Petri Net-Based Functional Representation of a Level Crossing

It is commonly known that the main entity that causes accidents on level crossings is a user of the level crossings. User's behaviour in the area of the level crossing heavily depends on the type of its protection. According to the Slovak level crossings statistics performed by the Slovak Rails, the "most dangerous" crossings are the ones equipped with a level crossing signalling system and an optical warning device. The main aim of the paper is to present a functional representation concept of a level crossing with various types of protection. The modelled level crossing has defined parameters with regard to the Slovak conditions. The Petri nets are used for the description of system behaviour. In conclusion, model comprises of a simple set of states and events that respond to transitions between these states in discrete time periods.