Coordination and control for railroad networks inspired by manufacturing control

This paper presents a multi-agent coordination and control system for railroad networks. The system is an extension of a framework that implements the PROSA reference architecture augmented with forecasting mechanisms. PROSA targets coordination & control problems in manufacturing environments. The existing framework was extended for railroad control without requiring any significant changes to the PROSA framework itself. The forecasting capabilities of the framework were used to create a robust railroad controller. By using forecasting mechanisms, train services are able to anticipate and avoid impending problems. The development revealed how the extensions, needed for railroad networks, are equally useful for certain manufacturing control tasks.