Railway

We apply our experience in the fields of automotive and aerospace engineering to assist customers from the rail sector in designing displays, planning action sequences or shaping their organizational structures. The projects are being conducted in cooperation with the Chair of Track and Railway Operations, Prof. Siegmann, of the Technische Universität Berlin (University of Technology Berlin). HFC is currently working at the project ELS ("Energieoptimiertes Leit- und Störfallmanagement", energy-optimized routing and failure management ) as a part of a consortium, with the goal to minimize the energy needs of the short-range public transportation system by making use of existing degrees of freedom regarding timetable planning and disposition. In the course of the project  procedures and components of energy-saving rail traffic conduct are being developed and subsequently tested as to their applicability in a transportation company. The objective of the project is a significant reduction of energy consumption by an optimized vehicle movement, which is adapted to the specific traffic situation.

A variety of influencing factors are considered for optimization, for example:

• Vehicle position within the traffic system
• Vehicle data ( static / dynamic, i.e. acceleration, mass, passenger load, … )
• Existing traffic infrastructure
• Environmental factors
• Intermodal timetable status
• Anticipated conflicts

Another objective of the project is to develop solutions for incident management and for the subsequent system restart in order to prevent power surges. These  procedures are supposed to financially relief the transportation companies and thus facilitate inexpensive public transportation services. New procedures shall enable the companies to reduce peak energy demands, which results in decreased total energy expenditures due to recalculated energy subscription prices.

These goals are realized by providing recommendations for traction vehicle drivers and dispatchers which are based on database processes and online simulations.

In ELS, we are responsible for designing interfaces for drivers and dispatchers, as well as for the development of control concepts.