Modelling Critical Scenarios in Parallel Railroad Level Crossing Traffic Control Systems Using Statecharts

摘要

Statechart has been utilized as a visual formalism for the modeling of complex and interactive systems for its illuminating features on describing properties of causality, concurrency, and synchronization. This paper presents the application of Statechart to the modeling, design and implementation of a parallel railroad level crossing control systems. We derive a Statechart model to look into the inherent hierarchical structure. Their applications to single-track railroad lines are illustrated. The resulting models allow one to identity and thus avoid critical scenarios in such systems by conditions and events of the model that control the phase of traffic light alternations. The advantage of the proposed approach is the clear presentation of system behavior in terms of conditions and events that cause the transitions in system dynamics. According to our knowledge, this is the first work that employs Statechart to model a parallel railroad level crossing system and identify its critical scenarios for the purpose of their complete avoidance. This helps to advance the state-of-the-art technology in traffic safety related to the intersection of railroads and roadways.