The contribution of state resources in a constraint-based scheduling model for conflict solving at railway junctions

Abstract

bstractScheduling is the process of allocating resources to activities over time. In a scheduling problem, resources are scarce and constrained in various ways (e.g. in the order of activities and the capacity of resources), and one is looking for a schedule of the activities that both satisfies the constraints and is optimal according to some criterion.Over the last decade, constraint-based scheduling (CBS) has become the dominant form of modelling and solving scheduling problems. This paper deals with a CBS model of real time management of train traffic through junctions, it focuses on the use of state resources to improve the model of conflicts between trains running in opposite directions.

System analysis of train operations and track occupancy at railway stations

“…After establishing a conflict-free timetable for a large network in a part of the German Railway, the corresponding distribution of buffer times by time and space is evaluated by means of the simulation tool Railsys. Rodriguez et al (2002) develop a constraint programming model for the routing of trains in saturated corridors with explicit representation of the capacity constraints by block signals and of the temporal constraints by occupation and release of the track circuits. They apply a greedy algorithm, while the set of feasible routes is restricted to one route.…”