MESG: Research methods

Research Design Proposal

Research Methods
Task 2

Research Design Proposal

Student: Nguyen Thi Yen Master in Services Engineering and Management

04 Jan 2012

MESG: Research methods

Research Design Proposal

Research Design Proposal

1. The research subject a. Research topic Solution method and Decision support system framework for the Train driver recovery problem. b. The main research goals _ Propose an optimization solution method to the train driver recovery problem _ Develop a prototype for train driver dispatchers decision support system. The main focus of the project is on state of the art Operations Research methods applied within the area of disruption management in public railway industry, particular within the train driver recovery. 2. Research questions and research hypotheses a. Research questions _ What is the train driver recovery problem? _ In which situation and when does TDRP occur during the time of operation? _ What is planning process in the passenger railway industry? _ What data need to be collect and analysis? _ Where to collect the data: + Chose a railway company to ask for the information of the train driver scheduling and dispatching. + Collect data from passenger _ What methods is chosen for analysing data? _ Which knowledge in operation research application need to be thoroughly review in order to approach solution and implementations? _ What kinds of method should be considered to have ability to solve the problem? _ Which method is chosen and why you chose it to solve the problem? _ What is the solution approaches and implementations? b. Research hypotheses

MESG: Research methods

Research Design Proposal

_ The problem is closely related to two important areas within operations research applications: crew planning problems in railway industry and disruption management with focus on crew recovery in public transportation _ The problem occurs when the daily train driver schedule becomes infeasible due to irregular operations on the railway network. Unforeseen disruptions such as signalling problems or rolling stock failures prevent the train drivers from following the originally scheduled sequence of activities in their duties. If the disruption is severe and many train driver duties are disturbed, this is a very complicated task to carry out.

3. Methodology a. The research type: _ Solution approach: The problem instances are solved on a rolling time horizon, while keeping the problem space of TDRP as small as possible, only expanding it when necessary. The key concepts of the framework are: the disruption neighbourhood, the recovery duty, the recovery period, and the disruption neighbourhood expansion. The problem is solved using a branch-and price framework. A branch-and-price algorithm is a method for solving zero-one integer programming problems using a linear programming relaxation and column generation at each node of a branchand-bound tree. Dynamic column generation is a useful tool for solving LP problems with a large number of columns compared to the number of rows. The idea with the column generation approach for solving LP problems is to avoid generating all variables, since only a few of them will comprise the optimal basis. _ Decision support system prototype: present a prototype for train driver recovery decision support system (TDR-DSS). It requires inputting the operational schedule data for analysis.

b. Identify data gathering and data analysis techniques _ The data is collected from company railway.

MESG: Research methods

Research Design Proposal

_ Inputting data is necessary for generating and solving an instance of TDRP in the prototype for the train driver recovery decision support system developed during project: the schedule daily timetable, the scheduled daily train driver schedule, and the disruption data, which includes changes to the timetable expressed through train delays, re-routing and cancellations, and information about driver delays or absences. _ Computational experiments: test experiments with the TDR-DSS prototype. Using the real-life data, generate test instances with different sizes of disruption neighbourhoods. These instances are used to test the efficiency of the solution method with respect to the computational times. The most efficient solution strategy is used to solve the rolling time horizon test scenarios, which show how train driver schedule disturbed by the particular disrupted situation can be recovered.

c. Other Alternative Besides solving a particular optimization problem, the project would like to contribute with a description of the railway planning process, tactical crew scheduling and the real-time dispatching solutions, taking a starting point in railway company operations.