System to control platform screen doors (COPPILOT) SIL3-SIL4

COPPILOT is a safety critical railway system, which controls the opening and closing of platform screen doors at a metro station. These platform screen doors are installed to keep traffic flowing safely. Developed by CLEARSY, this system has been installed, among other locations, in the Paris metro, at several platforms: station Invalides and Saint-Lazare Line 13. It is currently being installed in the subway in Sao Paulo, where a dozen stations will be equipped during 2010/2011.

Documentation & Certification

• PSD Control Systems
• Dedicated Wikipedia article about Paris Metro Line 13

• Certificat EC 8891/200

Safety system to open and close the platform screen doors.

COPPILOT is a system that complements existing metro equipments, consisting of a controller and various sensors. The originality of this system relies in its ability to work with non fully automated metros. The whole system is safe and meets railway standards. To ensure system safety and automation CLEARSY has used the formal B method.

• Client: RATP, São Paulo, Stockholm
• Standards: 61508, EN50126, EN50128, EN50129, EMC, vibrations, temperature et humidity.
• Safety Level: SIL3 on the inopportune opening failure of the doors

COPPILOT references

Paris metro

The crowded nature of certain stations in the Parisian subway and the high number of traveller intrusion on the tracks have led the RATP to put a security system in place, which will put an end to the irregularities and delays observed on the most saturated lines. In fact, the RATP has called upon the services of CLEARSY within the framework of a project: the installation of prototype platform screens at the Invalides and St Lazare stations (Pier 1 and 2). The test phase lasted 9 months and involved three platform screen doors manufacturers namely CNIM, Faiveley, and Kaba. After testing, the 3 facilities were dismantled in December 2006.

São Paulo metro

CLEARSY signed a contract for the development, delivery and installation of the SIL3 COPPILOT safety critical system, responsible for controlling the opening and closing of the platform screen doors which have been installed on lines 2 and 3 of the Sao Paulo Metro. This Brazilian contract is related to around fifteen stations and its signature is due to a strong partnership with AeS (a Brazilian company in the railway market since 1998). It confirms CLEARSY’s and AeS’s unique expertise in detection-based safety systems. Indeed, COPPILOT neither needs to be installed on the train itself nor requires any modification of the signalling system. As such its installation is fast and efficient, and involves existing platforms and line stations, automated or not.

Stockholm metro

The new COPPILOT safety system that controls the opening and closing of platform screen doors will be commissioned in 2017 in Stockholm As part of the “city line” project in Stockholm (Citybanan Stockholm project), two new stations will be created in the heart of the city, and will be equipped with platform screen doors. In partnership with Gilgen Door Systems, supplier of platform screen doors, CLEARSY and its COPPILOT system were chosen to control the platform doors. The COPPILOT system in control of platform doors Designed to relieve the congestion of Stockholm city center, the new “city line” tunnel has two new stations equipped, for the first time on this network, of platform gates controlled by the COPPILOT system.

The COPPILOT system is an autonomous device, since it only relies on sensors installed on the platform. Thus, it is not necessary to install equipment on the train, which is ideal for the Stockholm project for which only two stations are equipped with platform screen doors for a very important existing train fleet. An innovation of CLEARSY that should be emphasized is the individual control of each platform screen door. So if a train door remains closed, the front platform screen door will not open. Similarly, the system adapts to long or short trains and manages the whole facade or only half. The system also includes other functions for operator comfort: a luminous sign indicating the position of the train using the approach maneuver. Passenger comfort is also enhanced with a modulating control of platform screen doors in order to adjust the amplitude of opening doors depending on the train position.

Technical aspects

Level sil3 safety system

• Level SIL3 safety-integrated railway signaling system to EN50129 standard
• SIL3 : Potentially dangerous events
• Major risk: opening the doors in error
• Safety demonstration for the RATP: AQL and AQM
• Safety demonstration for the supervisory agencies

Control of door opening and closing by train observation

• Use of standard industrial trade sensors (with no assumptions with regard to safety)
• SIL 3 industrial controller
• Development of SIL 3 safety software

Articles

• Wikipédia – Ligne 13 du métro de Paris
• Sick Info – Avec CLEARSY, le métro brésilien se trouve un nouveau “COPPILOT”