NEOBALLAST is an innovative high-performance, long-lasting and eco-friendly ballast aggregate solution designed to overcome the two most important shortcomings of railway tracks: track degradation and noise and vibration emissions, whilst improving safety and customer service. The implementation of NEOBALLAST will improve the economic and environmental performance of European railway tracks, bringing important socio-economic benefits to the whole European society. As a suitable solution for both, new and existing railway lines, NEOBALLAST potential market extends to the whole European rail network (i.e. beyond 200,000km of lines), accounting for almost 20 million tonnes of new ballast every year, and a related turnover about 350M€. In order to take this mature and proven technology, NEOBALLAST project joins industry partners from different sectors, covering the whole value-chain of NEOBALLAST, into a well-balanced and multidisciplinary team. The project has a business-driven approach, where actions are devised to solve those barriers that may difficult NEOBALLAST quick and extensive market up-take. In this sense, the main steps to attain a successful and effective market uptake are the development of a large-scale production technology to meet expected market demands, the demonstration and validation of NEOBALLAST in real working environment, an effective dissemination across Expert Panel groups to achieve a wide deployment and finally the IPR management, exploitation and commercialization of NEOBALLAST through the creation of a NEWCO constituted by all the project parents. The management structure joins forces with an Advisory Committee that will provide the Consortium with an independent, end-user centric viewpoint to the direction and relevance of the work as the project. The Advisory Committee will be drawn from three Infrastructure Managers, track contractor organisations, technological platforms and three track expert members of the Academia.

The rail industry is facing important challenges as the average age of the workforce keeps growing while less young workers are interested in the physically demanding work required. Smart technologies can help to reduce work demands, avoid incidents and accidents, and support workers during heavy activities. STREAM support LEAN execution of intelligent maintenance process by introducing technologies that cause negligible modification of current working procedures, yet strongly improve operation planning, safety and performance. STREAM will develop two smart technologies employing environment perception and human intention principles enabling prevention and risk mitigation. First, STREAM will develop a control platform (OTA3M) adapted to existing rail excavators, by exploiting sensors, hydraulic actuators and software which will allow excavators to conduct multi-purpose autonomous operations enabling safe worker-machine collaboration. The OTA3M controls the excavator motion autonomously along tracks and introduces the autonomous capacity of manipulating heavy components relying on motion/force controls, obstacle detection and collision avoidance. Second, STREAM will deploy a modular active exoskeleton (MMPE) to reduce the risk of injury by assisting workers in heavy activities. The MMPE is tailored to track workers to reduce the risk of injury at the lumbar area by reducing biomechanical loading for a vast variety of manual handlings. MMPE understands human intention by exploiting human-activity recognition, proprioceptive sensors, and control strategies, and reducing worker’s efforts by applying specific forces, synchronized with the musculoskeletal system. The MMPE design emphasizes ergonomic aspects and PPEs integration to ensure comfort and usability making it suitable for workers. The consortium, assisted by an end-user board, will assess the devices from the perspectives of performance, ethics, and economic rationale to prepare further commercial exploitation