The Advanced Automatic Train Control (AATC) Optimization Project

Description

A new era of automatic train control has begun, in which mass transit trains will be commanded with precision beyond the capabilities of past systems. Although transit districts such as San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) have controlled their trains automatically for decades, the control systems have provided limited capability in terms of train position location and speed control. Increases in capacity now require trains to run closer together than these systems can accommodate. Therefore new systems, such as the Advanced Automatic Train Control (AATC) system, are under development.

On a daily basis, BART's current system experiences approximately 20 delays of five or more minutes. The resulting backups lead to uncomfortable rides for passengers and wasted energy, and can cause power shortages. With more trains on the system, such problems will become more the rule than the exception. Our goal is to use optimization within the AATC system to smooth out train operations and to reduce energy consumption and power infrastructure requirements. We are initially focusing on a schedule-constrained problem with the primary objective of improving passenger comfort. Passenger comfort may be measured in terms of the smoothness of the ride, which is related to train acceleration.

Software

We have developed a simulation of train control in a single control zone.

Collaboration

This project is in collaboration with Susanna Gordon, Systems Research, Sandia National Laboratories, California.

Links

This is a component of theLarge-scale Scientific and Engineering Design Optimization project.

Contact

For more information, please contact Pamela J. Williams (pwillia@sandia.gov) or Susanna P. Gordon (spgordo@sandia.gov).