Hi All
We are working intensively on the next version of Flatland and assure you that it will be a fun challenge.
In order to mimic real world challenges, faced by real world railway companies, we involved experts from operations within SBB to improve the next version of Flatland.
We are currently implementing the last features and are hoping to release the next version of Flatland soon and thereby start Round 2.
To simplify the use of your current code for the next round and prepare any necessary adjustements we would like to announce the preliminary standings of the development of Flatland 2.0. You can expect to see the following changes in the upcoming release:
- Much sparser railway network: Realistic railway networks where complex network nodes are connected through single railway connections increase the difficulty of optimal solutions.
- Environment width and height will stay in the same order of magnitude (no to minor changes)
- Number of agents in the environment will stay the same. But the limited railway network will lead to a higher density of Trains.
- Different Speed Profiles: Each agent will move at a different speed (approx 4 speed profiles). Each agent can only stand still or move at its max speed. The fastest agent moves one cell per time step, all slower agents only move fractions of a cell. Agents can only chose an action when entering a new cell, the intermediate steps are executed automatically and an action is only required at the transition to the next cell.
- Stochasticity during episodes: A malfunction model has been implemented which overrides agent actions with a certain probability (Poisson Procces). Malfunctions always lead to agents stopping. Frequency and duration of malfunctions are currently being investigated to provide a feasible level of complexity.
We will also update the stock observation builders* and predictors to incorporate these changes. This should help you getting started with your code.
We are also working on a FAQ Page where all questions from the discussion forum will be collected and answered.
As soon as we have finalized the changes in Flatland 2.0 we will be notified and the Challenge Page will be update with the final details.
In the meantime don’t hesitate to reach out to us with any requests or questions, we are here to help.
The Flatland Team
Here is a sneak peak at early build of Flatland 2.0 (Gif to follow soon 
):
