SBIR Phase I: A Decision Support System for the Railroad Blocking Problem

Innovative Scheduling Systems, Inc., Gainesville FL

Investigators

Abstract

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project concerns developing a decision support system for the railroad-blocking problem, one of the most important optimization problems arising in the shipment of cars over the railroad network. It will develop a series of software products using state-of-the-art optimization techniques, advanced data structures, and information technology tools to automate their decision-making process, thereby improving their operational efficiency and reducing costs. A decision support system for the railroad-blocking problem is the first step towards this goal. Railroads have not benefited from the advances taking place in the field of optimization and they rely on manual decision-making process for most of their planning and scheduling needs. The railroad-blocking problem is a very large-scale optimization problem and cannot be solved to optimality using the state-of-the-art algorithmic ideas. The proposed work will use a heuristic algorithm developed by the PI to solve this problem using an emerging technique, known as the Very Large-Scale Neighborhood (VLSN) Search The proposed Phase I research consists of incorporating several additional features to this algorithm and performing a thorough computational testing of the software. The success of this project will lead to greater acceptance of the optimization models and optimization based software in the railroad industry and will pave the way for new software products for several other equally important problems including the block-to-train assignment, train scheduling, locomotive scheduling, and crew scheduling. In the long run, this will lead to more efficient US railroads with improved profitability. It is anticipated that the use of this software will result in an annual savings in tens of millions of dollars for any major US railroad.