Method of and device for controlling controlled elements of a rail vehicle

• US 6,484,074 B1
• Filed: 02/07/2001
• Issued: 11/19/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Alstom Transport SA (Alstom SA)
• Original Assignee: Alstom SA
• Inventors: Vantalon, Frédéric, Hazard, Laurent
• Primary Examiner(s): Cuchlinski, Jr., William A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Donnelly, Arthur D.
• Application Number:
  US09/762,468
• Time in Patent Office: 650 Days
• Field of Search: 701/19, 701/20, 701/24, 701/25, 701/26, 701/35, 701/37, 701/38, 701/72, 702/5, 246/182.R, 246/182.B, 246/122.R, 246/167.R, 105/199.2
• US Class Current: 701/19
• CPC Class Codes: B61F 5/22 Guiding of the vehicle underframes with respect to the bogies

Abstract

A method of controlling controlled elements of a rail vehicle, in which method descriptive geometrical characteristics of the rail track are calculated by measuring inertial values on board the vehicle and control set points for said controlled elements are generated from said characteristics, characterized in that it includes the steps of:

determining the location of the vehicle on the rail track on which it is travelling by comparing calculated geometrical characteristics with geometrical characteristics stored in a database (16) and obtained by a learning process;

extracting geometrical characteristics corresponding to the next curve from the database (16); and

generating control set points for the controlled elements in advance from the extracted characteristics.

Claims

1. A method of controlling controlled elements of a rail vehicle, including calculating descriptive geometrical characteristics of a rail track by measuring inertial values on board the vehicle and generating control set points for said controlled elements from said characteristics, comprising the steps of:

determining a location of the vehicle on the rail track on which said vehicle is travelling by comparing calculated geometrical characteristics with geometrical characteristics stored in a database and obtained by a learning process;

extracting geometrical characteristics corresponding to a next curve from the database; and

generating control set points for the controlled elements from the extracted characteristics prior to said vehicle arriving at said next curve.

2. The control method according to claim 1, wherein before generating the control set points of the connecting elements, at least one of the calculated geometrical characteristics is compared to a window for validating the location of the rail vehicle generated from the respective data extracted from the database and corresponding to a presumed location of the rail vehicle, and if there is no correspondence between the geometrical characteristics calculated and the validation window, control set points for the controlled elements are generated from the calculated geometrical characteristics.

3. The control method according to claim 1, wherein said determining the location of the vehicle comprises identifying the rail track on which the vehicle is travelling by comparing the calculated geometrical characteristics with characteristics stored in the database and calculating the distance to the next curve based on a measured speed of the rail vehicle and a length of a straight section preceding said curve extracted from the database.

4. The control method according to claim 3, wherein at least on leaving each curve, the location of the vehicle on the rail track is corrected by comparing geometrical characteristics calculated while negotiating the curve with characteristics stored in the database.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of transmitting the control set points to the controlled elements equipping each car of the rail vehicle at times that enable compensation of the time-delays generated in the operation of said controlled elements and depending on the location of each car in the vehicle.

6. The control method according to claim 1, wherein the controlled elements are elements of an active suspension.

7. The control method according to claim 1, wherein the controlled elements control a position of orientable axles of a bogie.

8. The control method according to claim 1, wherein the controlled elements control a tilt of a tilting rail vehicle, and the control set points are inclination angle set points.

9. The control method according to claim 8, wherein a weighting coefficient for the inclination of the rail vehicle for each curve extracted from the database is applied to the angle set points.

14. The method of claim 1, said comparing comprising a step of comparing characteristics obtained when negotiating three previous curves to said geometrical characteristics stored in said database.

15. The method of claim 3, wherein calculating said distance to said next curve comprises calculating said distance by integrating a speed of said vehicle and from a length of a straight section preceding a curve on which said vehicle is travelling.

10. A device for controlling controlled elements of a rail vehicle, of the type comprising:

means for measuring inertial values; and

a computer adapted to,

(a) calculate descriptive geometrical characteristics of the rail track on which the vehicle is travelling from the measured inertial values, and

(b) generate control set points for the controlled elements from the geometrical characteristics calculated, the computer comprising,

(i) means for determining the location of the rail vehicle by comparing the geometrical characteristics calculated with geometrical characteristics stored in a database stored in the computer and obtained beforehand by a learning process, and

(ii) control set points for negotiating the next curve being generated in advance from characteristics of that curve extracted from the database to control said controlled elements in phase with the curve.

11. The control device according to claim 10, wherein said controlled elements control an inclination of a tilting rail vehicle and the control set points are inclination angle set points for the rail vehicle.

12. The control device according to claim 10, wherein the controlled elements are elements of an active transverse suspension.

13. The control device according to claim 10, wherein the controlled elements control a position of orientable axles of a bogie.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising a weighting coefficient that is extracted from said database when said curve has a small radius of curvature in order to modify a tilt of said vehicle.

17. The device of claim 12, further comprising a controlled transverse damper that provides a damping coefficient to modify a tilt of said vehicle.