Spurplan-4 – Simulation of regional rail traffic for regular operation, disrupted operation and scheduling interventions
Spurplan-4 – Simulation of regional rail traffic for regular operation, disrupted operation and scheduling interventions
The subject of the project is the further development of the SUMO railway simulation in the context of the DB project "KI Dispo". Here, geo-trajectories of real train journeys are used to validate and, if necessary, increase the accuracy of the simulation. The investigation also focuses on deadlocks that can occur in the simulation of disrupted operations and after AI-controlled dispatching interventions.
Simulation of the Munich S-Bahn. Colouring according to lines.
The SUMO traffic simulation has been developed at DLR as open source software since 2002 and is used worldwide in research, industry and increasingly also by local authorities. Originally developed as a pure road transport simulation, intermodal passenger transport and rail transport have also been supported for some time. The latter has been used by DB since 2018 to train AI assistance for rail transport scheduling and to evaluate scheduling interventions. The assistance system developed here is already in productive operation (see press releases below). In cooperation with DB, the realism of the simulation components involved and the infrastructure model is being continuously improved.
Problem details
The simulation of rail transport must depict different variants of the operating sequence as realistically as possible. This makes it possible to compare the punctuality of all trains by comparing different interventions with intervention-free operation. If an incident occurs, the best intervention can be determined more quickly. Non-intrusive operation is normally strictly based on the timetable. However, as soon as a dispatcher has carried out an intervention, it may no longer be possible to adhere to planned train sequences and further deviations from the timetable must be taken into account in the simulation. This makes it difficult to predict the operational sequence and occasionally leads to incorrect simulation states. The Spurplan-4 project contributes or contributed to preventing the occurrence of these erroneous states.
Simulation of the Munich S-Bahn: Detailed view of Rosenheim station with three stopping trains (abstract track plan)
