Applications of particle swarm optimization in the railway domain

This paper provides a comprehensive review regarding the applications of particle swarm optimization (PSO) in the railway domain. One hundred and thirty nine (139) publications in the railway domain are listed and summarized. The review indicates that PSO has seen more and more applications in the railway domain in recent years; scheduling, active controls, and network layout planning represent the three largest application areas. PSO variants such as genetic PSO, chaotic PSO, and quantum-behaved PSO are also used in the railway domain. The inertial weight has been widely accepted and used in railway applications, while the contraction coefficient and variable velocity limit have seen fewer applications. Optimization of vehicle mechanical systems dynamics has been identified as an area that has the potential for more applications. From this paper, researchers from other areas of the railway domain can identify many other potential applications. Parallel PSO was not found in previous railway applications; it can be one direction to leverage the PSO applications by improving the computational speed. Two new application cases of parallel PSO for railway vehicle designs were presented. © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.