About VNF -Voies navigables de France
Voies navigables de France (VNF) is a public entity dependent on the French Ministry of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion, which brings together the whole French inland waterways (IWW) ambition under a single operator. With its 4,000 agents, VNF operates 6,700 km of the French inland waterways within an 8,500-km network. Pooling all the skills and technical expertise related to inland waterways, VNF strengthens the sector’s ability to innovate and develop, creating optimisation and efficiency for the public service. VNF comprises a freight transport (large-gauge) network and a tourism (small-gauge) network, through which it carries out its three missions: promoting sustainable inland waterway logistics; contributing to land-use planning; and ensuring comprehensive water management across its two networks.
About the case study
The pilot focuses on integrating formal methods into VNF’s modernization process through the automation of movable bridges in the Mosel basin. Unlike the already advanced remote-control program for large-gauge sluices, this type of asset has not yet undergone a standardized modernization approach, making it an ideal test case. This controlled setup provides a practical foundation before considering application to more complex movable bridge systems.
The organisations involved and participating universities are VNF and TU/e (Technical University Eindhoven).
Aim and goal of the study
The aim of the pilot is to determine whether formal methods can support a reliable and standardized approach to automating movable bridges within VNF’s modernization program. By modelling functional requirements and contextual constraints, the pilot seeks to verify whether this method can generate automation code that meets high expectations in terms of safety, reliability, and cybersecurity. The objective is ultimately to assess whether this approach can be replicated for more complex structures and scaled across different types of movable bridges.
Contribution to STORM_SAFE
The VNF pilot will help answer the following questions:
- How can formalized and well-documented requirements be obtained for a large set of similar objects?
- What are the commonalities and differences between the desired control strategies of movable bridges managed by VNF and those managed by Rijkswaterstaat?
- To what extent can the bridge assembler developed by Rijkswaterstaat be deployed in the context of VNF? Should the assembler developed by Rijkswaterstaat be extended to VNF, or would it be more beneficial to create a new assembler for the objects managed by VNF?
Updates & Next Steps
Currently, a first model of the bridge is being developed. The development of a system that helps test models is under discussion.