Intro
Once again I can't give too many technical details due to my confidentiality contract, but
it turns out that trains are much more interesting than they apear on the surface.
Description
This section of Siemens was working on automation for passenger trains. This includes all kind of safety systems in case the driver makes a human error, or just systems to get rid of the human alltogether.
I was mostly involved in systems for winter safety.
For example, imagine that a sensor detects that a train is headed towards an avalanche that's rushing towards the tracks. The system would decide if the train should accelerate or stop to avoid getting caught in the avalanch.
A less extreme example would be how to adjust the speed of the train when there is ice on the tracks to avoid accidents.
But all systems were pretty integrated into an "automation ecosystem" so I got to play with many other cool things too.
The team was very young and full of very smart people, and we were given total freedom in desiging the architecture of our system from scratch. Being there from start to finish was an amazing learning experience.
As with any SIL4 project (safety critical system where a single bug can cause human death) there was also a lot of documentation, validation and paperwork involved. I can't say that was the most fun part of the process, but I still consider it an invaluable experience in my professional career.
- Company: Siemens
- Date: 2020-2021
- Position: C++ Developer
- Duration: 2.5 years