Bombardier Transportation Research Articles

“TRUE” JURISDICTIONAL QUESTIONS AND THE IRRELEVANCE OF A CERTIFICATE OF OUTCOME Bombardier Transportation (Pty) Ltd v Mtiya NO [2010] 8 BLLR 840 (LC)

In the context of proceedings before the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (“the CCMA”), the concept of “jurisdiction” generally refers to the authority of the CCMA to conciliate and arbitrate disputes between parties. The CCMA is an independent statutory body established in terms of section 112 of the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 (“the LRA”). It does not enjoy the wide powers of inherent jurisdiction and, furthermore, does not derive its jurisdiction from the common law, performing only the functions indicated by labour-related statutes such as the LRA. If there is a dispute about the fairness of a dismissal, or a dispute aboutan unfair labour practice, the dismissed employee or the employee alleging the unfair labour practice may refer the dispute in writing to the CCMA if no bargaining council has jurisdiction. Such a referral must generally be made within 30 days of the date of a dismissal or within 90 days of the date of the act or omission which allegedly constituted the unfair labour practice. The CCMA must attempt to resolve such a dispute through conciliation. If a commissioner has certified that the dispute remains unresolved, or if 30 days have expired since the CCMA received the referral and the dispute remains unresolved, the CCMA must arbitrate the disputes referred to in section 191(5)(a) upon request. Given the wording of such provisions, it is unsurprising that employers have requested conciliating commissioners to make in limine rulings on matters pertaining to the nature of the dispute (including whether or not the case involves a “dismissal” at all), time limits and applications for condonation and the identity of the parties (in particular, whether the applicant meets the definition of an “employee”). Section 192(1) of the LRA may support the validity of such a request at conciliation. It states that in any proceedings concerning any dismissal, the employee must establish the existence of the dismissal. Such an approach raises a number of questions. For example, are such matters really best dealt with as a point in limine prior to any attempt being made to conciliate the matter, or should they form part of the evidence at arbitration in cases where the dispute could not be conciliated? In addition, what is the effect on jurisdiction of a conciliating commissioner’s certificate of outcome indicating that a dispute remains unresolved? Such matters were raised for adjudication in Bombardier Transportation (Pty) Ltd v Lungile Mtiya NO (Unreported Case No. JR 644/09, Labour Court) (“Bombardier”).

Multi‐agent system for the reactive fleet maintenance support planning of a fleet of mobile cyber–physical systems

Improving the availability and reliability of a fleet of mobile cyber–physical systems as well as the ability to adapt themaintenance planning decisions when facing unexpected events at the fleet level is a major stake faced by the manufacturersand the operators. In the context of this study, the authors propose a reactive multi-agent system model for the fleetmaintenance planning of mobile cyber–physical systems. For that purpose, the ANEMONA multi-agent design methodology isused. In this methodology, the agents are modelled and then their organisational and interaction views are described. Numericalexperiments are carried out in static and dynamic contexts. In a static context, the proposed multi-agent system is comparedwith a mathematical programming model to validate the effectiveness of the former in satisfying the fleet's availability andreliability expectations. In a dynamic context, simulated perturbations are used to illustrate the reactivity of the proposed multi-agent system. Lastly, an application to rail transport for the maintenance of a fleet of trains at Bombardier Transportation Franceis proposed. For that purpose, the proposed multi-agent system is integrated in the model layer of a decision support systemnamed ‘MainFleet’ which is currently under development

A novel methodology to classify test cases using natural language processing and imbalanced learning

Detecting the dependency between integration test cases plays a vital role in the area of software test optimization. Classifying test cases into two main classes – dependent and independent – can be employed for several test optimization purposes such as parallel test execution, test automation, test case selection and prioritization, and test suite reduction. This task can be seen as an imbalanced classification problem due to the test cases’ distribution. Often the number of dependent and independent test cases is uneven, which is related to the testing level, testing environment and complexity of the system under test. In this study, we propose a novel methodology that consists of two main steps. Firstly, by using natural language processing we analyze the test cases’ specifications and turn them into a numeric vector. Secondly, by using the obtained data vectors, we classify each test case into a dependent or an independent class. We carry out a supervised learning approach using different methods for handling imbalanced datasets. The feasibility and possible generalization of the proposed methodology is evaluated in two industrial projects at Bombardier Transportation, Sweden, which indicates promising results.

An evaluation of Monte Carlo-based hyper-heuristic for interaction testing of industrial embedded software applications

Hyper-heuristic is a new methodology for the adaptive hybridization of meta-heuristic algorithms to derive a general algorithm for solving optimization problems. This work focuses on the selection type of hyper-heuristic, called the exponential Monte Carlo with counter (EMCQ). Current implementations rely on the memory-less selection that can be counterproductive as the selected search operator may not (historically) be the best performing operator for the current search instance. Addressing this issue, we propose to integrate the memory into EMCQ for combinatorial t-wise test suite generation using reinforcement learning based on the Q-learning mechanism, called Q-EMCQ. The limited application of combinatorial test generation on industrial programs can impact the use of such techniques as Q-EMCQ. Thus, there is a need to evaluate this kind of approach against relevant industrial software, with a purpose to show the degree of interaction required to cover the code as well as finding faults. We applied Q-EMCQ on 37 real-world industrial programs written in Function Block Diagram (FBD) language, which is used for developing a train control management system at Bombardier Transportation Sweden AB. The results show that Q-EMCQ is an efficient technique for test case generation. Addition- ally, unlike the t-wise test suite generation, which deals with the minimization problem, we have also subjected Q-EMCQ to a maximization problem involving the general module clustering to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach. The results show the Q-EMCQ is also capable of outperforming the original EMCQ as well as several recent meta/hyper-heuristic including modified choice function, Tabu high-level hyper-heuristic, teaching learning-based optimization, sine cosine algorithm, and symbiotic optimization search in clustering quality within comparable execution time.

УПРАВЛЕНИЕ ИНЦИДЕНТАМИ В СИСТЕМЕ ТЕХНИЧЕСКОЙ ЭКСПЛУАТАЦИИ МИКРОПРОЦЕССОРНЫХ УСТРОЙСТВ ЖЕЛЕЗНОДОРОЖНОЙ АВТОМАТИКИ И ТЕЛЕМЕХАНИКИ

The paper discusses the issues of incident management at technical operation of microprocessor systems of railway automation and telemechanics on the railway network of the JSC Russian Railways. The widely used microprocessor interlocking centralization of switches and signals (MPI) EBILock 950, the development of a joint Russian-Swedish company Bombardier Transportation (Signal), is considered as an object of the research. The analysis of algorithms and patterns of interaction between the operating staff of operating enterprises and specialists of service centres revealed a number of shortcomings in the system of the MPI maintenance and repair organization. As a result, the authors have proposed an alternative scheme for organizing the technical operation of microprocessor systems based on the incident management system implemented as a web application. This application makes it possible to monitor the quality and timing of service operations, accumulate information on methods for eliminating complex non-standard failures and automate the processing of requests by service centres.

SOrTES: A Supportive Tool for Stochastic Scheduling of Manual Integration Test Cases

The main goal of software testing is to detect as many hidden bugs as possible in the final software product before release. Generally, a software product is tested by executing a set of test cases, which can be performed manually or automatically. The number of test cases which are required to test a software product depends on several parameters such as the product type, size, and complexity. Executing all test cases with no particular order can lead to waste of time and resources. Test optimization can provide a partial solution for saving time and resources which can lead to the final software product being released earlier. In this regard, test case selection, prioritization, and scheduling can be considered as possible solutions for test optimization. Most of the companies do not provide direct support for ranking test cases on their own servers. In this paper, we introduce, apply, and evaluate sOrTES as our decision support system for manual integration of test scheduling. sOrTES is a Python-based supportive tool which schedules manual integration test cases which are written in a natural language text. The feasibility of sOrTES is studied by an empirical evaluation which has been performed on a railway use-case at Bombardier Transportation, Sweden. The empirical evaluation indicates that around 40 % of testing failure can be avoided by using the proposed execution schedules by sOrTES, which leads to an increase in the requirements coverage of up to 9.6%.

ESPRET: A tool for execution time estimation of manual test cases

Manual testing is still a predominant and an important approach for validation of computer systems, particularly in certain domains such as safety-critical systems. Knowing the execution time of test cases is important to perform test scheduling, prioritization and progress monitoring. In this work, we present, apply and evaluate ESPRET (EStimation and PRediction of Execution Time) as our tool for estimating and predicting the execution time of manual test cases based on their test specifications. Our approach works by extracting timing information for various steps in manual test specification. This information is then used to estimate the maximum time for test steps that have not previously been executed, but for which textual specifications exist. As part of our approach, natural language parsing of the specifications is performed to identify word combinations to check whether existing timing information on various test steps is already available or not. Since executing test cases on the several machines may take different time, we predict the actual execution time for test cases by a set of regression models. Finally, an empirical evaluation of the approach and tool has been performed on a railway use case at Bombardier Transportation (BT) in Sweden.

NJ Transit Orders More Dual-Power Locomotives [Transportations Systems

On 2 January 2018, Bombardier Transportation announced that New Jersey Transit Corporation (NJ Transit) had exercised an option for 17 additional Bombardier ALP-45 dual-power locomotives. This order is valued at approximately US$160 million (?133 million) and is based on a contract for 26 locomotives signed in 2008. NJ Transit exercised a first option for nine units in 2011, and the contract includes options for up to 37 more.

CBM for a fleet of railway vehicles: infrastructure and algorithms

<p>Data acquisition and communication technologies give the possibility of receiving and storing a huge amount of data from machinery and plants in operation. From these data it is possible to create a set of Key Maintenance Indicators (KMI) useful for optimizing the maintenance policy. Raw data from the field are to be processed and filtered for obtaining effective KMIs to use in algorithms aimed at discovering anomalies or abnormal operation of one or more machineries or plants.</p><p>This paper presents a roadmap towards the Condition Based Maintenance of a fleet of railway vehicles. The paper associates to each maintenance policy its benefits and its requirements in terms of technological infrastructure and operating costs. Bombardier Transportation Italy started this roadmap a few years ago, for moving from a reactive maintenance policy to a proactive policy.</p><p>Increasing the effectiveness of maintenance implies the <em>sensorization</em> of the machines and the creation of a network for funneling information from the machineries to the central maintenance room. A Company must find an equilibrium point between complexity and expected benefits.</p><p>Results achieved by means of a specifically developed tool for data analysis applied to some sub-systems of the vehicles are presented.</p>

Hybrid Fuel Cell/Battery Rail Car: A Feasibility Study

This paper introduces a novel engineering feasibility study for developing a future hybrid metro system, for the first time in Canada, that is of extremely low cost and independent of the utility grid. This system will eliminate the need of the rail cars to rely on the track substations and consequently the utility grid. This paper is based on the load profiles provided by Bombardier Transportation for its advanced rapid transit train running in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Simulation was performed for propulsion with and without auxiliary power with the assumption of an average power of 40 kW. To size the system for the worst case scenario, the regeneration power will not be taken into account in case the propulsion cuts off during regenerative braking. The subsystem modules described in the model are listed for reference purposes. The hydrogen consumption and storage are also calculated for each case with the tank options listed for each energy storage option. Furthermore, an analysis platform is being provided for a sound design of a hybrid metro car for the first time in North America. This systematic modular approach can be easily applied to any transit system worldwide. A successful design for a fuel cell hybrid train is given, which is fully independent on the electricity from the grid. The elimination of the wayside substations system, which is 90% of the cost of the transit system, presents huge initial and running cost savings and makes the rail car ridership very inexpensive.

Israel Railways Orders New Electric Locomotives [Transportation Systems

On 20 September 2015, Bombardier Transportation signed a contract to provide 62 TRAXX ac locomotives to Israel Railways (ISR) for a value of approximately US$262 million (see Figure 1). The contract includes an option for an additional 32 locomotives.

Automated test generation using model checking: an industrial evaluation

In software development, testers often focus on functional testing to validate implemented programs against their specifications. In safety-critical software development, testers are also required to show that tests exercise, or cover, the structure and logic of the implementation. To achieve different types of logic coverage, various program artifacts such as decisions and conditions are required to be exercised during testing. Use of model checking for structural test generation has been proposed by several researchers. The limited application to models used in practice and the state space explosion can, however, impact model checking and hence the process of deriving tests for logic coverage. Thus, there is a need to validate these approaches against relevant industrial systems such that more knowledge is built on how to efficiently use them in practice. In this paper, we present a tool-supported approach to handle software written in the Function Block Diagram language such that logic coverage criteria can be formalized and used by a model checker to automatically generate tests. To this end, we conducted a study based on industrial use-case scenarios from Bombardier Transportation AB, showing how our toolbox CompleteTest can be applied to generate tests in software systems used in the safety-critical domain. To evaluate the approach, we applied the toolbox to 157 programs and found that it is efficient in terms of time required to generate tests that satisfy logic coverage and scales well for most of the programs.

Bombardier Orbita: Railway Asset Management for the 21st Century

SUMMARYORBITA is Bombardier Transportation's groundbreaking service capability: a set of people, processes and tools that help identify train service issues before they occur and pinpoint problems accurately when they have occurred. ORBITA combines data gathered from the trains with Bombardier Transportation's global fleet knowledge and engineering expertise to enable active, holistic management of vehicle and infrastructure maintenance, performance and operation. Using advanced tools and processes, ORBITA provides advice and information that presents customers with the means to achieve new levels of operational efficiency, service availability and train reliability. ORBITA is the future of intelligent maintenance and operation, available today.Train operators are facing increasing pressure to keep their trains running on time and for longer: the efficiency of their operation depends on the safety, reliability and availability of the vehicles making up the trains. Current vehicle maintenance regimes are based on mileage or timescale, rather than actual vehicle condition, with trains often taken out of service unnecessarily. Vehicles also suffer unforeseen failures, resulting in disruption to operators, maintainers and passengers. These issues cost the railway industry many tens of millions of pounds each year.The solution to these problems is Bombardier ORBITA.

8.2.2 Improvement of Software Engineering Performances An Experience Report at Bombardier Transportation – Total Transit Systems Signalling Group

AbstractThe performance of the Bombardier TTS/Pittsburgh Signalling group has been evaluated twice: first in November 2003 and again in January 2006. The 2003 evaluation established a baseline for the evaluation of progress made in 2006. During those visits, the same evaluation method was used to evaluate project performance and organizational change management, i.e. the people issues. Since 2003, there has been substantial improvement in both process maturity level and process performance. This experience report, at Bombardier Transportation, illustrates that process performance improvements are achievable when two key factors are involved, namely: a link between business goals and process improvement activities, and a sponsor committing the right level of resources to the improvement program. This paper explains the multi‐dimensional methodology used to perform the evaluations, as well as the business goals and the quantitative performance improvements achieved since 2003.

On the Design of Running Gears with Radial Steering Wheel Sets

Noise reduction of railway vehicles can be reached by suitable design of their bogies and running gears. Radial steering wheel sets avoid curve squeal. Besides they reduce lateral forces between the wheel and rail and their wear. Design principles for the development of interconnected self-steering wheel sets are introduced on examples of bogies for new articulated vehicles TEĹ˝ and coupled single-axle running gears FEBA for commuter trains NSB Class 72 from Bombardier Transportation Winterthur.

Coupled single-axle running gears—a new radial steering design

New railway vehicle concepts with broader and shorter carbodies necessitate new running gear concepts. One of the possibilities, the single-axle running gear, offers several advantages. The disadvantage of the conventional single-axle running gear during curving can be counteracted with a simple coupling between the single-axle running gears of the neighbouring carbodies. This paper presents parameter analysis and design principle of the coupled single-axle running gears. They can be constructed for an almost ideal curve negotiation in a great range of curve radii. The coupling of the running gears not only improves the running characteristics in a curve but also increases the stability limit. Bombardier Transportation Winterthur has developed the coupled single-axle running gears called FEBA. The test runs with prototype as well as with serial running gears in the Norwegian commuter train Class 72 have fully confirmed the anticipated running characteristics.