More safety, artificial intelligence changes the railways

Transforming and improving the railway industry with artificial intelligence, staff motivation and innovation. All of this through systems that optimise the various phases ranging from operator training to warehouse management and vehicle maintenance. This is what is envisaged by the collaboration agreement between Almawave, a Rome-based company listed on the Euronext Growth Milan market, and part of the Almaviva Group, active in the field of Data & Artificial Intelligence, and Ditecfer, the District for Railway Technologies, High Speed and Network Security (based in Pistoia), which brings together more than fifty Italian companies and research organisations. The agreement focuses on the developmentof "Use Innovative Houses which aim to help transform the railway industry with Artificial Intelligence, "introducing new levers of effectiveness, efficiency, safety and process quality".

Specifically, these are artificial intelligence tools 'available to operators to access key information within operating procedures, technical manuals and maintenance data quickly and intuitively, including through the use of voice, including through the automatic generation of concise, relevant and certified answers'. These are, as the group emphasises, simple and intuitive tools for operators who can use their own language to query and obtain information from complex data sources, eliminating the need for prior knowledge of commands and the intrinsic characteristics of the information systems present, which are often articulated and heterogeneous.

"The collaboration with Ditecfer is an important opportunity to apply our AI and data intelligence technologies to the railway sector," remarks Valeria Sandei, CEO of Almawave. For years our company has been investing in Artificial Intelligence technologies in Italy and is familiar with their application in the specific context of Transport, also thanks to the synergies with the parent company Almaviva, one of the world leaders in the sector. Together, we aim to create a safer, more efficient and innovative railway ecosystem'.

Support is also foreseen for the reporting phases but also for the maintenance history. And then classroom or remote training through 'interactive conversational tools'. Not forgetting 'multilingual tools to support the analysis of regulations, sector contents, analysis and comparison of procedures, simplification of purchasing and warehouse management procedures or advanced location intelligence'. Last but not least, privacy, use of data and knowledge of rail transport processes.

"We are the first example of a railway district in Europe to sign such an operational agreement on AI," emphasises president Daniele Matteini. "Ditecfer is once again proving itself to be a leader in fostering and creating concrete paths to facilitate the adoption of advanced technologies by our companies, with a particular focus on small and medium-sized ones, but not only. After bringing our and European companies closer to blockchain and AI thanks to our European project 'Stars', and after co-founding the European Digital Innovation Pole 'AI Magister', we are now further accelerating the pace to keep up with the pervasion of AI".