Automation in Railway: How tasks and roles of operational staff change

Abstract

Tasks of railway operational staff are changing with increasing digitalization and automation of the railway system. Even lower grades of automation like Grade of Automation 2 (GoA2) result in a decrease of active tasks and the operators having to predominantly monitor the technical systems. Effects of the introduction of higher Grades of Automation like GoA3 and 4 on tasks and roles of operational staff are currently examined in our research. In both GoA3 and 4, the train drives automatically and there are no train drivers in the cabin anymore. Instead, the new role of remote train operators is introduced. Remote train operators can drive the train remotely in case of disruption, for example from a control room. In GoA4, there is no operational staff on board, while in GoA3, a train attendant is still on board and can support in case of disruption. An interaction between staff on the train and remote train operators could also be possible.In the present paper, we will introduce different research projects at the Institute of Transportation Systems of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). These projects deal with research questions like: Which tasks of railway operational staff can be automated and which remain with the human? What could be a task distribution between automation and human that optimally utilizes the strengths of both? Who is going to carry out the remaining human tasks? Which new roles for operational staff could emerge from this task distribution? How could workflows within these new roles look like? What interaction and communication processes are necessary for a smooth operational procedure of automated railway? Current results will be presented.

Keywords: rail automation, rail human factors, human machine interaction, workflow, usability, task distribution, grade of automation

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1005259