Analytical study of the computer aided control system for the Shinkansen: An actual behavior

A Computer-aided Traffic Control System (COM TRAC) is adopted with a view to operating the great many trains on the Shinkansen smoothly, precisely and in great safely. A study has been carried out to analyze and assess this complex man-machine system by a new method named CDPA ( Man-Machine Communication & Decision-making Process Analysis Diagram), which the authors have devised, and OSD (Operational Sequence Diagram). As a result of the study, the behavior of the system was divided into several groups by the amount of related information. The study has also revealed that the limited value of the communicating capacity could be found out by analyzing the amount of information, given and received during the time of train diagram confusion. The conclusion reached from the analyses made was that data processing at the time of disorderly train operation has to be considered in raising the reliability of the system performance.