A Data Driven Iterative Learning Approach for Optimizing the Train Control Strategy

The energy-efficient train control (EETC) problem is investigated in this article. And a soft actor-critic (SAC)-based method is proposed to optimize the train driving strategy. First, EETC problem is converted to the inverse problem, i.e., minimizing the trip time of the journey with constant energy consumption. Based on the conversion, the EETC problem is reformulated as a finite Markov decision process, which can be solved by deep reinforcement learning algorithms. Second, an optimization method based on the SAC method is designed to calculate the optimal driving strategy of the train with introducing the reservoir sampling method. Finally, some case studies are conducted to verify the effectiveness and performance of the proposed method. Simulation results demonstrate that a good energy-saving performance can be achieved. In single interval, the SAC-based method can reduce about 1.65% of the energy consumption compared with numerical method. And the energy consumption reduction can be extended to be 6.49% when the proposed approach is applied in multiple intervals.