Real-time train driver rescheduling by actor-agent techniques

Abstract

Passenger railway operations are based on an extensive planning process for generating the timetable, the rolling stock circulation, and the crew duties for train drivers and conductors. In particular, crew scheduling is a complex process.After the planning process has been completed, the plans are carried out in the real-time operations. Preferably, the plans are carried out as scheduled. However, in case of delays of trains or large disruptions of the railway system, the timetable, the rolling stock circulation and the crew duties may not be feasible anymore and must be rescheduled.This paper presents a method based on multi-agent techniques to solve the train driver rescheduling problem in case of a large disruption. It assumes that the timetable and the rolling stock have been rescheduled already based on an incident scenario.In the crew rescheduling model, each train driver is represented by a driver-agent. A driver-agent whose duty has become infeasible by the disruption starts a recursive task exchange process with the other driver-agents in order to solve this infeasibility. The task exchange process is supported by a route-analyzer-agent, which determines whether a proposed task exchange is feasible, conditionally feasible, or not feasible. The task exchange process is guided by several cost parameters, and the aim is to find a feasible set of duties at minimal total cost.The train driver rescheduling method was tested on several realistic disruption instances of Netherlands Railways (NS), the main operator of passenger trains in the

A heuristic for real-time crew rescheduling during small disruptions

“…• Initial analysis shows that the heuristic outperforms the methods from Potthoff (2010) and Abbink et al (2010), in both calculation times as solution quality.…”

“…Poffhoff's algorithm performs well during big disruptions, but the quality of the neighborhood choice is questionable in case of small disruptions. Another approach for the real-time rescheduling of train drivers is an actor-agent approach as discussed by Abbink et al (2010), in which train drivers and dispatchers are represented in a computer model by agents. The main idea behind their approach is that agents interact with each other by sending messages, in order to solve the problems they face.…”

“…The heuristic focuses on real-life usability and uses the updated rolling stock schedule as input. Some ideas from an actor-agent approach, as discussed in the literature by Abbink et al (2010), are combined with other OR techniques.…”

Service interactions modeling for improved management of public transport systems

“…[41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48] The implication of agent technology to various evolution directions related to smart transportation is demonstrated by the broad application of academic and industrial research results. Some examples include urban traffic management, [49][50][51] planning, operation, and control of transport systems, 1,52,53 staff scheduling and rostering and resource allocation for public transport service delivery, [54][55][56] design of intelligent vehicles that act as agents in an information integrated network, 57 empowering transport service customers with information about their transportation choices, 26,58 or evaluation of environmental impact of transportation modes. 5 The case study presented in this paper approaches the development of improved service offerings in a public transport service company.…”