The emerging integration of mechatronic systems in modern railway vehicles enables significant improvements with respect to safety, comfort, and wear reduction. To fully exploit the potential of mechatronic systems, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) complements its validated estimation and control concepts in the field of lateral vehicle dynamics with approaches for longitudinal dynamics. The present work introduces an adhesion-based maximum-seeking brake control that offers a benefit in contrast to slip-based approaches especially in safety critical scenarios.
The running gears of DLR's long-term project Next Generation Train utilize independently rotating wheels with mechatronic track guidance, direct drives close to the wheels and are optimized for low weight. On the basis of encouraging research results so far, DLR decided to design and build a true scale prototype of the NGT running gear and use it as a research facility. It is the intention to improve, validate and demonstrate the mechanical and mechatronic design, sensor and actuator lay-out step by step and finally approach the Technology Readiness Level 6. By the end of 2022, this prototype will be put into operation considering low speed scenarios up to max. 5 m/s at an in-house integration test rig. This is the current task, which is reported on in the paper. However, this work is supposed to prepare advanced performance experiments up to 350 km/h on external roller rigs and at railway test tracks later on.
Safety is especially for high-speed railway traffic one of the main aspects that has to be continuously improved to sustainably strengthen the railway sector and shift the modal split. To overcome the limitations of passive systems, an active control of mechatronic running gears provides essential advantages. In the present work, the focus is on the active control of lateral and longitudinal dynamics which are closely coupled via the tangential wheel-rail contact. Therefore, the introduced integrated control concept combines lateral and longitudinal control tasks. After the description of the lateral and longitudinal sub-level controllers the benefits of the integrated control are demonstrated. A comparison of the developed concept with a reference control using a preallocated torque for the lateral track guidance is drawn. The results of a simulation including volatile wheel-rail conditions and a jump in the desired lateral position underline the potential of integrated control to reduce braking distances and simultaneously improve lateral stability.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.