Co-ordination concept for an innovative rail road concept

The project "Neue Bahntechnik Paderborn" (NBP) deals with the development of an innovative railroad concept. It envisions short autonomously guided shuttles which are completely automated and even make decisions, for e.g. starting only if there is a need. Furthermore, the shuttles use the existing rails without differentiating between suburban and long-distance traffic. Thus the passengers needn't change trains during their journey. To save energy while driving, the shuttles unite to form convoys. The question is whether it is clever to build a convoy or if the convoy contributes to energy conservation. Afterwards the shuttles have to initiate the integration, to find each other and to execute convoy formation. For these procedures it must be declared for how long the shuttles join the convoy, how they find each other and how they exchange information. In particular, the question of which routes and for which average utilisation a convoy formation makes sense must be asked. The article supplies some answeres concerning the conditions for meaningful convoy travel and how communication between shuttles can be activated and realised.