NI hardware. Original Authors: Anthony Afonso, Thales UK Edited by Cyth Systems

*As Featured on NI.com Original Authors: Bipin Adaki, Varroc Engineering Ltd. Edited by Cyth Systems The Challenge We needed to develop a prototyped controller to validate the algorithms with the physical assembly of the integrated starter generator (ISG) while the actual controller was designed and developed. The Solution We used the modular CompactRIO platform, which gave the flexibility of changing the input and output signals, along with LabVIEW and the LabVIEW Model Interface Toolkit to import custom simulation models and tune the algorithms by advanced signal processing. A key segment of Varroc group is the electrical-electronics business. Its key electrical-electronics products include magneto, lighting, starter motors, CDI, handlebar assemblies, RR, and instrument clusters. Varroc group works on the design and development of the integrated starter generator assemblies and its controller. Internal combustion engines rely on the inertia of each cycle (or stroke) for its next stroke. For a typical four-stroke engine, the power for the movement of the piston comes through the power or combustion stroke, which is one of the four strokes of a four-stroke engine. An ISG is a device used to rotate or crank an internal combustion engine to compress the charge for the first combustion. This combustion process then generates enough inertia for the engine to run on its own. After the engine is started, the same ISG works as the generator and supplies power to the vehicle auxiliary and to charge the battery. Although this system can be used in conventional engine-powered vehicles, one of the key contributors to the hybrid’s fuel efficiency is its ability to automatically stop and restart the engine under different operating conditions. A typical hybrid vehicle uses an ISG on the engine crank shaft. The ISG performs functions such as fast, quiet starting, automatic engine stops/starts to conserve fuel. It also recharges the vehicle batteries. Our team is responsible for the testing of ISG assembly. In the past, once the ECU and its low-level driver software were developed, the high-level algorithm needed to be integrated with the ECU. It was only after this integration, that the process of algorithm validation was initiated, leading to a longer time to market. For this project, our strategy was to quickly validate our high-level algorithm on a prototyping platform while the design and development of the actual ECU happened in parallel. Left: The ISG Assembly Connected to the Drive Board Being Controlled by the Prototyped ECU, Right: Integrated Starter Generator Validating the Control Algorithm on a Prototyping Platform Our control algorithms were written in The MathWorks, Inc. MATLAB® and Simulink® software. We wanted to accelerate the process of validation of these algorithms by moving forward from software simulations to hardware implementation without waiting on the actual controller development cycle. The challenge was to look for a prototyping platform that was flexible and scalable to allow integration of additional I/Os during the process of validation but at the same time allows us the ease of programming and signal processing to tune our control algorithms. We used the CompactRIO platform to prototype our controller. We used the LabVIEW FPGA Module to write the low-level driver IP without going into HDL programming languages. Our FPGA IP allowed us to generate PWM signals for the inverter or motor drive, acquire speed sensor pulses and calculate RPM, control relays, and so on. Using the LabVIEW Model Interface Toolkit, we were able to compile our control algorithm from The MathWorks, Inc. Simulink® software and seamlessly integrate it into our LabVIEW code and run it deterministically on an ARM Cortex-A9 processor (Xilinx Zynq-7000 SOC) on the CompactRIO running the NI Linux Real-Time OS. This model communicates with the FPGA to generate PWMs according to the set point as well as capture the feedback from the system. The NI-9401 module allowed us to provide high-speed switching signals of 5 kHz to 10 kHz to our power inverter board. We used NI-9403 to capture feedback using a Hall effect sensor for motor position sensing as well as to capture other signals like the wheel speed, ignition, clutch, and so on. We also monitored parameters like the three-phase motor voltages and current and the battery voltage through the NI-9229. With the inherent UI capabilities of LabVIEW, developed the user interface for our project without putting in any additional efforts. The UI allowed us to visualize the signals in real time and proved handy for debugging as well. Digital Signal Processing to Improve Effectiveness of Algorithm The development of such a system that needs to be deployed in a noisy environment requires additional signal-conditioning and signal-processing techniques like adaptive filtering and averaging of samples. With the ready-to-use libraries within LabVIEW along with the signal processing toolkit, we easily designed and tuned our filtering parameters like windowing, averaging, and so on to enhance the quality of the signal before providing it to the control algorithms. Real-Time Parameter Logging A major challenge in control algorithm development is to have the insight of how various parameters in the control algorithm are changing according to the stimulus as well as the real-world conditions. The Technical Data Management Streaming (TDMS) file writing capability in LabVIEW gave us the ease to implement parameter logging. We could derive insights from this data that helped us tune or modify our control algorithms. Results By following this approach of rapid prototyping and using the NI platform, we validated our control algorithms within a time span of four to six months. Using LabVIEW and user-programmable FPGA-based hardware, we quickly prototyped our controller and validated the control algorithm without waiting for the design and development of the actual controller. The ease of use of the NI platform helped us reduce the development and validation time of our control algorithms by 50 percent and gave us insights to modify them. We are looking to build on this approach and continue using our expertise on the CompactRIO platform and LabVIEW for our future projects as well. Original Authors: Bipin Adaki, Varroc Engineering Ltd. Edited by Cyth Systems

Left: NI cRIO-9038 8 slot chassis featured in the Hotbar fixture control system, Right: NI 9152 C Series Features Soldering tips contain zero-crossing solid state relays that apply 120V, controlled by the cRIO