Virtual Reality for Railway Signaling System Training

Abstract

The railway signaling system is an important part of the rail systems that is used for railway traffic control and safety. At present, most of railway signaling labs rely on physical models and devices which require large space and regular maintenance. Emerging of Virtual Reality (VR) offers more flexibility to many applications including education, training, and testing since its operations are based on software and visualization. Using VR allows installation, updating, adjustment and maintenance to be performed more easily and effectively with effective cost, time, and space requirement. This paper aims to develop a virtual reality lab for training in railway signaling and control. The VR lab of railway signaling simulation consists of two stations, trains, tracks, a virtual dashboard and signaling posts including point machines. All models used in this paper are created by Blender which is a free software tool for 3D modeling. The VR environment of the lab is created by Unity which is a software platform for VR development. The functions of all developed models are programed using C# language. The basic route setting and the usage of subsidiary signal e.g., call-on and shut signal are demonstrated in this paper. The test results ensure the capability of the developed VR lab for training the target groups including students, engineers, and train drivers.