How automation and formal verification improve quality, efficiency, and safety

Live on April 14 at 15:00 CEST

Data preparation is one of the most time-consuming and error-prone parts of any rail control project. Generating, testing, and verifying the application data that configures a safety-critical system often requires extensive manual work, yet this phase rarely gets the attention it deserves.

In practice, a large share of project risk sits in the configuration data. While the generic application is designed to ensure system safety, errors in application data can still have major consequences. Too often, those errors are detected late in the project, when the cost of correction is higher, and the impact on delivery is greater.

In this webinar, we share how Signaling Design Automation and formal verification can transform data preparation across different rail control architectures, including CBTC, ERTMS, interlocking, and train protection systems. Through real-world use cases, we show how automation can reduce manual effort, improve data quality, and support safer, more efficient project delivery.

You’ll get a practical view of how Prover’s solutions are used by BHEPL to automate data preparation for KAVACH, India’s Automatic Train Protection system, and to verify engineering rules for ERTMS data, as well as what these experiences mean for future rail projects.

Learnings from the Stockholm Metro’s open signaling pilot

Traditionally, computer-based signaling systems come with long support and maintenance commitments, often lasting 25–40 years. The downside is the risk of vendor lock-in. Changes, upgrades, and even component replacements can become dependent on a single supplier’s roadmap.

In this webinar, we share learnings from an ongoing pilot project in which the Stockholm Metro is replacing a legacy relay-based signaling system with a modern PLC-based SIL 4 solution. The pilot explores what it really takes to design and maintain an open signaling system over time so that maintenance and upgrades can be sourced from an open market, with 100% guaranteed safety.

You’ll get a practical view of the technical choices, project setup, and verification & validation approach, what’s working, what’s been harder than expected, and what we’d recommend if you’re considering a similar modernization.

As rail control software gets more complex, the real challenge is to ensure that implementations meet safety and functional requirements efficiently and convincingly. EN 50716 (the successor to EN 50128/EN 50657) sets the software development and verification expectations for railway applications, clarifying how formal methods and tool qualification contribute to a robust safety case. This session takes a practitioner’s view of applying that framework to real systems and on‑board functions.

We’ll walk through a repeatable assurance workflow: capture requirements as verifiable properties, model behavior in HLL and its sequential extension sHLL, use model checking to explore relevant executions, and establish auditable conformity between specification and implementation. We’ll illustrate the approach using Prover’s toolchain (HLL/sHLL, Prover PSL, Prover Certifier) to make the approach concrete, while maintaining the emphasis on methods, evidence, and governance that can be adopted in any environment.

At Prover, we address the demand for cost-efficient rail control delivery through Signaling Design Automation (SDA), based on Formal Methods. SDA is also central to the Open Signaling Initiative, promoting open, modular, and interoperable signaling systems. 

With recent advances in AI, we can make SDA more accessible to the rail control community. Adoption challenges often lie in digitizing data, managing requirements, and mastering the technologies. Our goal is to simplify SDA and Formal Methods. In this webinar, we demonstrate how AI enables us to achieve this. 

As digital rail control systems evolve, so do the challenges in validating their safety. Manual testing and reviews are no longer sufficient; they are expensive, slow, and can’t guarantee complete safety. Meanwhile, the cost of missed errors or late-stage discoveries can cause severe project delays or system failures.

Prover’s Formal Safety Verification solution enables a faster, more efficient, and more reliable way to ensure your system meets all safety requirements. It is mathematically proven, highly automated, and compliant with CENELEC standards.

Watch this webinar to learn how formal methods can help you avoid costly project delays, eliminate safety gaps, and streamline your certification process. 

The Open Signaling Initiative redefines how rail and metro signaling systems are developed, deployed, and maintained.

Signaling systems are today delivered as closed systems that have made customers dependent on the supplier for decades. When support and maintenance agreements expire, it is not uncommon that the whole system needs to be replaced, at high costs and with long service interruptions. Open signaling changes this paradigm entirely.

Inspired by the modularity and flexibility of earlier relay-based systems, and by open systems in domains such as IT/ICT, open signaling reintroduces freedom and adaptability into modern rail and metro signaling. It promotes open, modular, and interoperable architectures where independent components from different suppliers can seamlessly work together.

Overcoming challenges with automation & digital twins

Interlocking systems based on relays and mechanics have reliably powered railway operations for decades, but with expertise disappearing and spare parts becoming scarce, the urgency to modernize is growing. While these systems may remain in use far beyond 2030, the risk of operational disruptions and compatibility challenges is increasing. How can rail operators ensure a smooth and secure transition to modern signaling solutions?

This webinar explores how Signaling Design Automation, digital twins, and formal methods can simplify the migration process in controlled steps. Our experts explain the step-by-step approach to transitioning from relay-based systems to an Open Signaling solution that minimizes risks, reduces costs, and ensures compliance.

Much of the traffic management and signaling solutions in the railway industry relies on old technology, and the need for modernization and digitalization is growing. Migrating these systems that are highly dependent on each other is not easy. Many have failed due to over-exceeding costs and time plans. 

In this recorded webinar, we presented a solution for overcoming the challenges by modernizing rather than replacing existing solutions. It offers a more sustainable and cost-effective alternative. It allows you to unlock the benefits of a new system more quickly, with minimal disruption to daily operations. By choosing modernization, you can extend the lifespan of your infrastructure while leveraging the advantages of advanced technology sooner. 

This approach, based on a structured, proven process in steps and the use of digital twins, is suitable for both rail and metro control systems. 

At Prover, we’re continuously pushing the limits of what’s possible in automating signaling design for railway control solutions. Our approach, built on formal methods and digital twins, has already set a new standard for automation and efficiency with guaranteed safety.

Now, we’re taking these innovations even further by incorporating AI to accelerate and enhance these efforts. In this webinar, we will explore how AI, together with formal methods and automation tools, can elevate signaling design automation and discuss the future possibilities it brings to the industry.

Recorded on October 17, 2024

The industry needs to be modernized, standardized, and digitalized. The current processes for developing and maintaining signaling solutions are slow and inefficient. Prover’s approach to SDA, based on digital twins and formal methods, is taking automation and interoperability to a new level using our current tools and expertise.

Railway control systems are interconnected into smaller pieces. Hence it needs to be checked that they are combined properly. Usually, this is done at a very late stage in the process, namely when the system is under verification and validation. With Prover Station, it will become natural to simulate components at an early stage of the process, allowing to ensure performance and to discover unwanted scenarios early.

With the launch of Prover Station as our next-generation platform, we meet the increasing demands of simulation and scenario exploration in the railway industry. And not only is it possible to run predefined scenarios, but thanks to the power of formal methods, it is possible to explore scenarios that you did not even think of.