90B06 Transportation, logistics
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Institute
Every day, millions of people are transported by buses, trains, and airplanes in Germany. Public transit (PT) is of major importance for the quality of life of individuals as well as the productivity of entire regions. Quality and efficiency of PT systems depend on the political framework (state-run, market oriented) and the suitability of the infrastructure (railway tracks, airport locations), the existing level of service (timetable, flight schedule), the use of adequate technologies (information, control, and booking systems), and the best possible deployment of equipment and resources (energy, vehicles, crews). The decision, planning, and optimization problems arising in this context are often gigantic and “scream” for mathematical support because of their complexity. This article sketches the state and the relevance of mathematics in planning and operating public transit, describes today’s challenges, and suggests a number of innovative actions. The current contribution of mathematics to public transit is — depending on the transportation mode — of varying depth. Air traffic is already well supported by mathematics. Bus traffic made significant advances in recent years, while rail traffic still bears significant opportunities for improvements. In all areas of public transit, the existing potentials are far from being exhausted. For some PT problems, such as vehicle and crew scheduling in bus and air traffic, excellent mathematical tools are not only available, but used in many places. In other areas, such as rolling stock rostering in rail traffic, the performance of the existing mathematical algorithms is not yet sufficient. Some topics are essentially untouched from a mathematical point of view; e.g., there are (except for air traffic) no network design or fare planning models of practical relevance. PT infrastructure construction is essentially devoid of mathematics, even though enormous capital investments are made in this area. These problems lead to questions that can only be tackled by engineers, economists, politicians, and mathematicians in a joint effort. Among other things, the authors propose to investigate two specific topics, which can be addressed at short notice, are of fundamental importance not only for the area of traffic planning, should lead to a significant improvement in the collaboration of all involved parties, and, if successful, will be of real value for companies and customers: • discrete optimal control: real-time re-planning of traffic systems in case of disruptions, • model integration: service design in bus and rail traffic. Work on these topics in interdisciplinary research projects could be funded by the German ministry of research and education (BMBF), the German ministry of economics (BMWi), or the German science foundation (DFG).
In a large distribution center of Herlitz AG, Berlin, we invesigated the elevator subsystem of the fully automated pallet transportation system. Each elevator may carry one pallet and has to serve eight levels. The goal is to minimize the average resp.\ the maximum flow time. The variants of this elevator control problem have been subject of recent theoretical research and are known as online-dial-a-ride problems. In this paper we investigate several online algorithms for several versions of online-dial-a-ride problems by means of a simulation program, developed on the basis of the simulation library AMSEL. We draw statistics from samples of randomly generated data providing for different load situations. Moreover, we provide preliminary studies with real production data for a system of five elevators connected by a conveyor circuit, as can be found at the Herlitz plant. We show which algorithms are best under certain load situations and which lead to break downs under particular circumstances.
Anwendungen der Mathematik in der Verkehrs- und Transporttechnologie haben eine große und bedeutende Tradition. Natürlich wurden die ersten Fahrzeuge mit der ingenieurmäßigen Methode von Versuch, Irrtum und Verbesserung entworfen. Aber schon sehr bald kamen mathematische Berechnungen hinzu, mit denen mechanische Eigenschaften von Fahrzeugteilen ermittelt und zum Teil optimiert wurden. Die hierzu erforderliche Mathematik wurde in diesem Jahrhundert zu einem mächtigen Werkzeugkasten ausgebaut. Mit diesem kann man heute z.B. hocheffiziente Motoren mit geringem Schadstoffausstoß entwerfen, aerodynamisch günstige Fahrzeugprofile ermitteln und Flugzeugflügel berechnen, die die gewünschte Last sicher und mit geringem Treibstoffaufwand tragen. Die Mathematik unterstützt die Technologie des Verkehrs beginnend bei globalen Designfragen bis hin zur Spezifizierung von Materialeigenschaften kleinster Bauteile; sie berechnet mit hoher Präzision energieoptimale Bahnen von Raumflugkörpern oder zeitoptimale Trajektorien für Flugzeuge, steuert automatische Roboteranlagen oder innerbetriebliche Transportsysteme.