iXblue wins the ERCI 2022 European Railway Innovation Awards
iXblue was rewarded with the European Railway Innovation Awards delivered by the European Railway Clusters Initiative (ERCI) and was recognized as the “Best Large Company”, for its inertial real-time train localization solution based on a virtual attitude beacon system. The prize was awarded at the InnoTrans trade fair held in Berlin from 20 to 23 September 2022.
These virtual attitude beacons, patented by iXblue, are a truly disruptive innovation that strongly contributes to accelerating the railway industry’s transformation and digitization.
By replacing the old physical beacons placed along the tracks, they offer multiple advantages: significant maintenance and installation cost savings, lower environmental impact, greater traffic capacity, and interoperability within the European rail network, which is one of the main objectives of the ERTMS (European Rail Traffic Management System).
The coupling between these virtual beacons and the inertial geolocalization solution developed by iXblue provides accurate orientation, direction, and speed data to geolocate trains in real-time. The high-performance inertial sensors combined with iXblue’s rail vehicle model ensure reliable and accurate geolocalization data anytime and anywhere, even in GNSS-denied areas (tunnels, urban canyons, forests, etc.). Based on GNSS and inertial technology, iXblue’s geolocalization system is embedded directly on-board trains and does not require any other external sensor.
“We are very grateful and honored to receive this award, which is the result of several years of research. Already working alongside the SNCF with several trains in France equipped with our geolocalization solution, we look forward to helping other European railway players with their train geolocation issues.” Says Sophie Glevarec, Rail Product and Program Manager at iXblue.
ERCI’s Rail Innovation Awards aim to highlight and honor the skills and know-how of innovative companies offering solutions to increase the competitiveness of the rail industry. Winner of the French phase of the competition, iXblue had already received the Jury’s Coup de Coeur Innovation Award for its inertial train geolocalization solution in June 2022.
