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Mechatronics and Intelligent Transportation Systems
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Mechatronics and Intelligent Transportation Systems (MITS)
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ISSN (print): 2958-020X
ISSN (online): 2958-0218
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2026: Vol. 5
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Mechatronics and Intelligent Transportation Systems (MITS) is a peer-reviewed open-access journal dedicated to the study of intelligent transportation systems, with a focus on the engineering technologies that support their design, operation, and improvement. The journal provides a platform for high-quality research on how sensing, control, and mechatronic technologies are applied within transportation systems to improve performance, safety, and efficiency. MITS encourages contributions that address transportation problems from a system perspective, including modelling, control, optimisation, and evaluation under realistic conditions. Topics of interest include intelligent vehicles, traffic systems and mobility, connected and cooperative transportation, perception and sensing technologies, human–machine interaction, and the integration of mechatronic and cyber–physical components in transportation applications. MITS operates a structured peer-review process and follows established editorial standards. The journal is published quarterly by Acadlore, with issues released in March, June, September, and December.

  • Professional Editorial Standards - All submissions are subject to a structured peer-review and editorial process designed to ensure fairness, integrity, and consistency in the evaluation of scholarly work.

  • Efficient Publication - A coordinated review and production workflow supports the timely publication of accepted articles while maintaining editorial and scientific standards.

  • Gold Open Access - All published articles are made freely available upon publication, supporting broad dissemination and accessibility of research outputs.

Editor(s)-in-chief(1)
yougang sun
College of Transportation, Tongji University, China
1989yoga@tongji.edu.cn | website
Research interests: Maglev Vehicle Dynamics; Nonlinear Control and Intelligent Monitoring; Under-Actuated Robotic Systems; Electromechanical System Modelling and Control; Advanced Control Methods for Transportation and Mechatronic Systems

Aims & Scope

Aims

Mechatronics and Intelligent Transportation Systems (MITS) is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal dedicated to the study of intelligent transportation systems, with particular attention to the engineering mechanisms through which such systems are realised, operated, and improved.

Transportation systems are understood as complex, evolving entities shaped by vehicles, infrastructure, control mechanisms, information flows, and user interactions. Within this setting, mechatronic technologies, sensing systems, and control approaches function as enabling components that support and enhance transportation system performance, rather than as independent domains of inquiry.

The journal examines how these technologies are embedded within transportation environments and how they influence system behaviour, operational efficiency, safety, and adaptability. Priority is given to studies that address transportation problems at the system level—covering modelling of system dynamics, coordination of system components, operational control, and evaluation of system performance under realistic conditions.

Submissions should establish a clear connection between technical developments and transportation system outcomes. Work that remains confined to isolated device design or generic algorithmic improvement, without explicit relevance to transportation contexts, is considered outside the scope of the journal.

The journal contributes to the understanding of how intelligent and automated capabilities are incorporated into transportation systems, supporting more reliable, responsive, and human-aware mobility solutions. By maintaining a strong focus on system behaviour and engineering implementation, the journal provides a forum for research that links technological development with measurable improvements in transportation performance.

Key features of MITS include:

  • System focus. Transportation systems are treated as the primary object of inquiry, rather than standalone technologies or disciplinary components.

  • Engineering integration. Emphasis is placed on how engineering technologies—particularly mechatronics, sensing, and control—are embedded within and shape the operation of transportation systems.

  • Methodological substance. Preference is given to contributions that present explicit modelling, analytical, experimental, or evaluative frameworks within transportation contexts.

  • Real-world relevance. Studies addressing system behaviour, coordination, performance, safety, and adaptability under real or realistically simulated conditions are encouraged.

  • Human and operational dimensions. Human interaction, operational constraints, and implementation challenges are regarded as integral elements of intelligent transportation systems.

  • Rigour and transparency. A structured peer-review process supports methodological clarity, technical rigour, and reproducibility.

Scope

MITS welcomes original research articles, review articles, methodological contributions, theoretical studies, and analytically grounded applied investigations that advance understanding of intelligent transportation systems and their engineering realisation. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Modelling and Dynamics of Transportation Systems

    Traffic flow dynamics, vehicle–infrastructure interactions, and system behaviour under varying operational and environmental conditions.

  • Control, Optimisation, and Decision-Making

    Real-time control strategies, adaptive and distributed coordination, and decision-making under uncertainty in dynamic traffic environments.

  • Intelligent Vehicles and Automated Driving

    Autonomous driving, advanced driver assistance systems, vehicle dynamics, and the integration of perception, control, and decision processes within vehicles operating in transportation systems.

  • Perception, Sensing, and Data Processing

    Computer vision, image processing, lidar, and multi-sensor fusion applied to traffic monitoring, environment perception, and navigation.

  • Connected, Cooperative, and Networked Systems

    Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), and networked mobility systems; communication architectures, cooperative control, and system-level coordination.

  • Traffic Systems, Mobility, and Multimodal Integration

    Urban and interurban traffic systems, multimodal transport integration, mobility patterns, and system-level performance of transportation networks.

  • Mechatronic and Cyber–Physical Integration

    Design and integration of mechatronic components, embedded systems, and cyber–physical systems within transportation applications.

  • Human Factors and Human–Machine Interaction

    Driver behaviour, user interaction, human-in-the-loop systems, and behavioural responses in intelligent transportation environments.

  • Energy and Electrified Transportation Systems

    Electric vehicles, charging infrastructure, energy management, and integration of energy systems within transportation operations.

  • Digital, Data-Driven, and Emerging Systems

    Digital twins of transportation systems, data-driven modelling, edge computing, and intelligent data integration for transportation analysis and operation.

  • System Evaluation, Validation, and Implementation

    Performance assessment, validation methodologies, field deployment, benchmarking, and comparative evaluation under real-world or representative conditions.

Articles
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Abstract

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Transit-oriented development (TOD) offers a planning basis for compact, mixed-use, and vibrant station areas. However, in many rapidly developing Chinese cities, metro-network expansion has not been matched by coordinated station-area commercial renewal, resulting in spatially uneven street-level activity despite improved transit accessibility. Taking the North Ring Road Station area in Changchun, China, as a case, this study examines the associations between TOD-related spatial conditions and observed human activity intensity as a proxy for commercial spatial vitality, and how these spatial associations can inform targeted regeneration strategies. Within an 800 m TOD analytical boundary, commercial point of interest (POI) data, Baidu Heatmap-derived human activity data, building footprints, road-network data, land-use information, and field observations were integrated. Average nearest-neighbor (ANN) analysis, kernel density estimation (KDE), standard deviational ellipse (SDE) analysis, ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, and geographically weighted regression (GWR) were applied within a 5D TOD framework. The results reveal a dual-core, corridor-oriented, and spatially uneven commercial structure. Commercial facility agglomeration and functional diversity are positively associated with observed activity intensity, whereas transit distance, road-network configuration, building morphology, and proximity to commercial anchors exhibit spatially heterogeneous associations. These results suggest that transit proximity and commercial concentration alone do not necessarily correspond to spatially continuous activity when pedestrian permeability, interface openness, and functional mixing are limited. The study translates these associations into evidence-informed transport-development responses that coordinate metro-entrance access, pedestrian transfer and first/last-mile connections, commercial functions, and surrounding land uses, thereby providing a micro-scale diagnostic approach to station–street–commercial integration.

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Low-speed urban micro-mobility can support sustainable last-mile transportation in dense urban environments, particularly where compact vehicle dimensions, cargo capability, and flexible energy access are required. This study presents the design and experimental evaluation of a Hybrid Solar-Electric Cart (HSEC) as a photovoltaic (PV)-assisted urban micro-mobility platform, with micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) logistics considered as a principal application scenario. A Design-Build-Test-Evaluate (DBTE) engineering framework was applied to prototype development, system integration, and field validation. The HSEC integrates a reinforced steel chassis, a 2 kW 72 V brushless direct current (BLDC) mid-drive motor, dual 72 V 22 Ah LiFePO$_4$ batteries, a 300 W PV array, battery management system (BMS)-based battery-state monitoring, maximum power point tracking (MPPT)-regulated charging, and automatic battery switching. These functions form a coordinated energy-management architecture that supports source monitoring and propulsion continuity during low-speed operation. Under the reported field conditions, the prototype achieved an average operating range of approximately 40 km per battery, remained functional under combined rider-and-cargo loads of up to 180 kg, completed low-speed turning maneuvers with an approximate radius of 5.6 m, and charged one battery from 30% to 90% state of charge (SOC) in approximately 3.6 h under tropical solar conditions. The findings demonstrate the engineering feasibility of integrating PV charging, dual-battery energy management, and compact cargo mobility within a low-speed transportation platform. The proposed architecture may support last-mile logistics, neighborhood transport, designated vendor routes, campuses, tourism areas, and other low-speed mixed-use environments, subject to further durability, safety, ergonomic, environmental, and techno-economic validation.

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Intelligent transportation systems increasingly rely on connected and autonomous platforms operating across road, rail, low-altitude, and marine environments. These systems must accommodate nonlinear and time-varying dynamics, environmental uncertainty, communication limitations, safety requirements, and tightly coupled operational constraints. Model predictive control (MPC) is well suited to such conditions because it combines future-state prediction, constrained optimization, and closed-loop correction within a receding-horizon framework. This review examines the theoretical foundations, major formulations, and transportation applications of MPC across four domains: ground vehicles and traffic networks, railway systems, low-altitude unmanned aerial transportation, and marine autonomous systems. The literature was organized according to transportation mode and application, with attention given to prediction models, control objectives, operational constraints, uncertainty treatment, computational requirements, and validation methods. The review showed that ground transportation research placed greater emphasis on vehicle motion control, connected-vehicle coordination, traffic signal optimization, and network regulation. Railway applications focused mainly on train regulation, virtual coupling (VC), scheduling, energy-efficient operation, and maglev control. Low-altitude studies addressed trajectory tracking, obstacle avoidance, multi-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) coordination, and learning-based prediction, whereas marine studies concentrated on underactuated motion, environmental disturbances, collision avoidance, navigation rules, and surface–underwater cooperation. Across these domains, model uncertainty, online computational burden, conflicting control objectives, coupled safety constraints, and limited real-world validation remained the principal obstacles to wider deployment. The findings indicate that MPC architectures must be adapted to the dynamics, operational environment, and communication conditions of each transportation mode. This review clarifies the common and domain-specific requirements of MPC in multimodal intelligent transportation and identifies the technical issues that require further theoretical and experimental study.

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Digital railway transport systems increasingly integrate online ticketing, real-time passenger information, digital payment, onboard connectivity, and customer support into the passenger journey. Their effectiveness depends not only on the availability of these functions but also on how passengers experience and evaluate their interactions with them. This study investigates the relationship between digital experience and railway passenger satisfaction (RPS) and examines the parallel mediating roles of perceived value and digital trust in the Vietnamese railway context. Survey data were collected from 348 passengers who had recently used at least one digital railway service and were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling. Digital experience was positively associated with passenger satisfaction ($\beta$ = 0.452, $p <$ 0.001) and accounted for significant variation in perceived value and digital trust. Both mediating pathways were statistically significant, although the indirect effect through perceived value ($\beta$ = 0.175, $p <$ 0.001) was stronger than that through digital trust ($\beta$ = 0.113, $p$ = 0.001). Together, digital experience, perceived value, and digital trust explained 62.2% of the variance in RPS. These findings indicate that the passenger-side performance of digital railway transport systems rests on the quality of integrated interactions across digital touchpoints, particularly their convenience, reliability, security, and service value. The study provides a passenger-centred framework for evaluating the implementation of digital railway services and identifies the user-related factors that railway operators should consider when planning and prioritising digital system improvements.

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Railway timetable planning plays a central role in the coordination and operational performance of transportation systems. Efficient timetable development remains essential for balancing infrastructure constraints, service quality, operational efficiency, and economic objectives in railway operations. The interaction among these dimensions makes timetable planning a complex decision problem for infrastructure managers and transport operators. This study aims to evaluate the relative importance of the principal criteria influencing railway timetable planning and to provide quantitative support for transportation system decision-making. A structured evaluation framework was developed using the fuzzy PIvot Pairwise RElative Criteria Importance Assessment (fuzzy PIPRECIA) method. Forty decision-makers with professional experience in railway operation, infrastructure management, engineering practice, and academia participated in the assessment process. Five main criteria were examined: railway line capacity, railway station capacity, number of passed trains, quality of train operations, and revenues of the planned timetable. The results showed that revenues of the planned timetable received the highest importance weight, followed by quality of train operations, number of passed trains, railway line capacity, and railway station capacity. The findings further showed that operational and economic dimensions exerted greater influence on timetable planning decisions than infrastructure-capacity factors. The results indicate that railway timetable planning should be approached as a system-level coordination problem rather than a capacity allocation exercise alone. This study provides a structured decision-support perspective for evaluating competing planning priorities and offers a practical basis for improving timetable development and operational performance in railway transportation systems.

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With the rapid expansion of high-speed railway networks and the continuous growth in urban travel demand, the efficiency of first/last-mile connections at transport hubs has become a critical factor constraining the performance of integrated transportation systems. Demand-responsive customized bus services dynamically match passenger demand with available capacity, providing a feasible solution for improving travel flexibility. However, in practical applications, the rational design of customized bus networks remains challenging due to heterogeneous spatial demand distributions, vehicle capacity limitations, and various operational constraints. This study proposes an integrated methodological framework for customized bus network design that combines three key components: stop identification, route optimization, and simulation-based validation. First, a hybrid clustering approach that integrates density-based clustering with centroid partitioning is employed to extract potential stop locations from passenger origin–destination data. A capacity-constrained mechanism is further introduced to regulate clustering results, ensuring that stop sizes are compatible with vehicle carrying capacity. Based on the identified stops, the network design problem is formulated as a vehicle routing problem with time window constraints, where operational cost, passenger travel time cost, and environmental impact are jointly considered as optimization objectives. A genetic algorithm is adopted to solve the model. A case study involving a feeder service between a high-speed rail station and the urban core business district is conducted, and the proposed framework is validated through simulation using the AnyLogic platform. The results demonstrate that the proposed method improves vehicle utilization and route efficiency while maintaining service quality and system stability. This research provides a practical technical pathway and decision support for the intelligent design and operation of demand-responsive customized bus services.
Open Access
Research article
A Bio-Inspired Multi-Modal State Evaluation and Game-Theoretic Coordination Approach for Active Safety in Intelligent Public Transport Systems
li wang ,
wenting jia ,
liuhua zhang ,
zhengquan li ,
jinchao xiao ,
nanfeng zhang ,
jingfeng yang ,
yingyi wu
|
Available online: 04-17-2026

Abstract

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Ensuring the safety of public transport systems has become increasingly challenging with the growing complexity of traffic environments and vehicle–road–driver interactions. Conventional approaches that rely on single-source information are often insufficient to support comprehensive monitoring and coordinated response. This study proposes a bio-inspired multi-modal state evaluation approach for active safety in intelligent public transport systems. Drawing on principles of biological multi-sensory integration, the proposed method integrates driver physiological signals with heterogeneous road perception data through a multi-sensor fusion framework, enabling real-time assessment of traffic safety states. On this basis, a game-theoretic coordination strategy is developed to support collaborative prevention and response among vehicle, driver, and road-side elements under dynamic traffic conditions. The approach is evaluated across urban roads, expressways, and intersection scenarios. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves improved accuracy, recall, and real-time performance compared with baseline methods, while maintaining stable performance under noisy and incomplete data conditions. This work provides a system-oriented approach for integrating multi-source sensing and coordinated decision-making in intelligent public transport safety management.

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The increasing complexity of modern urban traffic networks demands intelligent control strategies that can anticipate and adapt to dynamic traffic conditions. Model Predictive Control (MPC) is a framework that optimizes vehicle control by predicting future states and respecting real-time constraints, such as traffic signals at intersections. However, the computational complexity of MPC increases significantly with the number of decision variables and constraints, which is directly proportional to the length of the prediction horizon, creating a critical trade-off between control performance and computational efficiency. To address this challenge, this paper proposes an adaptive-horizon optimal driving (AHOD) bi-level optimization framework that incorporates a novel time-step discretization for real-time trajectory optimization and integrates it into a full traffic signal cycle. Unlike conventional MPC, which employs uniform time discretization leading to exponential growth in decision variables with horizon length, the proposed AHOD framework assigns finer time steps near signal phase transitions and coarser steps in the distant horizon, maintaining a fixed number of optimization nodes regardless of cycle length. The proposed framework comprises two controllers: the upper and lower controllers. The Upper controller employs finer resolution at critical times of signal change and coarser resolution in distant horizons, thereby reducing computational cost while maintaining prediction accuracy. The lower controller applies a practical MPC scheme to generate realtime control actions that are consistent with the long-term constraints of the upper controller. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed framework achieves up to 17.6% fuel savings compared to traditional human driving and reduces computation time by approximately 61% compared to long-horizon MPC, while maintaining comparable control performance. The proposed framework enables real-time, cycle-aware predictive control for connected and automated vehicles (CAVs), and establishes a practical basis for embedding long-horizon prediction within an MPC-based trajectory-planning framework.

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Rolling bearings are critical components of marine shafting power transmission systems, and accurate prediction of their vibration signal trends is essential for predictive maintenance. To address the limited adaptability of conventional time-series forecasting models under varying operating conditions and their insufficient ability to capture strong noise and abrupt changes, this study proposes a vibration signal prediction method that integrates particle swarm optimization (PSO) with an improved Informer model. PSO is used to adaptively optimize key Informer hyperparameters for different operating conditions, while a rolling time-window mechanism is introduced to enhance the capture of abrupt signal variations. In addition, a mixture of sparse attention (MoSA) encoder with a collaborative dense-head/sparse-head structure is designed to balance global temporal dependency modeling and local fault feature extraction. Experimental results on the Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) bearing fault dataset show that the proposed model outperforms Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), Transformer, Informer, iTransformer, and Flowformer in terms of Mean Squared Error (MSE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE), and Root Mean Squared Erro (RMSE). The model achieves an MSE of 0.2015, which is 25.5% lower than that of the second-best iTransformer model. It also demonstrates robust performance under four different bearing operating states, confirming its adaptability to complex operating conditions. The proposed method provides a promising technical route for the predictive maintenance of rolling bearings in marine shafting systems.

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