Research on speed control of high-speed trains based on hybrid modeling

With the continuous improvement of train speed, the automatic driving of trains instead of driver driving has become the development direction of rail transit in order to realize traffic automation. The application of single modeling methods for speed control in the automatic operation of high-speed trains lacks exploration of the com-bination of train operation data information and physical model, resulting in low system modeling accuracy, which impacts the effectiveness of speed control and the operation of high-speed trains. To further increase the dynamic modeling accuracy of high-speed train operation and the high-speed train's speed control effect, a high-speed train speed control method based on hybrid modeling of mechanism and data drive is put forward. Firstly, a model of the high-speed train's mechanism was created by analyzing the train's dynamics. Secondly, the improved kernel-principal component regression algorithm was used to create a data-driven model using the actual opera-tion data of the CRH3 (China Railway High-speed 3) high-speed train from Huashan North Railway Station to Xi'an North Railway Station of "Zhengxi High-speed Railway," completing the mechanism model compensation and the error correction of the speed of the actual operation process of the high-speed train, and realizing the hybrid modeling of mechanism and data-driven. Finally, the prediction Fuzzy PID control algorithm was devel-oped based on the natural line and train characteristics to complete the train speed control simulation under the hybrid model and the mechanism model, respectively. In addition, analysis and comparison analysis were conduct-ed. The results indicate that, compared to the high-speed train speed control based on the mechanism model, the high-speed train speed control based on hybrid modeling is more accurate, with an average speed control error reduced by 69.42%. This can effectively reduce the speed control error, improve the speed control effect and oper-ation efficiency, and demonstrate the efficacy of the hybrid modeling and algorithm. The research results can provide a new ideal of multi-model fusion modeling for the dynamic modeling of high-speed train operation, further improve control objectives such as safety, comfort, and efficiency of high-speed train operation, and pro-vide a reference for automatic driving and intelligent driving of high-speed trains

Timed Fault Tree Models of the China Yongwen Railway Accident

Safety is an essential requirement for railway transportation. There are many methods that have been developed to predict, prevent and mitigate accidents in this context. All of these methods have their own purpose and limitations. This paper presents a new useful analysis technique: timed fault tree analysis. This method extends traditional fault tree analysis with temporal events and fault characteristics. Timed Fault Trees (TFTs) can determine which faults need to be eliminated urgently, and it can also provide a safe time window to repair them. They can also be used to determine the time taken for railway maintenance requirements, and thereby improve maintenance efficiency, and reduce risks. In this paper, we present the features and functionality of a railway transportation system based on timed fault tree models. We demonstrate the applicability of our framework via a case study of the China Yongwen line railway accident

Assessment of the worthwhileness of efficient driving in railway systems with high-receptivity power supplies

Eco-driving is one of the most important strategies for significantly reducing the energy consumption of railways with low investments. It consists of designing a way of driving a train to fulfil a target running time, consuming the minimum amount of energy. Most eco-driving energy savings come from the substitution of some braking periods with coasting periods. Nowadays, modern trains can use regenerative braking to recover the kinetic energy during deceleration phases. Therefore, if the receptivity of the railway system to regenerate energy is high, a question arises: is it worth designing eco-driving speed profiles? This paper assesses the energy benefits that eco-driving can provide in different scenarios to answer this question. Eco-driving is obtained by means of a multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm, combined with a detailed train simulator, to obtain realistic results. Eco-driving speed profiles are compared with a standard driving that performs the same running time. Real data from Spanish high-speed lines have been used to analyze the results in two case studies. Stretches fed by 1 × 25 kV and 2 × 25 kV AC power supply systems have been considered, as they present high receptivity to regenerate energy. Furthermore, the variations of the two most important factors that affect the regenerative energy usage have been studied: train motors efficiency ratio and catenary resistance. Results indicate that the greater the catenary resistance, the more advantageous eco-driving is. Similarly, the lower the motor efficiency, the greater the energy savings provided by efficient driving. Despite the differences observed in energy savings, the main conclusion is that eco-driving always provides significant energy savings, even in the case of the most receptive power supply network. Therefore, this paper has demonstrated that efforts in improving regenerated energy usage must not neglect the role of eco-driving in railway efficiency

Smart Traction Control Systems for Electric Vehicles Using Acoustic Road-type Estimation

The application of traction control systems (TCS) for electric vehicles (EV) has great potential due to easy implementation of torque control with direct-drive motors. However, the control system usually requires road-tire friction and slip-ratio values, which must be estimated. While it is not possible to obtain the first one directly, the estimation of latter value requires accurate measurements of chassis and wheel velocity. In addition, existing TCS structures are often designed without considering the robustness and energy efficiency of torque control. In this work, both problems are addressed with a smart TCS design having an integrated acoustic road-type estimation (ARTE) unit. This unit enables the road-type recognition and this information is used to retrieve the correct look-up table between friction coefficient and slip-ratio. The estimation of the friction coefficient helps the system to update the necessary input torque. The ARTE unit utilizes machine learning, mapping the acoustic feature inputs to road-type as output. In this study, three existing TCS for EVs are examined with and without the integrated ARTE unit. The results show significant performance improvement with ARTE, reducing the slip ratio by 75% while saving energy via reduction of applied torque and increasing the robustness of the TCS.Comment: Accepted to be published by IEEE Trans. on Intelligent Vehicles, 22 Jan 201

An intelligent framework and prototype for autonomous maintenance planning in the rail industry

This paper details the development of the AUTONOM project, a project that aims to provide an enterprise system tailored to the planning needs of the rail industry. AUTONOM extends research in novel sensing, scheduling, and decision-making strategies customised for the automated planning of maintenance activities within the rail industry. This paper sets out a framework and software prototype and details the current progress of the project. In the continuation of the AUTONOM project it is anticipated that the combination of techniques brought together in this work will be capable of addressing a wider range of problem types, offered by Network rail and organisations in different industries

Railway Safety Risk Assessment and Control Optimization Method Based on FTA-FPN: A Case Study of Chinese High-Speed Railway Station

In order to make safety risk assessment more accurately and more reasonably for high-speed railway station in China, this paper analyzes risk factors of fault tree and transfers the fault tree of risk accident into fuzzy petri net and then builds the FPN-FTA model by combining the dynamic weighting fuzzy petri net (FPN) and fault tree analysis (FTA) based on the latter. This paper simulates the FTA-FPN model with Stateflow of Matlab software. Then, it builds up a bi-objective risk control model, making the minimum safety risk level and minimum necessary cost as the objectives, and it designs discrete particle swarm optimization algorithm to solve the risk control model. Finally, this paper selects stampede accident of Shijiazhuang high-speed railway station as an example in case study for assessing stampede risk level and gets the risk control schemes for this station. The results verify the feasibility and validity of the model and algorithm. Document type: Articl