As Europe’s largest freight operating company, DB Cargo is systematically driving forward the digitalisation and automation of rail freight transport. An important part of the progress it is making is the automation of shunting in formation yards.
Freight trains are taken apart, wagons sorted and new trains put together at the yards. The shunting locomotives required for these movements are still controlled manually in most cases. In the future, fully automated hump locomotives will be used.
The automation technology facilitating this innovation is currently being developed and made ready for series production with the two Bosch subsidiaries Bosch Engineering and ITK Engineering as strong industrial partners.
The technology will enable trains to be put together more efficiently for onward transport in the coming years. This will strengthen the competitiveness of single wagonload transport and be a decisive advantage in shifting more traffic to environmentally friendly rail.
Dr Sigrid Nikutta, member of the management board for freight transport at Deutsche Bahn and chair of the management board and CEO of DB Cargo, says: “With the development of the fully automated hump locomotive, we are embarking upon a new chapter in the digitalisation and automation of rail freight transport.
“This will create more profitability for DB Cargo and higher quality in operations, thus contributing fittingly to the DB Group’s S3 turnaround programme. Our customers will benefit from faster and more flexible handling of their consignments.”
Dr Frank Schmidt, CEO of ITK Engineering and Bosch Engineering, says: “This project, which will see the first fully automated vehicle in the heavy rail sector being taken to series production, is an important milestone on the way to achieving automated train operation.
“Intelligent software is one element at the core of this progression in automation. We are looking forward to contributing our expertise in software and system development for rail vehicles.”
The first steps towards introducing the fully automated locomotive have already been taken, with the successful trial of a prototype at the Munich North marshalling yard.
It is expected that the fully automated hump locomotive will be granted approval by the German Federal Railway Authority at the end of 2027. From 2028 onwards, it will be deployed at DB Cargo’s main formation yards in Germany.
DB Cargo has commissioned Bosch Engineering and ITK Engineering, both wholly owned subsidiaries of Robert Bosch, with the development of the fully automated hump locomotive for series production.
Bosch Engineering is working on an automation unit, featuring sensors and algorithms for environment perception, that will allow shunting operations to be completely autonomous.
ITK is developing the operator workstation for line-side use, which will handle the input and management of required movements and transmit the information to the hump locomotive. The partnership is set to continue until October 2027.
The German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV) is funding the automated locomotive project within the scope of its programme to promote pioneering rail freight technology.
