Case Study: Railergy achieves autonomous, energy-efficient shunting with Trimble’s Applanix POS LV

Autonomous Rail Solutions Rely on Trimble’s Applanix POS LV

Railergy, founded in 2014, develops next-generation command-and-control systems for rail and set out to automate shunting yards to improve energy efficiency under the EU Green Deal. The challenge was to enable autonomous locomotive operations without time-consuming ground control points and to achieve reliable, real-time positioning—GPS alone wasn’t safe enough—so the system needed redundant sensors that would stop the train if any disagreement or unexpected obstacle was detected.

Railergy integrated Trimble’s Applanix POS LV mobile mapping (using 2 cameras, 2 LiDAR and GNSS receivers) to rapidly create high‑accuracy 3D and rail-coordinate maps and provide live positioning from the moving locomotive, removing the need for ground surveys and lowering cost and deployment time. Initial trials in Munich North (Dec 2021) produced promising results; Railergy targets a 2024 launch and expects the solution to increase capacity, availability and efficiency while supporting the first publicly certified autonomous shunting locomotive.

Railergy

Jakob Gärtner

Railergy Director