(B) SWTbahn Simulator: Digital Simulation of Train Movements

The Software Technologies Research Group (SWT) has built a digital model railway (SWTbahn [1–2]) for use in teaching. It gives students a realistic case study to support their learning of important principles in the design, programming, and verification of safety-critical systems. The BiDiB library (libbidib) [1] provides the necessary software interface to control model railway hardware. However, the testing and debugging of SWTbahn software has to be conducted on a physical model railway, which may not be accessible at all times.

This thesis shall (a) conduct a comparative literature and tool (e.g., [3, 4]) review on time-based and event-based simulation approaches to railway movements, especially in the context of the SWTbahn; (b) extend the existing SWTbahn Emulator [5], which emulates the low-level BiDiB hardware, to support the simulation of train movements over a given track layout; and (c) evaluate the realism and limitations of the extended SWTbahn Emulator when compared to a physical SWTbahn. A physics or game engine may be employed to simulate realistic train behaviours, e.g., a train's acceleration based on its weight and requested speed, a train collision, or a derailment due to debris or misconfigured points.

The ideal student for this thesis topic will have a keen interest in practical programming and high confidence systems. Knowledge in C or Python programming, or game engine frameworks would be advantageous. Missing knowledge in some areas or technologies can be acquired during the thesis.

1. Low-level digital control library (BiDiB). Available at https://github.com/uniba-swt/libbidib (last accessed on 30 Nov 2022).
   
2. Prototype tool for controlling trains using BiDiB. Available at https://github.com/uniba-swt/swtbahn-cli (last accessed on 30 Nov 2022).
3. N. Piganeau. Train Signalling Simulator (TS2). Available at https://ts2.github.io (last accessed on 30 Nov 2022).
4. R. J. Versluis. Rocrail. Available at https://wiki.rocrail.net/doku.php (last accessed on 30 Nov 2022).
5. T. Homeyer. SWTbahn Emulator: A Digital Twin of a Computer-Controlled Model Railway. Bachelor’s thesis, SoSe 2021, The University of Bamberg, Germany.