The future of sustainable mobility at the Osaka EXPO 2025

On 20^th April, Ivano La Paglia and Federico Zanelli, researchers from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, had the opportunity to attend the Osaka EXPO 2025 in an event organised by CN-MOST as part of the “Italian Research Day in the World” initiative. The event “MOST@EXPO Osaka: From Research to Business” made it possible to present some of the projects currently undergoing within CN-MOST to an international audience, with the aim of promoting collaboration between research and technology transfer at a global level. DMEC researchers, in particular, presented the activities carried out within the Spoke 4 framework, dedicated to sustainable mobility in the railway field, in the session “Sustainable Mobility: Safer Roads, Less Congestion, More Access”. The focus of the presentation was on the decongestion of railway lines and on ensuring higher safety standards by exploiting recent technologies, that enable the digitalisation of vehicles and railway infrastructure.

The first project presented was part of Task 1.1, which aims to analyse new railway signalling technologies, with specific reference to Moving Block signalling. Specifically, the activities are intended to assess the potential benefits in terms of line capacity and energy consumption, resulting from the adoption of Moving Block signalling. This system relies on real-time knowledge of the instantaneous speed of the vehicles operating on the network and their braking capabilities, in order to dynamically define the minimum safe distance between trains and ensure safe operations. To this end, two different simulation environments have been developed: a virtual environment, aimed at studying various scenarios and quantifying the performance of the signalling system; and a hybrid environment, which integrates physical components (such as the onboard computer of a vehicle) within the virtual simulation framework to evaluate the system’s response to potential communication issues.

The second project presented instead relates to Task 4.3, which aims at the development of wireless sensors to make freight trains safer and more efficient. The research activity is being conducted in collaboration with Mercitalia Intermodal, which is making its expertise and fleet of wagons available to facilitate the technology transfer of the solutions devised within the research activities. The cornerstone of the project was the experimental tests conducted within the San Donato test track, which made it possible to artificially reproduce faults in the braking system and suspensions of a pair of wagons, with the aim of testing the efficiency of the monitoring system developed. The test campaign also allowed to collect a significant database for the validation of fault identification algorithms, useful for condition monitoring and predictive maintenance activities.

Within the event, each session featured a panel discussion of Italian and Japanese scientists and researchers, who launched discussions to identify research priorities and explore opportunities for future joint projects. Strategic industrial partners and professors from some of Japan's leading universities, including Kyoto University and Nihon University, attended the meeting. Initiatives such as this provide an impetus for innovation and research activities through discussion, dialogue and collaboration between academia and industry at an international level.

The event is also part of the INARC Project – Italian NAtional Research Centres, a collective showcase for the five National Research Centres funded by the NRRP. It was created to highlight them as potential partners for universities and companies worldwide in the development of high-potential, innovative research projects. The distinctive feature of INARC is a crowdsourcing platform shared by all the National Centres: a hub connecting public and private entities interested in meeting innovation needs.