Energy saving for automatic train control in moving block signaling system

With rapid development of the railway traffic, the moving block signaling system (MBS) method has become more and more important for increasing the track capacity by allowing trains to run in a shorter time-headway while maintaining the required safety margins. In this framework, the tracking target point of the following train is moving forward with its leading train. This paper focuses on the energy saving tracking control of two successive trains in MBS. Nonlinear programming method is used to optimize the energy saving speed trajectory of the following train. The real-time location of the leading train could be integrated into the optimization process. Due to simplicity, it can be used for online implementation. Finally, a smoothing algorithm is proposed to improve the speed trajectory for ride comfort. The feasibility and effectiveness are verified through simulation. The results show that the new method is efficient on energy saving with guaranteed ride comfort even when disturbances present.