Integrated Model Predictive Control of High-Speed Railway Running Gears with Driven Independently Rotating Wheels

Abstract: Railway running gears with independently rotating wheels (IRW) can significantly improve wear figures, comfort, and safety in railway transportation, but certain measures for wheelset stabilization are required. This is one reason why the application of traditional wheelsets is still common practice in industry. Apart from lateral guidance, the longitudinal control is of crucial importance for railway safety. In the current contribution, an integrated controller for joined lateral and longitudinal control of a high-speed railway running gear with driven IRW is designed. To this end, a novel adhesion-based traction control law is combined with linear time-variant and nonlinear model predictive control (MPC) schemes for lateral guidance. The MPC schemes are able to use tabulated track geometry data and preview information about set points to minimize the lateral displacement error. Co-simulation results with a detailed multi-body simulation show the effectiveness of the approach compared with state-of-the-art techniques in various scenarios, including curving, varying velocities up to 400 km/h and abruptly changing wheel-rail adhesion conditions.