Multimodal optimization for the Trajectory Planning of Railway Vehicles

This paper deals with the optimization of velocity trajectories for railway vehicles w.r.t. the total energy consumption between two successive stops. Based on four principle operating modes - acceleration, cruising, coasting, and braking - energy-optimal trajectories are computed by optimizing the sequence of operating modes as well as the corresponding switching points. The optimization involves two consecutive steps: As a basic technique in the first step, a multimodal optimization, namely the Firefly Algorithm (FFA), is utilized to determine the boundaries defined by the timetable request regarding both time and position constraints. In a second step, the energy-optimal solution will be determined within the remaining parameter space reduced by the first step. The advantages of this approach are pointed out by detailed simulation results.