Automated People Movers and Automated Transit Systems 2020: Automated Transit for Smart Mobility

The Mirage Hotel & Casino recently completed the end-of-life overhaul of several major subsystems for the mirage-TI automated people mover (‘Tram’) system in Las Vegas, Nevada. Jakes Associates Inc. was selected to manage this project, which included the replacement of the automated train control (ATC) system, key propulsion equipment (such as primary drive motor, brake control unit, and other), network and communications systems improvements, station improvements (including new platform screen door systems), and limited refurbishment activities of both vehicles, including new air conditioning systems, chassis components, air drier system, and train door controllers. JAI also provided management and oversight services for the replacement of drive bull wheel seals and bearings, and oversaw the design, construction, and installation of a new system return wheel. JAI also managed permitting activities required by Clark County ATS regulations. The improvements accomplished as part of this project has resulted in the extension of the system’s life for decades to come.

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, world’s fairs and expositions were major events celebrated in the host city and around the world. If you could not attend, you could share in the experience through newspapers, magazines, movie clips, and television. World’s fairs date back to the mid-1850s and early fairs focused on trade and were famous for displays of technological inventions and advancements. One of the popular themes was transportation. The first world’s fair was held in London, England, in 1851 and since that time over 100 world’s fairs have been held in more than 20 countries. There have been two world’s fairs in Chicago—1893 and 1933–1934. This paper presents the history of world’s fairs and focuses on the transportation innovations at the two Chicago World’s Fairs with a special look at the first moving sidewalk at the 1893 Fair and the elevated tramway, the Sky Ride, at the 1933–1934 Fair.

Unmanned automated urban transit systems such as metros and people movers require per standard (EN50126, ANSI/ASCE/T&DI 21-13) extensive hazards and risk analyses in order to first identify all possible hazards and second to follow up the resulting risks and their reduction to an acceptable level. Dresden University of Technology and TÜV Rheinland perform and evaluate both kinds of analysis since many years and conducted several European Union research projects (e.g., MODSAFE) to obtain reference examples. Recent UTO-projects for subways in Germany were utilized to establish a more compact and practical method, responding to recurrent problems such as large size and readability, interface/link between hazards analysis and risk analysis, rates and their propagation in the analysis, links to safety requirement allocations/SILs. One especially tenacious subject is the question of how to deal with “continuous versus on-demand” mode functions: While a safety failure of the first kind presents immediate danger, on-demand-functions may not even be noticed that they could not be used anymore.

Most modern trains are equipped with onboard CCTV technology, which can be used for a wide variety of applications, such as automatic detection of objects, people, or situations by video analytics. Such as with all detection systems, thorough calibration of the sensors, i.e., cameras in our case, is essential to minimize false alarms and achieve a very high detection rate. From an operational point of view, false alarms should be minimal or not occur at all. From a reliability point of view, no real objects or people shall be missed, especially when it comes to airport security. Unfortunately, operational availability and detection reliability are contradictory parameters. They both depend on the chosen sensitivity of the sensors. Typically, high sensitivity results in a high detection rate (which is desired) but can produce a couple of false alarms. While a low sensitivity will reduce the number of false alarms but some smaller objects may not be detected. This paper presents an approach to analyze the detection performance and choose suitable parameter settings to satisfy both.

Automated people movers (APMs) are a critical piece of infrastructure in many airport operations, providing passengers, and airport personnel with an efficient means of travel between terminals, connections, or parking facilities. Reliability and sustained uptime of these APMs are paramount for efficient operation. Traditional maintenance strategies which employ routine maintenance can result in unnecessary, unwanted system downtime, as well as wasted labour and material resources. Preventative maintenance, in the form of condition-based maintenance (CBM), is an alternative maintenance strategy that circumvents the pitfalls of traditional strategies. CBM works by continuously monitoring the APM system for any signs of an incipient fault, and promptly notifying maintenance personnel when a fault is detected. In other words, maintenance is only performed on an as-needed basis, maximizing both system uptime, and distribution of resources. However, current CBM approaches are not without their own drawbacks. These approaches often focus on monitoring the system as a whole, rather than monitoring individual components. Furthermore, the accuracy of these approaches is heavily dependent on the availability of historical data. In this paper, a robust, blind CBM framework for monitoring of the LINK APM gearbox is presented. The proposed framework utilizes vibration measurements coupled with a novel signal pre-processing algorithm to detect incipient faults and build degradation models of the monitored system. Contrary to the current body of CBM approaches, the proposed approach is capable of monitoring and modeling the degradation of different families of components (i.e., gears and bearings) separately, allowing for increased detection and life-cycle prediction accuracy. Additionally, the proposed framework requires no historical data or prior knowledge of the system: detection accuracy and confidence in the degradation model parameters gradually increases as new sensor data becomes available. The underlying pre-processing algorithm has been validated using data collected from a number of real industrial systems and was shown to perform well under a wide variety of operating conditions. The blind, computationally efficient nature of the pre-processing algorithm, coupled with its minimal hardware requirements, allows the proposed CBM framework to be easily implementable on any APM system or rotating machinery asset.

Transit agencies are increasingly facing pressure from political mandates and internal objectives to rapidly transition their heavy-duty bus fleets to zero-emission technologies. Currently, this remains a challenge due to high capital costs and limited range on battery electric buses (BEB). Integration of automation driving systems (ADS) technology, specifically yard automation, and driver assistance, can mitigate some capital costs associated with BEB procurement and increase battery range. To date, most focus on ADS technologies for transit bus integration has emphasized their potential to reduce labor costs through total automation of on-road operations. However, those impacts are much further afield, if ever attainable. Transit operators can achieve greater efficiencies in the near-term from more limited ADS capabilities, including driver assistance and partial or complete off-road automation.

The Max Boegl Group has successfully developed and implemented a next generation urban maglev people mover system. This paper will describe the conception, development, manufacturing, and status quo of the new maintenance, repair, and operations facility of the Transport System Boegl. Compared to conventional wheel-rail automated people mover systems, the running gear of the Transport System Boegl is inlying in the guideway. This aspect results in large advantages in sound emission as well as reliability but it is a challenge for optimized operation and maintenance. Optimium access needs to be granted to the running gear, which is the centerpiece of the TSB vehicle. To minimize occupied floor space of the maintenance system, a normal moving platform was eliminated during the conception phase. The Max Boegl Group developed a new style of operation and maintenance facility allowing the vehicle to autonomously drive in. Furthermore, the new concept guarantees the independent accessibility on all different vehicle levels. The design and the maintenance processes have been were significantly improved. The paper will report about the occurring challenges the Max Boegl Group has solved during the development process and describes the final solution. Moreover, it points out the additional benefits of the new operation and maintenance system. This system is designed not alone for light and heavy maintenance of the vehicles. In addition to rerailing, connecting of cars and efficient logistic processes are further benefits of the new system. Test data that demonstrates the achieved improvements will also be included.

Commercial usage of ultra-wideband (UWB) technologies have been granted increasing exposure because of UWB’s special features: centimeter-level accuracy of positioning and high data rate. Applications of UWB in guideway transportation industry have also been developed in North America sporadically. Both complement enhancements and major replacements upon current practices are foreseeable. As rail industry is representing the most common guideway system, in this paper, we categorize promising UWB-rail applications into two major groups: the radar type and the tag-anchor type. With detailed discussions, we selected typical application use case examples that desire better safety and efficiency. Each application type is also supported with implementation concepts, advantages, and potential challenges. Particularly, we argue that the tag-anchor type applications of UWB will improve train positioning accuracy to support essential train/vehicle control functionalities; radar type UWB applications will benefit the automated object detection in various scenarios, including clearance intrusion (or trespassing), working-zone hazards, etc.

Emerging automated transit systems bring many benefits that enhance the performance of public transit systems. With the recent technological improvement of automated vehicles, it is expected that automated demand responsive transit and automated demand responsive feeder transit will improve mobility. One of the main concerns about the optimal automated demand responsive feeder transit operation is varying passenger demand. Obviously, changes in fleet size, capacity, and passenger demand alter the optimal operation and result in different passenger travel times and vehicle operating costs. This paper uses the optimal feeder bus routing algorithm previously developed by the authors. With it, the effects of the various passenger demand with various fleet sizes and capacities will be evaluated for the optimal automated demand responsive feeder bus operation based on the sample network. The results show that passenger demand and fleet size will have more impacts on the efficiency and profitability of a demand responsive feeder transit system for both automated and human-driven cases while vehicle capacity had less effect on total costs. The results of per-unit sensitivity analysis also confirmed automated vehicles can save costs when passengers demand increases.

Automated people mover (APM) systems often serve as critical components of an airport’s operating model. APMs are a highly reliable investment, but they do require ongoing maintenance to preserve their high availability. As an APM ages, its subsystems will begin to reach their expected design lives. It is not uncommon for third-party supplier components to be discontinued in deference to newer products. Processor-based equipment tends to have a higher rate of obsolescence. Varying subsystem design lives further complicate the management of subsystem obsolescence. When reaching these subsystem milestones, owners can use this as an opportunity to assess their APM’s current condition, the airport’s short-term needs, and the long-term operational, and capital planning goals. Decisions will need to be made in the context of the overall system’s design life. This paper presents examples of real-world decisions that required an evaluation process to address the owner’s short-term needs contrasted against their long-term goals.

A new fully-automated cable-hauled system is currently under construction at London Luton Airport (LLA), U.K. The “direct air to rail transit” (DART) system will realise a £225 million plan to fully upgrade London Luton’s transport links by 2021. It will be able to run 24 h a day, with two trains operating the 3-km journey from Luton Airport Parkway rail station to the terminal in under 4 min. Not only will the new DART system provide a much faster and efficient service than the current shuttle bus service, it will also make the use of public transport over private vehicles a far more attractive and sustainable option for passengers, enabling a significant modal shift from road to rail. The paper describes the driving project vision for high quality user experience, and some of the innovative procurement solutions implemented to maximise value for LLA.