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                        CTIL


            
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        Cab Technology Integration Laboratory (CTIL)
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        **Ensuring the Safe Operation of Automated or Partially Automated Locomotives: The Role of Driver State Monitoring Systems (Work in-progress)**
        **Lead Researcher:**Naomi Dunn (Virgina Tech Transportation Institute)

**Description:** This study will utilize CTIL to validate two driver state monitoring (DSM) systems. DSM systems use sensors to determine driver states that are detrimental to safe operation, including distracted, drowsy, or generally inattentive. Active and retired locomotive engineers will be recruited to take part in two CTIL simulations, utilizing the same scenario and each of the two DSM systems. Study participants will be asked to operate over monotonous scenery and given minimal workload while CTIL collects performance data (e.g., ability to maintain speed, time to respond to speed changes, and detection of stimuli). Researchers will use the data to examine how well each of the DSM systems can identify instances of drowsiness and varying levels of alertness in the locomotive engineer during the simulation. Results from this study will inform the industry on DSM technology effectiveness.

**Project Status:**Work in-progress
  


      **User Centered Design for Railroad Automation (Work in-progress)**
        **Lead Researcher:**Michael Cowen (Monterey Technologies, Inc.)

**Description:** This research proposes a total systems human factors design and development process (UCD-Rail) to create a more optimal cab console user interface that is user-centered as opposed to data-centered. As part of this work, researchers will develop a novel user interface/user experience according to UCD-Rail process. The proposed UI/UX should ensure that the right information and functionality are displayed at the right time so that the user can better manage, adapt to, or override possibly unsafe automated rail equipment control decisions. Researchers will utilize CTIL to develop, implement, and evaluate the demonstration.

**Project Status:**Work in-progress
  


      **Evaluation of habituation to alerts in locomotive cabs**
        **Lead Researcher:**Kelly Ozdemir (KEA Technologies, Inc.)

**Description:**This study will utilize the CTIL to investigate the effects of various auditory alerts on experienced locomotive engineers. Researchers are primarily interested in whether habituation to in-cab audio alerts may occur as observed in other sectors. Study participants will be asked to operate either a standard freight or passenger locomotive (dependent on what they are familiar with) for a prolonged period.  The CTIL will be programmed to have areas of both high and low workload within the track. Throughout the duration of the study, one to two novel tones will be introduced randomly and researchers will instruct operators to acknowledge this tone by pressing a button in the simulator.  Thus, the goal of this study is to do a preliminary investigation on an aspect of locomotive operations that has not been fully researched with regard to performance, workload, and alerts.

**Project Status:** Completed
  


      **Development of a symbology library for Head-up Displays**
        **Researchers:** Kelly Ozdemir (KEA Technologies, Inc.)

**Description:** Researchers from KEA Technologies, Inc. are developing symbology for head-up displays (HUDs) to improve safety and optimize operations. The primary goal is to create a subset of symbols for both freight and passenger rail operations to incorporate in a prototype HUD system and test in a realistic environment. The evaluation will utilize CTIL and an augmented reality system developed by partners at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This effort will also identify symbols currently used by railroads and which symbols are preferred across the rail industry.

**Status:** Completed
  


      **Design and evaluation of a robust manual locomotive operating mode**
        **Lead Investigator:** Kirk Mathews (GE Global Research)

**Description:** Researchers from GE Global Research are developing and evaluating a new locomotive operating mode that provides a way for a locomotive engineer to direct train motion at a higher level of abstraction than traditional manual mode, but with more control and visibility into system operation than is presently offered by energy management system automatic modes. This is a first step toward a 'clean slate' redesign of locomotive cab and control systems to lower experience requirements and decrease workload, enabling locomotive engineers to perform higher-level tasks as well as spend more time looking out the window, which will increase safety and job satisfaction. This project will provide new insights into control systems and the skills which are required of locomotive engineers. The hypothesis to be tested in CTIL is that such an operating mode will reduce the performance gap between expert and apprentice locomotive engineers in typical main-line scenarios.

A visual breakdown of the design and evaluation of a robust manual locomotive operating mode.

**Illustration:** Relation among envisioned system elements and existing elements.  The Robust Manual Mode allows the engineer to specify behaviors which then are interpreted by the automation to determine specific speed control decisions.

**Project Status:** Completed

CTIL Stakeholder Meeting Presentation
  


      **Augmented reality for railroad operations using Head-up Displays**
        **Lead Researcher:**Charles M. Oman (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

**Description:** Researchers are investigating whether a new type of head-up display (HUD) will result in improved engineer/conductor situation awareness of critical events and automation transitions. The display system leverages augmented reality, optical head tracking, and a wide field-of-view to project critical information alongside real-world objects seen through the windshield. Quantitative evaluation of the design will be performed with human-in-the-loop experiments in CTIL. Image:

An annotated image depicting human error.

Illustration of the AR-HUD concept. Conformal symbology highlights and approaching signal while the static elements provide speed and location information. The signal symbols would move on the HUD as the physical signal gets closer to the train. Head trackers ensure proper registration of the conformal symbology when the engineer moves his head.

**Project Status:** Completed

FRA Technical Report
  


      **Evaluation of automation-induced human error in the locomotive cab**
        **Researchers:**Angelia Sebok, Jordan Haggit and Marc Gacy (TiER 1 Performance Solutions)

**Description:**This study used the CTIL to investigate human error opportunities with automation in the locomotive cab. Sixteen crews of professional engineers and conductors participated in simulated runs along a 17-mile segment of track. They performed the runs multiple times, with and without using automation. The crews worked with either Positive Train Control (PTC) or Trip Optimizer (TO), depending on their operational experience. The scenarios include low and high workload conditions that differ in terms of the number of events that occur in the scenario. This research examined the potential for automation-induced human error and the effects that automation has on operator workload and train control behaviors. Based on the findings, design and training recommendations will be made in the final report.

This study is a systematic empirical evaluation that follows from a preliminary exploratory study performed in the CTIL in 2016, and presented at the 2017 Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting.

**Project Status:** Completed
  


      **Head-Up Display to reduce distraction for locomotive engineers**
        **Researcher:**Rachel Grice (FRA)

**Description:** FRA seeks to develop an understanding of how dispatch radio communications could potentially lead to human-performance degradation in the railroad engineer, and whether a Head-Up Display (HUD) combined with digital transmission of radio communications would be an alternative superior technology to communicate non-urgent information usually conveyed over dispatch radios. These questions were explored in an experiment using the CTIL.

**Project Status:** Completed
  


      **Investigating human-automation interaction and human error in the cab**
        **Lead Researcher:** Angelia Sebok (TiER1 Performance Solutions)

**Description:** This presentation delivered at the 2017 Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting discusses a study that used the CTIL to investigate human error opportunities associated with automation in the locomotive cab.  In the study, operators were observed interacting with simulated Trip Optimizer (TO) and Positive Train Control (PTC) systems in a simulated train run.  Three professional engineers participated in three simulated runs along a 17-mile segment of track.  In the first (familiarization) scenario, the operators worked without automation.  In the second scenario, the engineers used PTC or TO, depending on their experience with the technology.  In a third scenario, the engineers worked with automation as they had in the second scenario, but three events were added: a work zone (presented on the automation and discussed in a pre-run briefing), a temporary speed restriction, and a stop and protect.  The last two events were not displayed on the automation, and were communicated by a radio call from the dispatcher. The scenarios, while not a carefully controlled experimental study, provided the researchers with useful insights regarding human error potential.

**Project Status:**Completed

Conference Presentation (TRB)
	CTIL Stakeholder Meeting Presentation
  


      **Modeling human-automation function allocation effectiveness in rail**
        **Lead researcher:** James Brooks (General Electric Global Research)

**Description:** In 2016, GE Global Research teamed with MIT to build a hierarchical task model of the Trip Optimizer (TO) software, and used it to inform a potential future iteration of it.  GE collaborated with several Class I freight railroads to bring in TO-experienced engineers to validate the model and test the next-generation TO concept using the CTIL.  This research provides a methodology to design and evaluate new roles for humans and automation systems.

**Project Status:** Completed

Conference Presentation (TRB)
  


      **Human factors evaluation of an experimental engineer crewstation**
        **Researchers:**Matthew Isaacs, Megan France, and Gina Melnik (Volpe Center)

**Description:**In 2014, to directly address future human-machine interface concerns and to encourage out-of-the-box design approaches to the operation environment, FRA commissioned QinetiQ North America Technology Solutions Group to design and construct an experimental prototype crewstation in order to demonstrate an alternative crewstation concept and design approach.

The Volpe Center conducted a human factors evaluation of the experimental crewstation to find areas where it could provide or deny human factors benefit when compared to the Association of American Railroads (AAR) 105 control stand. This was done by performing an initial evaluation with human factors experts to define major areas of concern; a comparison of the experimental crewstation (and the existing AAR-105 control stand in the CTIL) to one of the most commonly-used human factors design standards, the Department of Defense Design Criteria Standard: Human Engineering (MIL-STD-1472G); an evaluation using the CTIL’s anthropometric modeling software to look at reachability, comfort, visibility and arm support; and, a usability test with experienced engineers in the simulator.
The AAR-105 control stand in the CTIL The AAR-105 control stand in the CTIL.The prototype experimental crewstation in the CTIL The prototype experimental crewstation in the CTIL.**Project Status:** Completed

Conference Presentation (IAROO)
	Conference Presentation (TRB)
  


      **A preliminary design for a Head-Up Display for rail operations**
        **Lead Researcher:**Andrew Liu (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

**Description:** This research project designed a locomotive Head-Up Display (HUD), a secondary display that helps the operator locate possible hazards in the surrounding environment while maintaining an awareness of the vehicle’s current state. HUDs are widely used in both military and commercial aviation and they are gradually being adopted in general aviation, but much less common in automobiles. In 2016, this project utilized the CTIL to examine the usefulness of HUDs for locomotives and concluded that HUDs could help engineers avoid accidents and improve their performance.

**Image:** The prototype HUD design. The symbology includes (1) a speed display, (2) in-cab signals, (3) a moving dynamic element highlighting external objects of interest, and (4) a message box for upcoming events.

**Project Status:**Completed

FRA Research Results
  


      **Moving map displays: Measuring operator glance durations and performance in locomotive cabs**
        **Lead Researcher:** Jared Young (University of Massachusetts – Amherst)

**Description:**In 2015, UMass Amherst researchers used MIT's moving map display in the CTIL to examine how the distribution of operator glances changes with the use of moving map technologies, when compared to paper charts.  This study was funded by the New England University Transportation Center (UTC).

**Project Status:** Completed

Conference Presentation
  


      **Development and evaluation of a moving map display for rail applications**
        **Researchers:** Andrew Liu, Charles Oman, and Kathleen Voelbel (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

**Description:** MIT developed a real-time moving map display to support engineer situation awareness. The design was informed by a cognitive task analysis, and was tested using rail engineers in the CTIL.

**Project Status:** Completed

FRA Technical Report
  


      **CTIL demonstration with moving map technology**
        **Researchers:** Gina Melnik, Hadar Rosenhand, and Matthew Isaacs (Volpe Center)

**Description:** In this system demonstration,****researchers used surrogate (novice) engineers to compare operator behavior in trains running with and without moving map technology. Because surrogate engineers were used for the experiment instead of experienced locomotive engineers, the results have limited applicability. Lessons learned and general best practices for designing and running future CTIL experiments are discussed in the report resulting from this research (see below for link).

Moving map display used in the study, designed by Alion Science and Technology

**Image:** Moving map display designed by Alion Science and Technology and used in the study.

**Project Status:** Completed

FRA Technical Report
  


      **Reducing major rule violations in commuter rail operations: Distraction and its mitigation with sustained attention training**
        **Researchers:** George Elsmore (Veolia Transdev), Raja Parasuraman (George Mason University)

**Description:** Veolia Transdev, together with George Mason University and Volpe, conducted a two-phase study aimed at understanding and then reducing engineer distraction.  Researchers used knowledge of key distraction issues gained in the CTIL during the first phase to design a training program intended to reduce engineer distraction. This training module was tested in the CTIL during the second phase.

Veolia implemented its attention training program in 2013, which resulted in the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) closing an FRA Safety Recommendation with a classification of “acceptable action.”  The recommendation (R-05-009) was to *“**Develop guidelines for locomotive engineer simulator training programs that go beyond developing basic skills and teach strategies for effectively managing multiple concurrent tasks and atypical situations.”*

**Project Status:** Completed

FRA Technical Report

    
          Last updated: Tuesday, November 28, 2023 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

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