20 September 2006 South African processing technology designed to make trains safer, is to be tested in a series of development trials to be performed in the UK within the next few months.
In another positive spin-off from South Africa’s Hawk and Gripen fighter aircraft procurement, BAE Systems, the global defence group, is supporting Parsec, the Pretoria-based electronics company, in its development of a revolutionary railway safety system.
Parsec, is supporting the University of Warwick in developing the invention which couples a series of train-mounted sensors with Parsec’s unique processor to enable the real-time detection of cracks and other deformities in railway tracks. The successful development of this new technology stands to save lives that are lost every year in railway accidents around the world. The programme forms part of the University’s Ultrasonics Research Group’s ongoing work to investigate new defect measuring technologies.
Besides the obvious safety benefit, this revolutionary system also promises to deliver major cost savings as train operators will be able to avoid unnecessary damage to their rolling stock. Rail track owners will be able to take preventative measures to maintain and repair damaged railway lines, thereby minimising disruptions to train services and lost revenue.
“We have come to know and appreciate Parsec and its world-class capabilities through its role as a supplier of processing components for the Eurofighter-Typhoon and Gripen fighter aircraft helmetmounted display systems which are being produced for BAE Systems by Denel Optronics. We had no hesitation in introducing Parsec to our UK technology research and development partners, including the University of Warwick,” explained Jonathan Walton, BAE Systems Executive Vice President, South Africa.
“Without BAE Systems support in assuring the University of Warwick of Parsec’s credentials and expertise, it is unlikely that we would have had an opportunity to participate in this exciting project and to test what we believe could be a major break through for safe rail transport,” explained Parsec Managing Director, Petrus Pelser.
“Given the will and funding, this technology could transform every train in the country (UK) into an army of highly sophisticated rail monitors with zero disruption to the rail network,” enthused the University of Warwick’s Dr Steve Dixon.
The system relies on sensors transmitting a pulse into the rail and receiving reflections from it. The measurement instrument samples the received reflections, calculates the frequency at which they are reflected and then instantly processes the data to determine if a defect is present. The Electro Magnetic Acoustic Transducer sensors are designed by the Ultrasonic’s Research Group in the Department of Physics at the University of Warwick, but the “brain” has been designed by Parsec.
To detect defects on the railway line while the train is travelling at normal operating speed, the measurement instrument and processor requires simultaneous data sampling and high-speed digital signal processing (DSP) on 16 channels at a continuous rate. Traditional computer-based software processing solutions are inadequate, hence the requirement for a totally new processor.
NOTES TO EDITORS
About Parsec:
Founded in 1993, Parsec is a world class player in the Outsourced Development and
Manufacturing market. Based in custom designed facilities located in Highveld Technopark, South Africa, Parsec designs and produces customized electronic sub-systems for clients in the defence/ aerospace, telecommunications and industrial market sectors. Parsec's primary objective is to enhance the competitiveness of its clients, which include research institutes, OEMs, product development houses as well as system integrators.
It is generally accepted that Parsec is a leading player in the programmable logic environment. Parsec is also an ALTERA® ACAP Partner and has provided numerous programmable logic designs of high complexity to customers both locally and abroad.
About the University of Warwick:
The University of Warwick was founded forty years ago in Coventry in the UK. It has attained the position of one of Britain's leading universities and research institutes.
The University is consistently ranked in the top group for the high quality of its teaching and research. The Ultrasonic’s Research Group in the Department of Physics specializes in novel techniques for ultrasonic applications.
About BAE Systems
BAE Systems is the premier transatlantic defence and aerospace company delivering a full range of products and services for air, land and naval forces, as well as advanced electronics, information technology solutions and customer support services. With more than 100,000 employees worldwide, BAE Systems sales exceeded GBP £15.4 billion (US$28 billion) in 2005.
For further information please contact:
John Neilson
Director of Media Relations
BAE Systems
Mobile: +44 7802 33 77 04
john.neilson@baesystems.com
Linden Birns,
PR for BAE Systems South Africa
Tel: +27 21 789 2977
Mobile: +27 82 568 8031
linden@icon.co.za
Petrus Pelser
Managing Director, Parsec
Tel: 012 678 9740
petrus@parsec.co.za
Dr Steve Dixon
University of Warwick
Tel: +44 24 7657 3877
s.m.dixon@warwick.ac.uk
Technical information for IT editors
In designing a solution to meet the requirement for an effective measuring instrument, Parsec proposed a COTS based 8U Compact PCI (cPCI) solution consisting of a single board computer (SBC) running Windows XP, two PM440 Clock and Trigger PMCs and eight PM480 Dual Channel 105MSPS 14-bit ADC PMCs. The PMC modules are hosted on five PM410 StarFabric based cPCI carriers. The StarFabric switch fabric allows expansion to a 32-channel system by simply adding another 8U cPCI rack without a SBC, with a low-cost CAT5e cable connection between the two cPCI racks. A diagram of the system components is shown below.
The PM480 is the cornerstone of the Parsec solution; it combines two 105MSPS 14-bit ADC converters with ALTERA® Stratix® FPGA technology in a single PMC form factor. The EP1S30 ALTERA® Stratix® FPGA provides sufficient logic, DSP and memory resources to implement, in addition to the standard ADC and PCI functionality, the FFT and post-processing functions required by the system. The main advantage of the PM480 is the fact that it allows customized firmware functions like DDC (digital down-conversion), FFT and others to be added to the standard PM480 firmware.
The bulk of the firmware design was implemented using a Mentor Graphics’® HDL Designer™ tool, except for the post-processing functions that were implemented with DSP Builder, a Matlab® Simulink® based tool from ALTERA®.
In addition to the design of the custom FFT and post-processing firmware, Parsec engineers also wrote the Matlab based application software that runs on the Windows XP single board computer. A graphical user interface (GUI) allows the user to specify system parameters, view captured and processed data and log detected rail defects.
Parsec’s Compact PCI and PMC COTS products were originally designed with typical high-performance military applications like radar, sonar, EW and others in mind. The product range includes dual channel ADC and DAC PMC modules, FPGA processing PMC modules and a switch fabric cPCI carrier that facilitates high-speed point-to-point connections between PMC modules.
This case study therefore illustrates how traditional military COTS technology can be applied to commercial applications that require high-speed data sampling and FFT and other processing functions. Parsec markets itself as a strategic technology partner. This case study is an example of such a partnership, in this case between Parsec and the Physics Department of the University of Warwick, as well as BAE Systems.
