ICTE in Transportation and Logistics 2019

Transport and logistics heavily depend on economic activity and consumption decisions made by the market nationally and globally. Advanced economies face new global trends caused by more eco-friendly consumption behaviour decisions, distance shopping etc. The aim of the research is to model the economic impact of consumption decisions on transport and logistics caused by global trends. The inter-industry linkages are taken into account and input-output approach and scenario analysis are applied to model the impact of detected global trends on national transports and logistics industry. One EU country, Latvia, is selected as research case, however, the method and general findings can be applied to other countries. The findings are valuable to transport and logistics companies, agencies, governments.

Financial support provided to entities of the transport sector from public funds is an important element of the implementation of the European Union’s transport policy. The philosophy of the European Union’s activity assumes that granting assistance to private entities from public funds should be allowed exceptionally. It is difficult to imagine the situation in order to be able to intervene in economic processes in a free manner in the conditions of a market economy without prejudice to the functioning of free competition. The article presents the results of analyses in the use of public aid in the transport sector in Poland in 2007–2016.

The article presents the calculations for comparison and the choice of the most effective route in the organization of international transport. The southern and northern routes on the railways of the Republic of Kazakhstan are presented when cotton is transported in 20-foot containers from China to the station of the same name and the port of Bandar-Abbas of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Roughly ninety percent of world trade is carried by the international shipping industry which remains the most cost-efficient means for the global transportation of goods. Obstinate culture of the industry and barriers shipping must overcome in order to adopt digitalization are the reason why the sector has lagged behind in the process of digital transformation (DX). Shipping is in transition to acquire prospects of digital transformation with respect to optimized cargo handling, improved maritime procurement and logistics processes, enhanced efficiency, safety and minimizing environmental impacts. Based on a literature review the current study provides an overview of methods of digital technology implementation in maritime industry, discusses accompanying challenge areas and presents trends for it surmounting. Main result of the study is identifying and grouping of factors which characterize digitalization process in shipping industry.

The aim of the article is the optimization of load on transport corridor and the artery of the city by organizing the interaction of railway and urban transport, taking as an example the city route of Nur-Sultan [2]. In the result, the model has been worked out and the effectiveness of including a railway corridor with rail buses running along into the urban network of passenger transport has been proved. To improve the quality of the services provided in the article, it is additionally proposed to open a combined railway bus route and calculate its cost [3, 4]. The maximum network flow was calculated for the given initial conditions. Subsequently, by modeling the inclusion of additional branches that are other transport corridors into the algorithm, the possibility of increasing the maximum flow with a simultaneous improvement in the quality of urban passenger transport services was shown.

In the article some ways to improve the quality of the railway operation and to satisfy the demand for the transportation of cargos of small volume using the existing infrastructure of the railway and other modes of transport are considered. Possible schemes of passenger service and delivery of their freight luggage are considered in combination with the principles of logistics and interoperability to extend the servicing options of the railway. The most complete servicing scheme involves comprehensive customer service, either as a passenger or as a customer of the door-to-door cargo delivery service. The propositions for convenient implementation of the servicing and delivery process include: creation and use of a software product that will be implemented as a client-server application, development and introduction of a single shipping document which will not require any re-registration when the cargo is transferred to another mode of transport involved in the delivery.

An optimization problem in inventory management is considered, taking into account uncertainty of model parameters. The aim is to support decision making on the basis of an analysis of costs and risks. Options for the implementation of the model and its optimization are presented. A first approach is devoted to the stationary variant of the problem. For a case study, it is shown that optimized rule-based control improves the profit considerably.

Management of transport and logistics resources in the context of digital logistics is always at the center of research and business practice. This problem becomes especially important in the context of transition to Industry 4.0, when high demands are set to the infrastructure both in terms of costs and on the part of the strategic approach, taking into account the sustainability criteria and the response time to situations of fault. The article describes a comprehensive approach to life cycle management of transport and logistics infrastructure, based on the concept of enterprise architecture and logistics engineering. Coordinated interaction of enterprises within the life cycle stages “design – operation - operational control - verification and corrective actions - control system verification” is accepted as the basis of highly effective architecture of integrated TLS (ITLS), which is especially important in the conditions of digital transformation. The life cycle model forms the framework of a new generation of ITLS operating within supply chains on the principles of self-regulation of transport and logistics links (elements) with common resources that provide highly effective interaction with customers on the basis of IT-service. As a project approach based on logistics engineering, the use of a library of software procedures and models with an open description of it-services interfaces with a common database is considered. A systematic approach to service management allows businesses to manage risks, improve customer relationships, optimize costs and accelerate the flow of all business processes.

Modeling and simulation of complex sociotechnical systems such as supply chains and consumer markets include not only strictly the rational but the social components as well. Consumers are impacted by various parameters such as others’ opinions, rumors, overall mood of the community etc. Computer simulations are often used to observe how such phenomena form and change in time. The systems theory principles state that the system’s dynamics cannot be researched independently from the system’s structure, i.e., it is necessary to investigate the media over which the system operates. This leads to the inference that next to the observable behavior of the model, the structural composition must be considered. The paper investigates how different types of network structures impact the dynamics of contagion processes, in particular, the emotional state dynamics. The paper applies graph theory and network metrics to show that the structure parameters have an impact on the dynamics of the contagion.

The content of the article is aimed at planning the location of service facilities on a public roads on the international transit corridors of Kazakhstan. The basic principles of creating a roadside infrastructure with the growth of motorization, freight and passenger traffic in transport are analyzed. The growth of transit traffic increases the efficiency of using the reserves of transportation capacity of national transport systems, stimulates their reproduction and improvement. The consequence of the growth of transit traffic can increase the budget revenues, revenues of transport organizations and, accordingly, their effective development. The globalization of the economy and the accompanying processes of development of foreign economic relations require a new approach to the development of transport, the redistribution of freight and passenger flows. The growth of foreign trade requires a qualitative revision of the share of the transport component, but typical approaches to the formation this component must be revised.

In accordance with the Transport Strategy of Ukraine for the period up to 2030 and the State Target Program for the Reform of the Railway Transport for 2010–2019 it is necessary to implement the Association of Agreement between Ukraine, on the one hand, and the European Union, the European Atomic Energy Community and their member states, on the other hand. In this regard, the Ministry of Infrastructure has developed plans for the implementation of some acts of the EU legislation on rail transport, including the implementation of Directive 91/440/EU and 2001/14/EU and their respective roadmaps. These acts provide separation in the management of infrastructure and the organization of transportation on the basis of non-discriminatory access. To develop train schedules taking into account practical throughput, it is advisable to apply the principles of risk management theory.

Mobility, transportation and logistics are more and more influenced by a variety of indicators such as new technological developments, ecological and economic changes, political decisions and in particular humans’ mobility behavior. These indicators will lead to massive changes in our daily live with regards to mobility, transportation and logistics. New technologies will lead to a different mobility behavior with new constraints. These changes in mobility behavior and logistics require analytical systems to forecast the required information and probably appearing changes. These systems have to consider different perspectives and employ multiple indicators. Visual Analytics provides both, the analytical approaches by including machine learning approaches and interactive visualizations to enable such analytical tasks. In this paper the main indicators for Visual Analytics in the domain of mobility transportation and logistics are discussed and followed by exemplary case studies to illustrate the advantages of such systems. The examples are aimed to demonstrate the benefits of Visual Analytics in mobility.

In this article the comparative analysis of the methods for calculating the throughput capacity of the station’s neck is presented. Analysis of methods has revealed the main factors affecting the accuracy of the calculation. Besides, not all local conditions are taken into account in the analytical formulas. Nowadays, the issue of improving the calculation of the throughput capacity of the station’s neck, which will take into account the variety of the local conditions at the technical station in each case, is actual. The article proposes to use the calculating method based on the discrete timetable theory.

The development of multimodal passenger traffic requires a high level of consistency from its participants at different stages of the process. This will ensure the most efficient functioning of the passenger complex as a complete technological system. For this purpose, it is proposed to use modern experience in the creation of transport hubs on the basis of existing passenger stations. For their effective functioning, it is necessary to improve the system of provision of information services on the state of the passenger train. To be able to inform passengers in a timely manner about changes in the schedule of passenger trains or other types of transport, it is proposed to use the developed procedure for determining the duration of the passenger trip. It allows you to take into account the number of stops of passenger trains on the route and, accordingly, the time spent on accelerating and slowing the train when heading it on the section. Carriers of various forms of ownership will be able to use the results obtained for calculating the use of railway infrastructure.

The railway computer signaling systems should be realized using devices fulfilling specific requirements: high level of reliability, verification to enter safety conditions (errors detecting and the proper reaction), modularity, possibility to link to the network, possibility to connect many railway external devices (train sensors, signaling lights, track occupancy control circuits), possibility to link the external railway infrastructure to different control devices, possibility of work in the severe exploitation conditions (temperature, dampness, vibration). Such requirements can be ensured by the use of Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC). Computer devices based on PLC controllers are small sized, and have great possibilities of controlling, testing, diagnostic, and self-diagnostic. This paper presents computerized railway signaling systems used in Poland, which operate based on modern PLC controllers. The railway signaling systems’ software consider different requirements and fit to local topographic conditions, according to the imposed high level of safety.

Modern railway traffic control systems commonly use information and communication technologies. It allows for a significant enhancement in the functionality of these systems. One of the trends in the development of railway traffic control systems is equipping them with automatic diagnostics. This makes it possible not only to improve the reliability of these systems, but also effectively raises the railway traffic safety. The authors discussed the problem of using logical diagnosis, which on the base of the technical knowledge about the diagnosed systems, allows to detect faults in railway traffic control systems. In order to take uncertainty of diagnostic inference into account in the presented methodology Bayesian inference was used. As an example of the diagnosed system, the interface of the level crossing protection system and interlocking system were used.

Allowable functional safety levels of railroad’s digital automation systems set by EN50129 standard, cannot ensure required safety of a train traffic, especially for high speed. This article proposes methods to define functional safety rules and to confirm their correctness at the initial set up pre-check and while operation phase. Proposed methods to verify hardware and software architecture, which includes special methods to estimate probability of critical failure plus functional safety test methods.

The article presents the method of the comparative evaluation of centralization systems based on the graph theory using the adjacency matrices and graph distance matrix of the system structure. For these matrices, the coefficient of structural redundancy, the coefficient of structural compactness, the number of the principal contours of the connected graph and the degree of the structure centralization of the control system are calculated. The obtained indicators make it possible to analyze the structures of the control systems and to draw conclusions regarding their quality properties, in particular safety. The unfolded explanation is given describing how the basic properties of the system showing its functional operability are presented in the graph structure. It also explains the connection between the structure elements and the hierarchy levels of the microprocessor centralization of the control system with the number and spatial location of knots, their distribution on correspondent groups according to levels. In accordance with the connection lines between subsections and elements, the number and location of arcs constructing a graph are determined. As a practical application of the offered method, the example of the comparison of two wide-spread systems of the microprocessor centralization, namely, “Impuls” and “Ebilock-950” systems, is given. It enables structurally to unify and on the system level to integrate railway specialized computer systems. The results of the research presented in the article are intended for specialists in the field of development and research of railway control systems.

An integral part of the processes of management and communication support of modern transport and logistics systems is the use of technologies for remote information monitoring of the parameters of the technical condition when operating the vehicle. The task is to take into account the peculiarities of remote control by means of the IT modes of operation and rest of the driver while ensuring a control of the technical condition. The purpose of the study is analysis the interaction of monitoring tools to ensure compliance with the modes of operation taking into account road, transport, climatic conditions, etc. The initial data for monitoring is information about technical condition, safety and performance. A specialized digital tachograph equipped with a GPS monitoring unit is envisaged for the operation of the monitoring system. The results of joint interaction of technical means are presented.

Modern systems, such as cooperative robotics, mobile computing systems, transportation systems, have to operate in highly dynamic and volatile environments. Smart and autonomous behavior becomes indispensable characteristics of such systems. The article deals with the task of managing movements along a given route with obstacles by a Smart Autonomous Machine (SAM). The possibilities of control are shown on the basis of a new perception model, supporting the such cognitive functions as calculating the meaning of the space-temporal data segment from sensors, tracking the context and switching attention. The knowledge bases are given in the form of rules with linguistic variables used in the perception model for situational motion control of the SAM. Protocols of computer experiments with a simulation of the perception model are given and discussed, allowing to check its adequacy and effectiveness. A description of field experiments with a mobile wheeled robot is given. The experiments were conducted in an artificially created space, including a set of distributed landmarks, which are used as route markers. The scenarios for different routes and possible obstacles are analyzed.

One of the ways to reduce the harmful effects of undercarriage of traction and transport vehicles on the ground and to improve their traction characteristics is the use of rubber-track propulsion. Experimental research have shown that the rubber-track propulsion provides a more even distribution of the specific pressures created by the traction-transport machine and reduces the peak loads on the ground compared to the metal track. When the caterpillar propulsion interacts with the ground, the force of gravity of the machine is transmitted to the ground through the propulsive support branch. The values ​​of these reactions and the patterns of their distribution over the support surface reflect the physical essence of the processes of interaction between the propulsion unit and the ground. The article presents the results of the research of the distribution of normal pressure along the length of the support surface of the rubber track. The uniform distribution of pressure affects the permeability of the traction vehicle.

The analysis of the sources shows that there are no analytical dependences that describe the process of soil compaction with sufficient accuracy, taking into account the repeated effects of the loads of self-propelled road rollers. The absence of such laws complicates the study of the process of multiple compaction of soil by road rollers. Since the intensity of the compaction is significantly affected by the contact time of the road roller with the ground, the time factor is of significant importance, since the movement of the road roller is a consistent loading of the soil by the first, second, third, etc. passes. Therefore, the equations on the basis of which the calculations of multiple compaction of the soil from the impact of repeated loads by road rollers to stabilize its compaction are proposed. At the same time, the number of passes to complete compaction was calculated depending on the physical and mechanical properties of the soil and from the parameters of the road roller (load, imprint area, speed, respectively, the time of contact of the wheel with the ground, etc.).

The historical circumstances of the emergence and development of rail-water communication in the European international directions were determined and clarified. The significance of functioning of existing and perspective railway-ferry crossings of Ukraine and the Baltic countries in the context of the general transport chain of container and contrailer transport of a unified logistics system is revealed. Effective long-term operation of such logistics projects as Viking and Zubr, which are used to transport containers between the ports of the Black and Baltic Seas combines developed portship infrastructure and railway-ferry crossings complexes in Odessa, Chernomorsk, Yuzhny, Riga, Ventspils, Liepaja, Klaipeda, Tallinn-Muuga, etc. The current “EU-Ukraine Association Agreement” in the transport sector confirms the significance of the planned joint intentions and measures, and causes intensive development of intermodality and interoperability of the Ukrainian-Baltic international transport systems.

The article discusses the problems associated with the design of freight rail cars. The aim of the study is to determine methods for modernizing freight cars, as well as creating a whole complex of new generation cars. The results of the analysis of the state of the rolling stock of Kazakhstan, which can be used to judge the relevance of work, are reflected. It is determined that the basis for the development of rolling stock of a new generation should be the principle of a modular layout with a rational unification of units and systems that reduces the cost of these structures and their development. Some ways of developing the design of freight cars are considered in detail. The prospects for the use of composite material - fiberglass as the material of the body and elements of the car on the example of the boiler of the tank car are examined. The replacement of steel sheets of the car body of a freight car with sheets of aluminum alloys is considered. The parameters of articulated cars are considered using the example of a hopper car.

The existing automation systems in railway transport provide a sufficient amount of redundant information. The comprehensive analysis of that allows controlling the wide range of operational characteristics for the tasks of optimizing the assets and their resources management. The goal of the research is to develop a method for the automatic identification of railway cars for the check-out system of operation life expenditure by means of the data integration of the existing commercial and diagnostic systems. The paper proposes a method for determining the parameters of railway cars in the process of movement based upon calculating the statistical characteristics of the acceleration and kinematic relations between the state coordinates. The probabilistic decision-making method and set theory are used for reconcile the data obtained to determine the railway cars with the data of commercial information systems.

Safe movement of the rolling stock is the major responsibility of every country with an operating railway sector. This type of major defect under code XX 30.1, once detected, poses a threat to further operation of the rolling stock. Horizontal splitting in the head reaching deeper than 8 mm from the tread surface can result in chipping of the rail head, which in its turn can cause the rolling stock to run off the track. This article discusses statistics of highly defective rails under code 30.1 in Latvian railway between 2011 and 2018. A piece of chip from the rail head of type R-65 was examined. This fragment of rail was examined for metal hardness, chemical composition and metal microstructures. Full evaluation and main conclusions were made about the quality of rail steel, and also versions of occurrence and development of this type of major defect were discussed.

The purpose of the work is substantiating conditions for use of the target gravity braking technology for railway cars. To implement this technology, a marshalling system with a specific plan and profile design is proposed. Unlike conventional marshalling humps, the proposed system does not have any braking positions on the descending slope. The speed of cars rolling down from the hump is reduced with the help of the brake position in the classification bowl and elevations before it. Sufficient intervals between the groups of cars on switches are ensured only with the longitudinal profile. The main advantages of the marshalling system with target gravity braking technology include the significantly simplified rolling speed regulation without need for automated braking on the descending slope, and reduced effect of human factor and random parameters. Conditions of use of the target gravity braking technology are justified on the basis on the analysis of the calculation data of the rolling parameters of estimated cars with different values of uncoupling speed, wind speed and direction, permissible trailing-point movement speed and exceeding the permissible speed of entering the parking retarder position.

In the paper the fastening device of the railway rolling stock is described. The main idea of the construction was its simplicity and safety. The device consists of brake pads, which are mounted on the running rails with typical rail linings. Brake pads are put and removed from the heads of the running rails, using a track switch. Additional elements, namely laser and Parktronic, are built into the brake pads. Elements send the signal through the radio transmitter into the driver’s cabin, about the distance left to the complete rolling of the wheel pair on the brake shoe. Due to this device, the accuracy of the rolling stock fastening is increased. When the train departs, the driver receives a signal through the radio transmitter about whether the shoes remained under the wheel pairs.

In mechanical engineering, including transport, rotary machines with a horizontal, vertical or inclined axis of rotation are widely used. They have an imbalance that causes vibration during their operation. The use of automatic balancing devices (ABD) can reduce the imbalance of unbalanced rotor systems operating in the super resonance velocity range. However, when accelerating the compensating masses in the rotor-ABD system, a side mode, different from the auto-balancing mode, may occur. In this paper, based on the mathematical model of a horizontal rotor with an ABD, the possible modes of motion of compensating masses are considered and the attraction regions of the main auto-balancing mode are constructed depending on the value of the viscous friction coefficient in the ABD. It is shown that at the decrease of the coefficient of viscous friction in the ABD, the attraction region of the auto-balancing mode decreases, while the rotor system switches to another stable mode.

The paper provides a theoretical analysis of the effectiveness of cellular mobile networks, which are used by operators in both public and transport networks of the GSM-R standard, several options of approaches to determining efficiencies of cellular networks in mobile communications (CNMC) in transport, including of GSM-Railway. The formulas and numerical estimates of the above CNMC efficiencies are provided. The article will contribute to the improvement of mobile network in transport and help in the development of new efficient network applications in the transport sector.

The quality of service the users of intelligent transportation systems highly depends on the methods of information processing in telecommunication networks. In particular, forward error correction codes are an important element of many telecommunication technologies. In last decade a lot of studies have been carried out and attempted to improve the performance of different codes. The study indicates that rateless codes can be used to increase the reliability of data transmission in telecommunication networks of intelligent transportation systems. In the article bio-inspired optimization method of degree distributions of rateless codes is discussed. The main stages and features of this method are presented. The simulation results approve that proposed approach significantly improves error performance of rateless codes. Due to this, the effectiveness and robustness of network-based intelligent transportation systems are increased.

Timely made handover decision between wireless access points (APs) in extended service set (ESS) WiFi network infrastructure with fast moving objects can reduce goodput degradation and interruptions of wirelessly transmitted data and consequently increase the average goodput and decrease the average response time of the network. Handover process has to occur on several layers (e.g. data link layer, network layer, application layer), therefore all these layers contribute to the common delay in the handover process. The 802.11k/r/v standards can be inspected together to effectively improve the handover performance. The handover issue in the data link layer can be mitigated using 802.11v standard to implement network assisted handover for directing poorly connected clients. This work presents recommendations and practical solution with improved handover procedure in WiFi based vehicular communication networks (VCNs).

The concept is based on the ultra-wideband technology, which consists in the transmission of low-power coded pulses in a very wide frequency band without carrier frequency. The task is to ensure sustainable and safe operation of mobile transport objects. The goal is to increase the capacity and interference immunity of control and communication systems under the action of natural and intentional interference in transport and logistics systems. The use of the Gaussian monocycle with information coding by means of temporary position-pulse modulation as a code signal ensures high volumes and speeds of information transmission with high noise immunity of the communication channel and its protection from interception is justified. It is shown that for the organization of independent channels in one frequency band it is advisable to use a system of orthogonal codes. A technical solution for the design of an ultra-wideband receiving – transmitting antenna system is proposed. Work with low radiated power allows for stable communication in transport and logistics systems.

The main aim of the article is to investigate the influence of the method of railway telegram encryption on the delay of transmission in open radio systems. It is intended for persons actively involved in the security of radio transmission for railway tasks and persons involved in the legal legislation of standards. The development of the systems of wireless communication and their availability causes that various branches of transport imply wireless technologies for their needs. Although every radio transmission may be systematically protected without unauthorized access, additional methods of encryption improving safety according to the designers of such systems are applied in specific applications. The norm EN 50159:2011 was analyzed in this article. The main assumptions contained in the standard are presented in this article and it is addressed to persons dealing with railway safety. The results presented in this article can be used to verify the usefulness of the application of encryption methods described in the standard in terms of parameter - delayed transmission and changes in legal regulations in this area.

This work considers the main problems associated with electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) in WiFi networks, widely used in modern rolling stock vehicles of railway transport. Typical internal electromagnetic (EM) interference is caused by the high density of equipment layout in the rolling stock, and external EM interference is created by public cellular networks of mobile communication and other radio engineering systems. The main parameters are estimated of EMC in WiFi networks, which allows to increase the EMC at the time of configuring these networks. The results of experiments are shown to determine the parameters of WiFi networks within the selected railway wagon, which show a high level of fluctuations in the useful signal along the wagon and a sufficiently high level of EM interference signals, which ultimately affects the EMC of WiFi network.

The modern vector of the development of railway transportation logistics puts as the main goals forward uninterrupted and timely delivery of freights to destinations, reducing the time of freight cars turnover, optimizing the process of passengers conveyance. An important role in the implementation of this strategy in the railway sector is assigned to centralized traffic control systems and supervisory control systems. These systems regulates the movement of trains, increase train-handling capacity, and ensure safe and uninterrupted operation of railways. A transmission and reception of information in such systems occurs under simultaneous impact of several interference. Some of the interference are random, and some of them are described by deterministic functions of time. The effect of interference on the receiving device leads to errors in discrimination of information signals and in interpreting of information messages. The average probability $$ P_{EM} $$ of discrimination error is an objective indicator of the interference immunity of the reception. In this paper, we consider the case of discrimination of three information signals. The interference is the sum of the deterministic sinusoidal and impulse components, as well as Gaussian noise with a uniform spectrum. The discrimination is made by joint parameters estimation of information signals and deterministic interference based on the minimum mean square error criterion. The authors evaluated the potential lower limit for $$ P_{EM} $$. It is shown that in a wide range of signal and interference parameters, the potential interference immunity is several orders of magnitude better than the boundary value, which is determined by the requirements for the functional safety of railway control systems.

Remote monitoring is one of the most important steps in operating of a modern transport vessel. Monitoring of technical condition includes the use of vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) systems for the formation and application of separate systems of the ship power plant maintenance and repair. The information V2I model developed by the authors is characterized by the vibrational field of the transport vessel, means of monitoring of the technical condition parameters and infrastructure components for monitoring of any transport vessel. The article describes the features of the information V2I system, the process of preparation, monitoring and assessment of the technical condition of the transport vessel power plant under operating conditions with the possibility of predicting its technical condition. The main idea is to implement the information V2I system for monitoring of the technical condition of the transport vessel power plant in the practice of transport operation.

Automotive mechatronics involves the multidisciplinary integration of automotive mechanical and electronic systems. As such, automotive mechatronics education integrates knowledge and competences across automotive-specific mechanics, electronics, communication, advanced control, and modeling. Over the last few years, the subject of autonomous vehicles has been attracting significant attention from researchers, as well as interest from the media and the public at large. It encompasses a myriad of new applications, ranging from driverless cars to airborne surveillance of sensitive areas. Designing solutions for autonomous vehicles requires the integration of hardware and software components, as well as interaction with cloud-based servers. This paper focuses on autonomous/unmanned ground vehicles within the scope of a mechatronics curriculum. It has been proposes an educational model for autonomous vehicles for inclusion in the new mechatronics curriculum of NewMetro, an EU funded project that aims to develop an innovative European framework of competences for mechatronics education.

The e-course for teachers in the field or transport and logistics forms the motivation for professional communication, skills in using digital resources, reducing uncertainty over new technologies, recognition by colleagues, increasing self-esteem and striving for continuous improvement and development. The LMS Moodle learning environment is used for organizing the communicative interaction of all stakeholders in order to form professional competencies. The system tracks the dynamics, progress of training, and clearly shows which elements of the course have already been passed, and which are just to be completed. Teachers who study on the course have the opportunity to feel like students. The development of digital competence of teachers in the field or transport and logistics is a priority that can be solved with the help of a blended learning system.

In the domain of mobility and logistics, a variety of new technologies and business ideas are arising. Beside technologies that aim on ecologically and economic transportation, such as electric engines, there are also fundamental different approaches like central packaging stations or deliveries via drones. Yet, there is a growing need for analytical systems that enable identifying new technologies, innovations, business models etc. and give also the opportunity to rate those in perspective of business relevance. Commonly adaptive systems investigate only the users’ behavior, while a process-related supports could assist to solve an analytical task more efficient and effective. In this article an approach that enables non-experts to perform visual trend analysis through an advanced process support based on process mining is described. This allow us to calculate a process model based on events, which is the baseline for process support feature calculation. These features and the process model enable to assist non-expert users in complex analytical tasks.

Article discusses logistics around multifunctional and widely reproducible model for testing university student’s practical knowledge and skills, matching them to the labor market needs, contributing to a university business cooperation, providing international outreach, increasing student’s employability, providing quality assurance for curriculum content and more. Authors argue that all these things can be accomplished by a trivial tool – virtual test that is voluntary, cannot be retaken, is highly applicable to the engineering sciences and does not require capital investments. Article describes logistics of people and information within the proposed solution, including virtual and physical conditions, feedback loops, input/output sections and more. Article consists of literature review, expert discussions, model developed by the authors and analysis of previous initiatives in this area.

The article presents technical solutions to improve the energy efficiency in the system of traction rail power supply. Railway transport is a powerful consumer of electricity. A rather high part of the cost of railway transportation is determined by the cost of electricity consumed. In connection with the constant increase in the cost of electricity, an urgent task is to increase the energy-efficiency of electric transport systems, which will ensure a reduction in the cost of rail transportation. To improve the energy efficiency of electric traction, the concept of an intelligent traction power supply system is proposed, which provides monitoring and control of the transmission of electricity to the traction network. This system ensures the rational use of the recovery mode at the traction substations and in the electric rolling stock, work with powerful electrical energy storage devices, as well as connecting alternative energy sources to the traction power supply network. The Matlab/Simulink is used for developing a simulation model of the proposed intelligent traction power supply system. The research audience is engineers and scientists who work in the field of energy and railway power supply systems.

Simulation is recognized as a suitable tool for sociotechnical systems research. But the variety and complexity of sociotechnical systems often leads to the need for distributed simulation solutions to understand them. Models that are built for infrastructure planning are typical examples. They combine different domains and involve variety of simulation approaches. This article proposes an easy management environment that is used for VeloRouter software – a multi agent-based bicycle path network and exploitation simulator that is built as a microservice architecture where each domain simulation is executed as a different microservice.

The intensive growth of the territory of modern cities is closely connected with the development of transport infrastructure. Digitalization of traffic management processes is the prerequisite for efficient organization of urban transport to ensure sustainable development of cities. Using artificial intelligence, Big Data and predictive analytics, new telecommunication technologies and the Internet of Things, computer modeling, blockchains, new “human-machine” interaction interfaces, and new technologies of security, including cybersecurity contribute to the expansion of modern transport infrastructure. These technologies were used for developing the information and analytical system to monitor the roadside pollution by traffic flows. The software designed enables to study the influence of the parameters of individual vehicles in a traffic flow, operational and climatic conditions, as well as the characteristics of transport infrastructure on roadside pollution. Information and analytical system involves the use of vehicle-to-infrastructure technologies for assessing and forecasting roadside pollution for possible options of transport infrastructure.

Environmental friendliness is one of the most important indicators of the quality of modern heat engines and boiler plants, due to the significant negative impact of the chemical and physical nature of these objects on the environment. When creating modern measurement information systems to deter-mine the environmental performance of boiler plants and heat engines, the following goals are set: ensuring a wide scope of use and a long life of equipment, increasing its compactness and mobility, ensuring the high accuracy and cost-effectiveness of using these systems. Therefore, the task of creating a universal system for the ecological diagnosis of heat engines and boiler rooms, which take measures to improve the efficiency of measurements, is appropriate. The purpose of the work was to create and experimentally work out an automated, non-versatile system for ecologically diagnosing heat engines and boiler installations of various purposes according to the indicators characterizing the material and physical pollution of the environment. The technical solution of realization of system of ecological monitoring and diagnostics of heat engines and boiler rooms by information methods is offered. The structure, composition and functional purpose of the basic modules of this system are shown: instrumental, test-demonstration and laboratory.

It is established that basically all the known indicators of the evaluation of the patency of machines are single, which allow them to be compared only on one specific indicator. At the same time, the support and coupling indicators for assessing the patency of machines are also evaluated separately. Moreover, it is known that the support and coupling indicators of the permeability of machines have an impact on each other. In this regard, the relationship between the support and coupling indicators of their permeability is not taken into account when assessing the patency of machines. At the same time, the smaller the bearing capacity of the soil base, the more intense it is manifested. Therefore, the calculation equations for the evaluation of interconnected coupling and support indicators of self-propelled machines are proposed. The results of calculations on the proposed equations confirm their adequacy to the practical data obtained during the operation of specific self-propelled machines.

This research presents three new smart hydrones in case of floods or Tsunami rescue and relief operations anywhere and anytime. Three new models of smart hydrones such as the MAR21, MAR25 and MAR27 smart hydrones are provided. Initially, the MAR21 smart hydrone has a large structure to facilitate the carrying of food, medicines, and water to areas were affected severally by any flood or Tsunami. At the same time, the MAR21 smart hydrone can handle also to do it a deep cleaning service of any area was affected by floods or Tsunami subsequently. Additionally, the MAR21, MAR25 and MAR27 smart hydrones offer to government and humanitarian agencies an alternative natural disasters emergency transportation system to support large floods or Tsunami rescue and relief operations anytime and anywhere.