Development of an actively steered bogie

Funded by Bombardier Transportation. Principle Investigator – Professor T X Mei

Active control technology with the use of sensors, control electronics and actuators, can deliver the vehicle performance far beyond what is possible with the traditional passive suspensions. The actively controlled tilting trains are now in day-to-day operation, e.g. in Europe and Japan and beyond,  to increase the train speed without the need for a new railway infrastructure and active secondary suspensions are also being considered for commercial applications. However the latest research suggests that active control of wheels/wheelsets directly (also known as Steer-by-wire for railways) can provide  far better performance gains and potentially revolutionise future railway vehicles.

Built on world leading research of many years in the field by the Principle Investigator (Prof T X Mei), this project is focused on the practical implementation of the latest control strategies developed by the PI for a full size railway vehicle and demonstrates experimentally the benefits of the active  solutions – a world first of its kind. This project is a collaboration between two universities (the other university being Loughborough) and the industrial sponsor Bombardier Transportation. The universities were responsible for the development, implementation and testing of the control strategies, whereas the industrial collaborator undertook detailed hardware development for the bogie as well as the performance assessment using their comprehensive computer simulation software.

The project is fully funded by the industrial partner Bombardier Transportation.

Test Vehicle with actively steered bogie on a full size roller rig

Modified bogie for active steering