Increase safety and reduce operating costs: how AI is being introduced into passenger transport in Belarus

The first rail transport controlled by AI is planned to launch in Mozyr. The start-up project is under development. The peculiarity of Mozyr tram routes, which partially pass outside the city limits, makes them optimal for testing and implementing such autonomous technologies in the concept of smart cities. Unmanned trams will be equipped with modern navigation and control systems that will allow interaction with urban infrastructure, including traffic lights. Artificial intelligence will take over the main operations: driving along the route, stopping in the right places, braking, opening and closing doors. At the same time, the AI will be coordinated by the driver, who will remain in the cockpit as a flight engineer. Its task is to monitor the operation of the system and insure in case of force majeure. The main goals of the innovative project are to improve road safety, reduce accidents and minimize the human factor. The project is developed by BCM Holding together with Russian partners. How it will look in practice and what the foreign experience of implementing AI in passenger transport showed in our review.

Today, no one is surprised by electric buses and trolleybuses with autonomous running. Although 20 years ago, such a technique was on the verge of fantasy. The new trend is unmanned transport. For example, one of the strategic objectives of Belaz is the successful introduction of such equipment for work in quarries, in particular in extremely difficult conditions. Autonomous dump trucks with an intelligent control system operate without the participation of the operator, which increases safety and eliminates human errors. The trend also affected passenger traffic. In neighboring Russia, such a project is already being successfully implemented. There are more than 350 trams in St. Petersburg, in which artificial intelligence monitors the road. AI cares about the safety of people, and in the near future is preparing to take full control.

In Moscow since September last year carries passengers fully unmanned tram. A specially prepared tram car connects the Shchukinskaya metro station and Kulakov Street in the Strogino area. It has already traveled more than 25,000 kilometers and carried more than 60,000 passengers. At the same time, no accidents or traffic violations. So far, a man is sitting in the place of the car driver. But the tram goes by itself: stops at stops, opens and closes the doors, moves. Strictly follows the schedule, does not exceed the speed. The task of the man in the cabin is not to control, but to control. But to turn the serial tram into an unmanned one, engineers had to not just add sensors, but deeply rework the electronic and mechanical filling of the car.

The first candidate for Belarusian drones has already been created and is being produced. This is a new low-floor tram model T811, serial production of which "BKM Holding" began in 2022. The company supplied Minsktrans with 20 trams with a first-level unmanned system. The system installed on them does not allow the driver to violate traffic rules.

- Those devices that are located there do not control the tram car without a driver, but are active assistants. For example, the system will not allow you to exceed a certain level of tram speed, which is installed on the site. In addition, it ensures that the driver will not pass the stop, if suddenly distracted while driving. The tram will start to brake on its own, said Oleg Bytsko, Deputy General Director for Innovative Development of BKM Holding. The same applies to the occurrence of any obstacles in front of the car, which the driver could not react to. The system will respond at a farther distance and notice this obstacle.

But in order to ensure the efficiency of the system, simply equip the trams with additional electronics is not enough. Particular attention is paid to the routes on which vehicles will be operated or are already in operation. They're being digitized at this stage. Continue to develop the theme of drone "BKM Holding" intend in Mozyr. It will use a system of higher rank, similar to the one currently used in Russia. We have a partner who deals with unmanned control systems in transport. They have already implemented the project of an unmanned dump truck with BELAZ, and are now actively working with MAZ and with us, including on the development and implementation of an unmanned control system of the highest level. It allows the tram to move without a driver, added Oleg Bytsko.

Mozyr as a test city was not chosen by chance. The fact is that in Minsk routes pass through public streets: tramways are crossed by motorists, and this creates certain difficulties. And in Mozyr, most of the routes do not run through the city. Accordingly, it is much easier to implement a high-level unmanned system there.

But, as experts say, to launch unmanned trams in Belarus, they first need to be legalized. That is, to make appropriate changes to laws and regulations. By the way, an experimental legal regime was introduced in Russia to launch an unmanned tram. It is also necessary to prepare infrastructure: the urban environment should turn into a kind of digital rail, on which artificial intelligence will navigate.

- Technically, we have set ourselves the task of implementing precisely such functions of unmanned control, where the driver will simply monitor the work of the tram car before solving legal issues. And all the functions that it now performs, will already perform the tram on the basis of the data received from the unmanned control system, said Deputy General Director for Innovative Development of BKM Holding. By the end of next year, it is planned to launch a prototype.

The main question remains: how safe is it to trust the management of the AI tram? The answer is simple: the neural network is not affected by the human factor, which causes more than 80 percent of road accidents. She does not get tired, does not get distracted by the phone and sees in the dark better than a person.

As for the economic effect, according to experts and the experience of similar projects, the introduction of AI on the tram should pay off in an average of 3-5 years. And most importantly, operating costs are significantly reduced.

FACT

Operation of the world’s first unmanned tram with artificial intelligence began in 2019 in Potsdam (Germany). In 2020, the Chinese corporation CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive created the world’s first unmanned seven-car tram for 380 passengers. This is a small passenger train, capable of accelerating to 70 km / h, which is quite suitable as a high-speed public transport for transporting passengers to the airport or as a train in the subway. This tram was launched at Changshui International Airport in Kunming, the capital of the Chinese province of Yunnan.

sichevich@sb.by