Mr Marc Guigon, UIC Passenger Director and Mr Vincenzo Carta, UIC Passenger Services Group (PSG) Chair, introduced the online innovation workshop on the Internet of Things and 5G, the third PSG innovation workshop held in 2020. More than 60 participants joined online, representing CFL, CP, DB, FSTechnology, Hit Rail, MAV-START, PKP Intercity, Renfe, RFI, SBB, SNCB, Trenitalia, ZSSK, Litrail, Entur, RZD, SZ and UIC, amongst others.
Mr Antimo Musone (EY) and his team began the morning session with a presentation on IoT and mixed reality. It included an overview of IoT and mixed reality technologies, best practices and potential applications. A live demo followed: a team member wearing an augmented reality viewer was assisted remotely while performing a simulated task.
Mr Stefano Scarci (EY) then took the floor, providing a comprehensive overview of 5G and IoT applications in the transport industry, outlining the key challenges that have emerged through the Covid-19 pandemic, and explaining the most promising opportunities arising from the use of these technologies. These include innovative solutions for on-board entertainment, indoor positioning and wayfinding, passenger flow analysis, AR/VR applications and digital twin ecosystems.
Mr Marco Tognaccini (FSTechnology) presented research and innovation projects on advanced applications of IoT and 5G carried out by FS Italiane Group. DMMS (Dynamic Maintenance Management System) is an IoT system that allows real-time monitoring of rolling stock status remotely, with predictive capabilities. CHARIoT is aimed at ensuring privacy, safety and security in IoT communications in a rail environment. 5G-EVE is about applying 5G mobile communications to on-board media content provisioning and to the analysis of traffic and mobility flows.
During the afternoon session, participants were split into three groups in order to participate in breakout sessions. The newly created groups met in separate virtual rooms. Thanks to a virtual collaboration workspace, they held brainstorming sessions on ways to leverage IoT and 5G in order to transform the passenger experience in stations and on board and help railway stations to play a greater role in smart multimodal mobility and within smart cities. The teams generated many ideas and grouped them into homogeneous clusters that were prioritised in accordance with feasibility and importance.
