SAFEPOWER · Project

Low-Power Safety-Certified Computing for Railway, Automotive and Aerospace Systems

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Imagine your car, a train, and a factory robot all run on small computers that must never fail — lives depend on them. Now imagine those computers also need to save battery and run multiple tasks at once without one task crashing another. SAFEPOWER built the tools and reference designs that let engineers combine safety-critical and non-critical software on the same chip while keeping power consumption low. Think of it like giving each app on your phone its own sealed room, but also making sure the whole phone uses less energy.

By the numbers

EUR 3,621,050

EU funding for development of low-power mixed-criticality platform

consortium partners across industry, research and academia

countries represented (DE, ES, SE, UK)

industrial use-cases demonstrating the technology

total project deliverables completed

50%

industry ratio in the consortium

The business problem

What needed solving

Safety-critical industries like railway, automotive and aerospace are being forced to consolidate multiple software functions onto shared multicore processors to save cost and weight — but mixing critical and non-critical tasks on the same chip creates dangerous interference risks. At the same time, battery-powered and space-constrained systems demand ever-lower power consumption, and existing approaches to safety certification were not designed for multicore mixed-criticality platforms.

The solution

What was built

SAFEPOWER built a reference architecture for low-power mixed-criticality systems on multicore processors, along with hardware and software reference platforms, and a comprehensive suite of analysis, simulation and verification tools. The final cross-domain public demonstrator includes a working prototype with user guide, validated against IEC-61508 and domain-specific safety standards by an external certification authority.

Audience

Who needs this

Railway onboard computer manufacturers needing multicore safety certificationAutomotive Tier-1 suppliers consolidating ECUs onto fewer chipsIndustrial IoT companies building battery-powered safety controllersAerospace avionics integrators moving to multicore platformsEmbedded systems tool vendors seeking low-power verification capabilities

Business applications

Who can put this to work

Railway signalling and onboard systems

enterprise

Target: Railway equipment manufacturers and operators

If you are a railway systems integrator dealing with rising energy costs and tighter safety certification demands — this project developed a reference architecture and verification tools for running mixed-criticality applications on multicore processors with low power consumption. The cross-domain public demonstrator was validated against IEC-61508 and railway safety standards, potentially cutting the certification effort for your next onboard computer platform.

Automotive embedded electronics

enterprise

Target: Tier-1 automotive suppliers and ECU developers

If you are an automotive supplier struggling to consolidate multiple electronic control units onto fewer chips while meeting ISO 26262 safety requirements — SAFEPOWER built hardware and software reference platforms that manage power, time and space isolation on multicore processors. With 4 industry partners already involved, the tools address the exact challenge of running ADAS and infotainment on the same chip without interference.

Industrial automation and energy systems

mid-size

Target: Manufacturers of battery-powered industrial controllers and IoT edge devices

If you are building battery-powered industrial devices that must run safety-critical control loops alongside monitoring software — SAFEPOWER created simulation and verification tools that let you predict and control power, energy and temperature behaviour. This matters for systems with tens or hundreds of devices where near-zero emission and extended battery lifetime are competitive advantages.

Frequently asked

Quick answers

What would it cost to adopt this technology?

SAFEPOWER was funded with EUR 3,621,050 in EU contribution across 8 partners. Licensing terms for the reference platforms and tools would need to be negotiated directly with the consortium members. As an Innovation Action, the IP typically stays with the partners who developed it.

Can this work at industrial scale in production systems?

The project delivered 2 industrial use-cases and 1 cross-domain public demonstrator validated against safety standards like IEC-61508. The reference architecture was designed for real-time embedded systems in railway, aerospace, automotive and energy — all high-volume production domains. Scaling to series production would require engineering effort on top of the reference designs.

What is the IP situation and how can I license this?

The consortium includes 4 industry partners and 2 SMEs across 4 countries (Germany, Spain, Sweden, UK). IP rights from EU Innovation Actions are retained by the partners who generated them. You would need to contact the coordinator IKERLAN or specific partners to discuss licensing of the hardware platforms, software tools or reference architecture.

Does this meet safety certification requirements?

The safety concept was assessed by an external certification authority and considers reference domains and safety standards including IEC-61508 (industrial), plus railway, automotive and aerospace standards. This external assessment significantly de-risks the certification path for products built on SAFEPOWER technology.

How does this integrate with existing embedded development workflows?

SAFEPOWER built a comprehensive suite including analysis, simulation and verification tools alongside hardware and software reference platforms. These are designed to assist implementation, observation and testing of mixed-criticality applications on multicore processors — fitting into standard embedded development flows.

What is the current status of this technology?

The project ran from 2016 to 2018 and is now closed. All 20 deliverables were completed, including the final cross-domain public demonstrator with implemented prototype and user guide. The technology would need to be evaluated for currency given advances in multicore processors since 2018.

Consortium

Who built it

The SAFEPOWER consortium of 8 partners is well-balanced for technology transfer: 4 industry partners (50% industry ratio) alongside 2 universities and 2 research organizations, spread across 4 countries (Germany, Spain, Sweden, UK). The coordinator IKERLAN is a Spanish cooperative research centre with strong ties to industrial clients. The presence of 2 SMEs suggests the technology was designed with smaller companies' needs in mind, not just large aerospace primes. This mix of applied research and industry validation — backed by EUR 3,621,050 in EU funding — means the results were pressure-tested by companies that actually build embedded systems, not just theorized in labs.

IKERLAN S. COOPCoordinator · ES
UNIVERSITAET SIEGENparticipant · DE
SAAB AKTIEBOLAGparticipant · SE
KUNGLIGA TEKNISKA HOEGSKOLANparticipant · SE
FENT INNOVATIVE SOFTWARE SOLUTIONSSLparticipant · ES
OFFIS EVparticipant · DE
CAF SIGNALLING S.Lparticipant · ES

How to reach the team

IKERLAN S. COOP is a technology research cooperative based in Spain — reach their technology transfer office for licensing discussions.

Order a report on this consortium See IKERLAN S. COOP profile →

Next steps

Talk to the team behind this work.

Want an introduction to the SAFEPOWER team or a detailed technology brief tailored to your embedded systems challenge? Contact SciTransfer — we connect businesses with EU research teams.

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