C-DAC Transfers Vehicle Control Unit And Its Offshoot Technologies For Railways To Industry

The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday (4 May) transferred indigenously developed Vehicle Control Unit (VCU) and its offshoot technologies for Indian Railways to the industry.

The Railway technologies transferred to the industry include VCU, rolling stack software, loco simulation controller and off-Loco VCU test kit.

Vehicle Control Unit

The VCU is the main control module that takes care of most of the supervisory control and loco pilot interfaces. The real time control and communication is based on the Train Control Network (TCN) standard, which facilitates integration of various modules manufactured by different industries.

The C-DAC developed VCU is based on the Standard IEC-61375.

The earlier technology was based on TCN protocols available during early 2010s.

However, since then various enhancements have come up in TCN protocol, which have been incorporated in the new VCU to upgrade it at par with the contemporary technology.

The C-DAC, Thiruvananthapuram has transferred its VCU technology to the CLW.

"The existing C-DAC-VCU in terms of hardware and software and to handhold the technology for five years while in-house capacity is built at CLW (Chittaranjan Locomotive Works) to tackle the day-to-day and long term maintenance requirement of locomotive fleet," the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) said in a release.

Loco Simulation Controller

The Loco Simulation Controller is based on the Railways standard.

This test platform could simulate the actual functionalities of locomotive and will be giving inputs to VCU as per actual locomotive logic.

"The VCU and its application software needs to be tested in locomotive to better debugging, understanding the response of the outputs given from VCU to various sub-systems of locomotives," the ministry said

The simulator also takes inputs from VCU and processes it and generates outputs as of actual locomotive to VCU.

This Technology of Loco Simulation Controller developed by C-DAC, Thiruvananthapuram was transferred to CG Power and Industrial solution, the ministry said.

Rolling Stack Software

The Rolling Stack Software is developed by the C-DAC as per the requirement of Indian Railways. The rolling stock application that controls the loco function is distributed among the four processors boards in the VCU set.

To make the loco operation more reliable in case of processor board failures, the important functions are implemented redundantly. This will also help the loco pilot to steer the train without moving from the driving cab to rear cab to address the failure, the ministry said.

This software of Rolling Stack Software developed by C-DAC, Thiruvananthapuram was transferred to CG Power and Industrial Solutions.

Off-Loco VCU Test Kit

The Off-Loco VCU Test kit, developed as per the necessity of Indian Railways, is a PCB test jig used to verify the basic functions of the sub-system PCBs that are being used in C-DAC developed VCU for three-phase electric locos.

This technology of Off-Loco VCU Test Kit developed by C-DAC, Thiruvananthapuram was transferred to Electrical Loco shed, Rayapuram Southern Railway, the ministry said.

During the technology transfer ceremony, MeitY Secretary Shri Alkesh Kumar Sharma said that Prime Minister’s vision of ‘Make in India- Make for the World’ can be achieved through more and more indigenisation of technology and taking it forward by the industry.

"The VCU and its offshoot technologies given to the Indian Railways will ultimately help the passengers, freight, Shatabdi and Tejas trains to have more indigenisation of the technologies,” he added.