Interlocking Design Automation
A more cost-efficient, safe and reliable concept for interlocking solutions for the future
Current Signaling Solutions
Cost of change
Most interlocking system projects today are developed with the following characteristics:
- Errors are found late
- Late changes are costly
- Schedules to deliver interlocking software are long and unpredictable

Root causes
The root causes for these problems include:
- Vague and imprecise requirements
- Design, test and safety assessment is based on repetitive and manual work, and requiring senior skills
- Lack of standard interfaces

Main principles of interlocking design automation
To deliver the cost-efficiency that future railroads need, a new solution for interlocking design automation is needed, based on useful requirements that need to:
- Be precise, to enable automated development
- Separate safety and test principles, to enable 100% coverage proof of safety and automated functional test
- Use standard interfaces where possible, to make it cost-efficient to replace individual sub systems

The process for interlocking design automation
The modern interlocking design automation process needs to start with the following step:
- Gather and analyze requirements, applicable standards, interfaces, rules & regulations and scope
- Determine the system’s principles
- Determine how configuration of principles is to be done for individual systems

Based on the above, the next step is to define the principles as a formal specification library, with:
- The object model defining the underlying ideas and objects, along with their properties and relations
- Separation of design, test and safety principles, based on the object model
- Configuration of individual systems, to apply the principles

With the above two steps completed, the concept of interlocking design automation can be realized using modern software tools:
- Automated generation of design and revenue service code based on (reusable) principles
- 100% coverage proof of safety and automated functional test of each system developed
- Efficient support for change in principles and requirements