Active Guidance of Railway Vehicles Using Traction Motor Torque Control

SUMMARY This paper develops the intelligent wheel concept forwarded by Wickens. A two “wheel-pair” vehicle is considered. The wheel-pair consists of two independent wheels pinned to a frame. The wheels have hub motors that provide the torque for steering as well as traction. A simple controller is applied to demonstrate the performance of the system. The maximum guidance error is shown to be 2 mm on a 54 m radius curve and the vehicle has a critical speed of 108 kph. A discussion of the merits of the system and some practical considerations are entered into.