Autonomous Train Control System Principle: Fully Train-Centric Route Generation and Track Resource Management

The current moving block systems still depend on wayside interlocking systems and zone controllers, resulting in complex control flow and limited control efficiency. While recent train-centric solutions have simplified the system and enhanced line capacity, they still require explicit resource requests from the wayside infrastructure controller and necessitate storing all routes in onboard equipment. These limitations constrain system performance and maintainability. This study introduces an autonomous train control principle for fully train-centric route generation and track resource management, eliminating reliance on wayside controllers. The proposed system models track layouts as directed graphs and generates routes through route factorisation and composition, ensuring compliance with railway safety and operational requirements. By utilising train-to-train coordinate transformations, ATCS enables direct management of track resources between trains without intermediaries, significantly improving the system's performance. Furthermore, a novel braking model is introduced, optimising headway distances and improving track utilisation. The proposed principle is evaluated on an actual railway track layout in Korea, and the results demonstrate its feasibility, achieving shorter headways, improved track capacity, and enhanced system maintainability and flexibility when compared to conventional CBTC and train-centric CBTC systems.