Integration of humans in the fallback process by a machine in fully automated railway operation

Abstract

In highly automated railway operation, humans must still handle complex operating situations, which cannot be yet handled by the technology. To achieve this, staff must be involved in a timely manner in the so-called fallback process. In this paper, different request techniques for involving the staff are investigated and the involvement time is derived analytically. In highly automated railway operation, the kinesthetic and the auditory request techniques are well suitable for involving the staff in the fallback process. Two equations for the involvement time were derived, one for the remote control and one for the train staff. Both times can be expressed with a piecewise-defined function.