Handbook on Digital Twin and Artificial Intelligence Techniques for Rail Applications

With contributions from experts from around the world, this handbook aims to systemize the existing experience and knowledge that can be used to the development of more efficient and controlled railway systems. As a result, this handbook showcases the modern methods, methodologies and frameworks for the development of DT and AI architectures and apparatus in the area of the existing railway systems and transport engineering tasks. The chapters cover such varied and specialized topics as the processes related to the transformation of a physical twin into a digital twin; the application of data-driven and physics-based simulation approaches in the development of digital twins; asset management application tasks with the implementation of DT and AI; and the experimental and field applications of the DT and AI concepts and technologies in railway transport system design and predictive maintenance tasks.

Handbook on Digital Twin and Artificial Intelligence Techniques for Rail Applications is essential reading for engineers, practitioners and researchers involved in the development of railway transport and transit systems.

Maksym Spiryagin is Professor of Engineering and the Deputy Director of the Centre for Railway Engineering at Central Queensland University. Professor Maksym Spiryagin's current research work includes almost all stages of the development and realization of an engineering project from the definition of its aims to the development of design concepts and, if required, advanced computer simulation approaches and physics-based digital twin techniques including their verification by experimental programs and the development of the final solutions. Professor Spiryagin is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit, the Journal of Vehicle System Dynamics and the Journal of Railway Engineering Science. Professor Spiryagin has published five authored books (including ‘Design and simulation of heavy haul locomotives and trains’ in 2017 and ‘Rail Vehicle Mechatronics’ in 2021) and two edited books (including ‘Handbook of Railway Vehicle Dynamics, Second Edition’ in 2020), and he has more than 330 other scientific publications. Professor Spiryagin is a Chartered Professional Engineer, RPEQ and RPEV in Australia and a Chartered Engineer in the UK.

Stefano Bruni is Full Professor at Politecnico di Milano, Department of Mechanical Engineering, where he teaches applied mechanics and dynamics. He is the leader of the “Railway Dynamics” research group, carrying out research on rail vehicles and their interaction with the infrastructure. Prof. Bruni authored over 330 scientific papers, mostly related to rail vehicle dynamics, train-track interaction, wheel/rail contact forces, damage and wear of wheels and rails, active control and condition monitoring of rail vehicles, and pantograph-catenary interaction. He is / has been lead scientist for several research projects funded by the railway industry and by the European Commission. He is past Vice-President of the IAVSD, the International Association for Vehicle System Dynamics, and was chairman of the IAVSD’05 International conference held in Milano in 2005. He is Editorial Board member for some international journals in the field of Railway Engineering.

Colin Cole is Professor of Engineering and the Director of the Centre for Railway Engineering at Central Queensland University. He has worked in the Australian rail industry since 1984, starting with six years in mechanized track maintenance for Queensland Railways. Since then, he has focused on a research and consulting career involving work on track maintenance, train and wagon dynamics, train control technologies and the development of on-board devices. He has been extensively engaged with industry via the past nationally funded Rail CRC programs and the Australasian Centre for Rail Innovation. His PhD was in Longitudinal Train Dynamics Modelling. He has authored and/or co-authored over three hundred technical papers, three books, numerous commercial research and consulting reports, and has developed two patents relating to in-cabin locomotive technologies. He has continued to develop the railway ant road specific modelling and software tools with focus on traction, vehicle stability and energy consumption.

Professor Cole is a Chartered Professional Engineer and RPEQ in Australia