A survey of simulation platforms for the assessment of public transport control systems

In public transportation, simulation provides capabilities of investigation of complex interactions between the components of the transportation system, including infrastructure, vehicles, passengers and intelligent transportation system. Although many simulation platforms (either commercial or open source) exist to test, validate and evaluate the performance of control systems, the development of platforms that integrate specific requirements of public transport systems still requires much investigation and effort. This paper reviews the main features of traditionally used simulation platforms. A comparative analysis is provided based on different criteria related to infrastructure, vehicles or the ability to implement and test intelligent and distributed control architectures. Several research directions are also pointed out and discussed.