Simulation backbone for gaming simulation in railways: a case study

ABSTRACT

The Dutch railway is one of the world's busiest. Innovative measures are necessary, to cope with the projected growth of transport demand. The impact of innovations brings uncertainty to the decision makers and experts involved. To reduce this uncertainty, ProRail, the Dutch rail infrastructure manager, has introduced a combined gaming and simulating approach, called the Railway Gaming Suite. The development started by coupling existing simulators using High Level Architecture. It should lead to a flexible and scalable backbone to support the gaming and simulation approach. This way, the traditional application field of the simulators is extended from supporting capacity analysis, timetable robustness and construction to supporting decision making and enhancing insight in the operations. The current Railway Gaming Suite consists of three simulators. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the approach and the underlying toolbox, applied to the concrete case: the Den Bosch station reconstruction.

References

1. Bekebrede, G. and I. S. Mayer. 2005. Build Your Seaport In A Game And Learn About Complex Systems. Journal of design research 5(2): 273--298
2. Bekebrede, G. and S. A. Meijer (Forthcoming). Gaming For Innovation In The Health Insurance Sector.
3. De Freitas, S. and M. Oliver. 2006. How Can Exploratory Learning With Games And Simulations Within The Curriculum Be Most Effectively Evaluated? Computers and Education 46 (3): 249--264
4. Duke, R. D. 1974. Gaming: The Future's Language. Sage, Beverly Hills / London.
5. Duke, R. D. and J. L. A. Geurts. 2004. Policy Games For Strategic Management. Dutch University Press, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
6. Kriz, W. C. and J. U. Hense. 2006. Theory-Oriented Evaluation For The Design Of And Research In Gaming And Simulation. Simulation Gaming 37: 268--285.
7. Mayer, I. S. (2010) The Gaming Of Policy And The Politics Of Gaming: A Review. Simulation & Gaming 40(6): 825--862
8. Meijer, S. A., P. van der Kracht, J. van Luipen, A. Schaafsma. 2009) Studying A Control Concept For High-Frequency Train Transport. In E. Edited by Subrahmanian & J. Schueler, Developing 21st Century Infrastructure Networks:. 1--6. Chennai, India: IEEE.
9. Meijer, S. A., I. S. Mayer, J. van Luipen & N. Weitenberg. 2011. Gaming Rail Cargo Capacity Management: Exploring And Validating Alternative Modes Of Organization. Simulation & Gaming 1046878110382161, first published on February 1, 2011 as doi: 10.1177/1046878110382161
10. De Vries, D. K., L. C. Lodder. 2011. Simulation Study Speed Control For 'S-Hertogenbosch Area And ETMET 2013 Timetable. ProRail report.
11. Gartner. 2011. Case Study: Innovation Squared: The Department For Work And Pensions Turns Innovation Into A Game. http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?id=1476216 {Accessed through the web 2011-09-30}
12. Hale, A. and T. Heijer. 2006. Is Resilience Really Necessary? The Case Of Railway. Resilience engineering: concepts and precepts. Edited by Hollnagel, E., D. D. Woods & Nancy Leveson, Ashgate Publishing, Hampshire, UK, pp. 125--147
13. Hiltbrand, T. and M. Burke. 2011. How Gamification Will Change Business Intelligence. Business Intelligence Journal, Vol. 6: 2.
14. Hollnagel, E., D. D. Woods & Nancy Leveson. 2006. Resilience Engineering: Concepts And Precepts. Ashgate Publishing, Hampshire, UK.
15. IEEE (2010) IEEE Recommended Practice for Distributed Simulation Engineering and Execution Process (DSEEP), IEEE Std 1730--2010, IEEE Explore.
16. Klabbers, J. H. G. 2003. Simulation And Gaming: Introduction To The Art And Science Of Design. Simulation and Gaming 34(4): 488--494.
17. Klabbers, J. H. G. 2006. Guest Editorial. Artifact Assessment Vs. Theory Testing. Simulation & Gaming 37(2): 148--154.
18. Mazzarello M., E. Ottaviani. 2007. A Traffic Management System For Real-Time Traffic Optimization In Railways, Transportation Research Part B 41 (2): 246--274
19. Meijer, S. A. 2009. The Organization Of Transactions: Studying Supply Networks Using Gaming Simulation. Wageningen Academic. ISBN 9789085853343
20. Meijer, S. A. 2012. Gaming Simulations For Railways: Lessons Learned From Modeling Six Games For The Dutch Infrastructure Management. In: Railway Book 1, Intech, ISBN 979-953-307-634-7.
21. Middelkoop A. D., M. Bouwman. 2001. SIMONE: Large Scale Train Network Simulations. In Proceedings of the 2001 Winter Simulation Conference, Edited by B. A. Peters, J. S. Smith, D. J. Medeiros and M. W. Rohrer: 1042--1047.
22. Middelkoop A. D., L. Loeve. 2006. Simulation Of Traffic Management With FRISO. Computers in Railways X: 501--509.
23. Noy, A, D. R. Raban and G. Ravid. 2006. Testing Social Theories In Computer-Mediated Communication Through Gaming And Simulation. Simulation & Gaming 37(2): 174--194.
24. Peters, V., G. Vissers and G. Heijne. 1998. The Validity Of Games. Simulation & Gaming 29(1): 20--30.
25. Rekenkamer. 2011. Besteding Spoorbudgetten Door Prorail. Report to Parliament by Algemene Rekenkamer, The Netherlands (in Dutch)
26. Steenhuisen, B., W. Dicke, J. A. de Bruijn. 2009. "Soft" Public Values In Jeopardy: Reflecting On The Institutionally Fragmented Situation In Utility Sectors. International Journal of Public Administration Volume 32, Number 6, 491--507(17)
27. Verbraeck A., S. A. Meijer, M. Seck, R. Kortmann, S. Eker, C. Tekinay and B. van Nuland. 2011. Systems Architecture, Railway Gaming Suite, Work Package 1. Technical Report TU Delft.

Index Terms

• Computing methodologies

  • Modeling and simulation

    • Simulation support systems

    • Simulation types and techniques