An interlocking system determining the configuration of rail traffic control elements to ensure safety

Abstract

Railway interlocking systems are essential safety components in rail transportation, designed to prevent train collisions. They regulate the transitions between sections of a railway station using rail traffic control elements. An interlocking system can assess whether the configuration of these control elements poses a collision risk. Over the years, researchers have developed various algebraic models to tackle this issue, highlighting the potential use of computer algebra systems in implementing interlocking systems. In this work, we aim to enhance these systems' capabilities. Not only will they indicate whether a situation is dangerous, but if it is, they will also provide guidance on how to configure certain rail traffic control elements to ensure safety. In this paper, we introduce an algebraic model that represents the railway station through polynomials. This approach transforms the task of identifying dangerous situations into calculating the residue of a polynomial over a set of polynomials. The monomials contained in this residue polynomial encode all possible configurations that would render the situation safe.