Development of energy evaluation system during manual operation using train simulator

The electric railway is an environment-friendly transportation system. An energy-saving operation with a low cost and high energy-saving efficiency is often considered to further decrease energy consumption. An Automatic Train Operation (ATO) system has the advantage of energy-saving because a train can be controlled by an on-board computer. However, many railway lines are still being operated by drivers and controlled via manual operation in addition, energy managements often become difficult for drivers and operators. Therefore, a study of energy-saving manual operation is desired. Energy verification of a manual operation is difficult because an adequate experiment has several constraints and trial periods are limited. Moreover, it requires a considerable amount of time and effort. In this study, an energy evaluation system is developed to calculate the energy consumed by a train when a driver manually operates it through adding an advanced calculation device to a conventional railway simulator. Consequently, the evaluation system contributes to carry out simple experiments with a short duration.