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Advantech connects global transportation industrypartnersAdvantech will continue to promote the integrationof 5G, edge AI, and smart transportation. Mr. Linemphasized that Advantech is dedicated to developingindustrial computers explicitly for transportation. Inthe future, Advantech plans to integrate 5G and edgeAI technologies into its hardware products. Advantechhas collaborated with sensor manufacturers, systemintegrators, and other partners to create AIoT solutionready packages (AIoT SRPs) via its WISE-PaaS platform.To accelerate the implementation of AIoT SRPs in varioustransportation sectors, Advantech has further subdividedits product features. Advantech also launched its range ofco-created I.App products onto Marketplace site to enabledomain-focused system integrators to download anddeploy rapid build solutions for various sectors.Mr. Chen added that Advantech has long been a partof the global railway transportation ecosystem. Togetherwith vehicle manufacturers and large internationalcontractors, they have co-created advanced products fromthe initial design phase. Advantech selected key partnersfrom various sectors to deliver innovative solutions forrailway transportation smart applications. With cocreation in mind, the company has comprehensivelyembraced the changes cutting-edge technologies havebrought to smart railway applications.With more than 30 years of industrial automationexperience, Advantech plans to leverage its WISE-PaaSplatform and global resources to connect all partners inthe smart transportation industrial chain. By integrating5G, AI, edge computing, and LiDAR into AIoT applications,Advantech continues to promote and accelerate smarttransportation. 7MyWISE-PaaSservice quality. The development of smart operationsis driving this change. Accordingly, Taipei Metro isactively engaged in upgrading its systems—in particularits driving and signaling systems. Consequently,the assessment of safety-related electronic systems(Safety Integrity Level, SIL) has been upgraded fromSIL 2 to SIL 4. Likewise, the signaling and processingsystem (European Train Controlling System/ETCS) hasbeen upgraded from ETCS 2 to ETCS 4. These upgradescontribute significantly to improving safety. Additionally,using AI and LiDAR applications and automatic trainoperation (ATO), operators can build management modelsthat center around smart operations.Advantech continues to deliver innovative software/hardware solutions and platform services at every stageof development. Mr. Chen emphasized that Advantechinitially focused on developing passenger -relatedsystems and solutions, including CCTV and integratedsupervisory control systems. This focus shifted towarddeveloping safety-related solutions, such as interlockingsystems, dual backup platforms, GPU-based ATOsolutions, and train-to-ground high-speed transmissiontechnologies. Presently, Advantech is enhancing railwaysafety by utilizing AI, LiDAR, and real-time wirelesscommunication technologies to create smart solutionsfor obstacle detection, pantograph inspection, and traincoupler remote monitoring.

Power InsightAdvancing Smart Transportationthrough Cooperation AmongGovernment, Industry, andAcademiaThe development of smart transportation must be integrated at all levels throughcooperation between central and local governments, the transportation industry, networkservice providers, hardware manufacturers, system integrators, and AIoT solutionproviders. This will enable the establishment of a complete ecosystem that realizes the fullpotential of smart transportation.8Photos provided by ShutterstockInterview with Tsung-Pao Chou, Secretary-General, Taiwan Telematics Industry Association (TTIA); Meng-Fen Wu, ChiefConsultant, Taiwan Telematics Industry Association (TTIA); Dr. S. K. Jason Chang, Board Member, ITS World Congressand Professor of Transport Systems, National Taiwan UniversityMyWISE-PaaSDoor-to-door smart transportation services canbe realized through MaaS—Mobility as a Service. Forinstance, if commuters want to travel from point A topoint B, all they need to do is to use a smartphone toconnect to the smart transportation network platform.Based on existing data, the system will provide themost efficient route in terms of time, cost, and energy.The era of smart transportation is upon us. TsungPao Chou, Secretary-General of the Taiwan TelematicsIndustry Association (TTIA), Meng-Fen Wu, ChiefConsultant of the TTIA, and Jason Chang, Professorat the National Taiwan University and Vice President

of ITS Taiwan Association, concurred that CASEmobility—connected, autonomous, shared, and electricmobility—is a key trend in transportation. This trendwill revolutionize transportation modes, creating bothchallenges and opportunities. Taiwan’s government,industry, and academia must collaborate and utilizeinnovative technologies and solutions to establishcommon standards in order for Taiwan to become aglobal leader of smart transportation development.Close industry collaboration is critical to success“Cross-domain integration is imperative forpromot i n g t he nat iona l sma r t t ra nspor tat ionindustry,” said Wu, concurring with Prof. Chang’sview. Wu pointed out that in the past, the promotionof large smart transportation projects in Taiwan,including freeway electronic toll collection (ETC)systems and the integration of multi-card electronicpayment systems for all city and intercity buses,railways and public bikes in Taiwan, were all initiatedby the central government (they all later becomeworld class through public private partnership).Moreover, these projects required all sectors to worktogether and collaborate with local governments, andto integrate and utilize resources from both upstreamand downstream sectors of the industrial supply chainin order to realize the vision of smart transportation.“Looking ahead, the Taiwanese government shouldrespond to the trend of CASE mobility by promotingco-creation with government, industry, and academia;thereby accelerating the development of the smarttransportation industry and enhancing the industry’scompetitiveness,” said Wu. According to Wu, weTsung-Pao Chou, Secretary-General, TaiwanTelematics Industry Association (TTIA)9MyWISE-PaaSRealizing smart transportation with MaaSFollowing the rapid evolution of the Internet andICT, governments and industries began developingautomation and intelligence for the transportationindustry as early as 2000. “After 20 years of hardwork, smart transportation is now contributingto energ y eff iciency and emission reductions,while improving safety,” said Prof. Chang. Withinter nat iona l orga n izat ions a nd gover n mentsrecognizing the importance of smart transportation,and the development of the Internet of Vehicles andself-driving technology continuing to mature, smartand seamless transportation is just around the corner.Prof. Chang explained that MaaS utilizes dataanalytics tools and ICT to integrate diverse road dataprovided by transportation systems, operators andtravellers in order to build a seamlessly integratedtransportation service platform. Commuters wishingto travel from point A to point B can use a smartphoneto che ck a l l p ossible r outes. T he i nteg r ate dtransportation system will automatically calculatethe route that is most economical and efficient interms of cost, time and externalities, such as energyuse, emissions, congestion, noise and safety risk.This is expected to significantly increase urbanresidents’ willingness to take public transportation,drastically reducing the use of cars and motorcyclesin metropolitan areas. Additionally, local governmentscan use the data collated by the system to formulategreen transportation policies that optimize publictransportation networks, reduces energy consumption,and lowers carbon emissions.However, smart transportation using the MaaSmodel is very broad. It involves central and localgovernments’ policy formulation, integration into thesmart transportation industry chain, and changesto people’s lifestyles. Everything must be syncedand integrated, and the concept of co-creating anecosystem must be firmly established to realize thevision of smart transportation.

Power Insight10MyWISE-PaaSare in the process ofrealizing connected andelectric mobility, butit remains uncertainwhen autonomousmobility will become areality. Nevertheless,it is worth noting thatwith the introductionMeng-Fen Wu, Chiefof adva nced 5G a ndConsultant, Taiwan TelematicsIndustry Association (TTIA)AI edge technologies,development w ill beaccelerated and the focus will be mainly on improvingsafety. Moreover, MaaS—serving as a combinationof connected, shared and sustainable mobility—willbe gradually realized in many countries around theworld within the next few years.Wu emphasized that, whether we want to seizebusiness opportunities associated with connected andshared mobility or pursue the full realization of MaaS,the integration of networks, operations, ticket rates,and information must be complete. Therefore, thesmart transportation industry in Taiwan must build acomplete ecosystem. In such an ecosystem, softwareand hardware solution providers like Advantech,network service providers like Chunghwa Telecom,transportation operators, and system integratorsmust embrace the concept of co-creation to formulatethe optimum solutions and services. If successful,consumers will change their current lifestyleswillingly, thus accelerating the development of thesmart transportation industry.Importance of formulating standards“One of the most crucial parts of collaborationa nd c o - c r e at ion w it h i n a n e c os ystem i s t heestabl ish ment of indust r ia l sta nda rds,” Chouadded. A large-scale smart transportation systemcovers numerous dimensions that are extremelycomplex. Unified and standardized interfaces arenecessary for data integration as well as softwareand hardware integration. Since its establishment 10years ago, the TTIA has been devoted to promotingthe standardization of public transportation smartdevelopment. TTIA developed the world’s first smartbus industrial standard in 2010 to provide a solution toovercome the challenges inherent in the introductionof smart bus systems. They proposed the conceptof the “Integrated Smart Bus” to assimilate themany systems into vehicles from a single hardwareplatform. With regard to the multi-card electronicpayment system, for example, the TTIA assisted thegovernment in completing the standardization ofintercity bus onboard devices, multi-card electronicticket modules, and smart driv ing applicationsystems.Mea nwh ile, Z hou stated t hat to acceleratethe integration of ticketing services and advancet he development of public transpor tation, t heMinistry of Transportation and Communications ispromoting a QR code data format standard and testspecification for mobile ticketing in transport. Theindustry, together with the TTIA and the Institutefor Information Industry, has established a smarttelematics system team and QR code system teamto begin revising commercial bus telematics andperipheral industry standards. They are attemptingto accelerate Taiwan’s development of a QR code formobile ticketing by formulating a series of industryspecifications or standards, creating a competitiveadvantage and paving the way for the export ofTaiwan’s transportation payment solutions.Smart transportation is an essential nationaldevelopment policy for many countries, includingTaiwan. Based on experiences accumulated over thepast 20 years, government, industry, and academiain Taiwan continue to collaborate, with the aim ofreaching new milestones in the evolution of Taiwan’ssmart transportation. Dr. S. K. Jason Chang, Board Member, ITS WorldCongress and Professor of Transport Systems,National Taiwan University

PoE (IEEE802.3bt) Technology forVideo Surveillance11Advantech offers: The latest in PoE (IEEE802.3bt) technology for successful video surveillanceand PTZ camera applications. Video detection systems can — with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) —generate essential traffic metadata. Information such as vehicle numbers, direction, waiting times and more can easilybe acquired using video.EKI-7712G-4FMPI6G PoE 2G Mega PoE 4G SFPPort Gigabit Managed RedundantIndustrial Mega PoE Switchwww.advantech.comEKI-2701MPIIEEE802.3bt Gigabit 90WPoE InjectorEKI-2701MPI-RHDBaseT Gigabit 60WPoE ExtenderMyWISE-PaaSTo achieve an effective transportation solution that maintains safety, but also permitsbetter traffic throughput, accurate monitoring is needed.

Application StoryAdvantech Provides Trusted VehicleControl Solutions for AustralianIntercity TrainsAdvantech’s rolling stock solutions comply with EN 50155, EN 50121-4, and IEC 61373international standards and have helped deliver safe and reliable train operations in NewSouth Wales (NSW), Australia. The implementation of these solutions has made travelling moreaccessible, comfortable, and convenient for intercity travelers.Photos provided by Bigstock12MyWISE-PaaSToday, train users enjoy the convenience of intercityrail links and easy access to scheduled and real-timeinformation when they travel between cities. Unknownto most people, the passenger information system (PIS)and video surveillance system on trains are crucial toensuring safe and reliable railway services. Accordingly,railway authorities around the world have all endorsedstrict standards to safeguard the quality and reliabilityof such systems. In Australia, a contractor for intercitytrains in NSW deployed Advantech’s in-vehicle controllersolutions to deliver an efficient and reliable system thatmeets the needs of 21st century travelers.Intelligent transportation enhances passengersatisfactionTo provide a new level of comfort and convenience for

Advantech’s in-vehicle control system overcomesharsh environmental conditionsIntercity railways in NSW run along coastlines,through open fields, and over mountains. Cities linkedby the NSW railway network enjoy over 300 sunnydays a year. Temperatures in NSW can exceed 40 C inthe summer and approach 0 C in winter. To cope withchanging operating environments, the contractor choseAdvantech’s ITA-5831 fanless in-vehicle controller andEKI-9516P managed industrial PoE switch for the PISand video surveillance systems. These units complywith EN 50155, EN 50121-4, and IEC 61373 internationalstandards.According to the layout of the new trains, threeITA-5831 in-vehicle controllers were installed in everypassenger car. Two of the controllers were used on thedual-controller PIS and connected to the stretched barLCD displays—one was used as the main controller andthe other as a backup. The ITA-5831 controller featuresM12 locking connectors to ensure that vibration andtemperature variations do not interfere with signalprocessing and data transmissions. However, becausetemperatures can reach a blistering 60 C underdirect sunlight, if the main controller fails, the backupcontroller is engineered to automatically take overoperations in order to prevent pauses, delays, or failuresregarding the delivery of real-time information.When the ITA-5831 controller receives real-timepassenger information from the PIS or traffic controlcenter, the information is shown on the LCDs via displaydistributors. Thus, real-time arrival times and route mapsare provided in all passenger cars via the LCD monitors.The third ITA-5831 was connected to four IP camerasthrough an EKI-9516 managed industrial Ethernetswitch, which features M12 connectors to prevent signaland data losses and PoE injector functionality to reducethe amount of wiring in passenger cars. Real-timesurveillance video is live-streamed from all IP camerasto the ITA-5831 controller for recording, and to the traindriver’s compartment for monitoring passenger safety.The ITA-5831 controllers combined w it h EK I9516 switches provided the backbone of the trainmanufacturer’s new system and complied with strictenvironmental regulations for rolling stock applications.T h i s me a nt t h at hou r s of p a i n st a k i n g s y st emmaintenance could be avoided in the future. Advantech’stechnical team possesses considerable professionalcompetence and vast in-field experience of rolling stockapplications. Their expertise enabled the contractor tosolve all software and hardware integration difficultiesand ensured successful deployment of the train controland management system for NSW. 13MyWISE-PaaScustomers who travel between Sydney and other majorcities in NSW, Transport for NSW released a tender toreplace old intercity trains by 2022. One key objectivewas to facilitate system management and maintenanceusing new technology. Another objective was to improveservice quality by providing real-time information andmonitor passenger safety.A Japanese contractor was granted the tender toprovide the train control and management system (TCMS),which included a PIS and video surveillance system.The system needed to provide real-time arrival timesand a route network map, as well as real-time live videostreaming and recorded video. During the planningstage, the contractor realized that in-vehicle controllersand industrial managed Ethernet switches with PoEinjector functionality were required to control several 28inch stretched bar LCD panels and IP cameras. The invehicle controllers had to be embedded computers with aheight of no more than 90 mm and equipped with ruggedand durable design features for reliability. They also hadto be capable of receiving real-time commands to adjustthe backlighting of the PIS LCD screens to ensure arrivaland departure times would be clearly displayed despiteenvironmental interference and glare.Moreover, the entire system had to comply withinternational standards for equipment intended foruse on rolling stock, as well as standards for operatingin diverse environments. This is because equipmentinstalled in mov ing trains must overcome harshenvironmental conditions such as varying temperatures,humidity, shock, and vibration. The system also neededto be capable of processing multiple signals and largevolumes of video streaming data.

Application StoryAdvantech IP-Based NetworkingSolution for the Boston SubwayA renowned train manufacturer is utilizing Advantech’s IP-based network solution to help theBoston subway provide its passengers with greater comfort and safety.Photos provided by Bigstock14MyWISE-PaaSAs passengers enjoy t he speed, comfor t, andconvenience of sitting in the carriage of a clean, modern,rapid transit train, the last thing on their mind is safety.Fortunately, because subways are a vital part of a city’sintegrated transportation system, more operators aremoving towards IP-based networking — a system thatmakes them safer and more reliable than ever. Forexample, after implementing Advantech’s train-to-groundwireless communication IP-based networking solution,Boston’s subway has delivered greater safety and comfortto its passengers.Taking convenience, comfort, and safety to the nextlevelThe Boston subway underwent a train refurbishmentproject to provide passengers with greater comfort andsafety when traveling. The bid was won by a singlecompany — a world-renowned train manufacturer andsolutions provider.To balance the efficiency and safety of subwayoperations while providing convenience and comfortfor passengers, the train manufacturer was required tomeet more than 100 strict standards regarding vehicle

Transforming the subway system with a train-toground wireless communication solutionAdvantech’s train-to-ground wireless communicationsolution consisted of three products: the ITA-8100 10.4”fanless HMI; the EKI-9502G LTE router, installed in thelocomotive; and EKI-9516 managed Ethernet switches,installed in each train carriage. With this configuration,all video and data related to the train and its passengerscould be downloaded and uploaded via LTE or Wi-Finetworks in real time.For downloads, traffic control center data wastransmitted to the EKI-9502G via the network, receivedby the ITA-8100, and then transmitted to the EKI-9516and passenger information display system (PIDS) in eachcar to show real-time passenger information. For uploads,a network video recorder (NVR) in each car transmitteddata to the HMI via the LTE router. In the event of anyabnormality, the system would actively upload data tothe traffic control center. The traffic control center anddispatching room can also actively access video datathrough the network.These three Advantech products are designed forrailway applications and therefore have many e

By collaborating with vehicle manufacturers and system integrators (SIs), Advantech has created complete solutions that integrate people, vehicles, the environment, and equipment. These innovative solutions allow vehicles to be connected to everything and usher in a future of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication. Photos provided y Shutterstock