Robust control for railway transport networks based on stochastic P-timed Petri net models

This article is devoted to the modeling, performance evaluation and robust control of the railway transport network in Sahel Tunisia. The regular increase in the number of passengers makes the management of transportation systems more and more complex. Railway transport requires specific needs. Indeed, many decision and optimization problems occur from the planning phase to the implementation phase. Railway transport networks can be considered as discrete event systems with time constraints. The time factor is a critical parameter, since it includes schedules to be respected in order to avoid overlaps, delays and collisions between trains. The uncertainties affect the service and the availability of transportation resources and, consequently, the transport scheduling plan. Petri nets have been recognized as powerful modeling and analysis tools for discrete event systems with time constraints. Consequently, they are suitable for railway transport systems. In this article, stochastic P-time Petri nets are used for the railway transport networks in Sahel Tunisia. A global model is first detailed. Then, this model is used to analyze the network traffic and evaluate the performance of the system. Robustness again disturbances is introduced and a control strategy is developed to reduce the consequences of the disturbances in order to maintain the expected schedule.