Review of autonomous operation control technology for railway transportation

YU Zujun; WANG Hongwei; WANG Xi; LI Yang; LI Xuehan

doi:10.11860/j.issn.1673-0291.20250145

Abstract：China has built and operated the world's largest high-speed railway and urban rail networks.With the continuous expansion of network scale and the growing complexity of operating environ-ments,existing automated train operation control systems face diverse challenges in improving effi-ciency and adaptability,and are increasingly unable to meet the requirements of safe and efficient op-erations under high-density traffic and dynamic conditions.Autonomous operation control for railway transportation,which integrates perception,low-latency and high-reliability communication,autono-mous train control,and intelligent scheduling,is expected to enable safe and efficient train operations in complex environments,thereby facilitating the intelligent development of rail transit.This paper provides a comprehensive review of autonomous operation control technologies for railway transporta-tion.It first summarizes domestic and international research progress and practical applications in this field,clarifies the connotation of autonomy,compares the concepts of autonomy in maritime,road,and railway transportation,and systematically outlines the key technology framework composed of inte-grated perception,low-latency and high-reliability communication,autonomous train control in complex environments,and intelligent train scheduling.The paper then analyzes the application prospects of these key technologies in the rail transit domain and discusses practical implementations through representative case studies.Finally,it identifies the bottlenecks and challenges in real-world deployment and explores future development directions.This paper aims to provide systematic reference and support for both theo-retical research and engineering practice in autonomous operation control of railway transportation.