Is Simulink suited to simulate trains on a rail system?

Dear Community, I intend to simulate and analyze a rail system for trains and I am wondering whether Simulink is suited for my purpose.

For my task I have to simulate a rail system. On the rails there are going to be several trains that I intend to control with signals received by an Arduino interface. I want to develop a optimized system to control the trains according to different tasks and their battery level.

I hope to get some advice on how to implement that system and whether Mathlab/Simulink is suited to simulate a rail system.

Answer 1

[Iain]

Simulink can simulate discrete systems operating in a continuous world. It can replicate the functions of hardware.

What aspects you want to simulate (realistic university level physics vs high school physics), and to what level of complexity (realistic overall physics of the train, or detailed physics of the mechanical things inside the trains) will determine how you should proceed.

[Thomas]

The Simulink model is used to determine the positions of the trains. Later the model is used to implement and test different strategies to control the trains. The model doesn't need to simulate detailed physical effects since I am focusing on the strategy on how the trains are moving. I am thinking on using a state machine to position the trains on the track and an arduino interface to move the trains in the simulation.

[Iain]

You might consider state space methods to calculate the position of the trains in "real time" and a state machine for doing the control.

Answer 2

[khaled 7arb]

Hello, I am khaled and i am a researcher student in telecomparistech in france. I am working on the same idea which is simulation of trains which communicate through a gprs network. so they are 2 simulators actually one for simulating the trains generation and the other for the gprs network. Any ideas or advice from where to start ?

Thanks in advance, khaled