SET, Britain, together with Vivarail, and Loughborough and Huddersfield universities, have developed an autonomous wheel control system called Acti-Wheel which they believe could revolutionise wheelset design.
Acti-Wheel uses artificial intelligence to guide the train along the track. The new system works by powering each wheel independently. Lasers measure the wheel distance from the centre of the track and send the data to a computer, which then calculates the speed each wheel needs to go in order for the train to remain centred. The new system does not require a great deal of force as only very small wheel corrections are needed.
Acti-Wheel integrates a permanent magnet synchronous traction motor weighing 40kg into the well of a monobloc wheel. This obviates the need for a transmission system between the wheel and the motor. There are also no moving parts apart from the bearing. The weight of a bogie is reduced by 2 tonnes.
Acti-Wheel does not require friction braking as the train can be braked using electric braking, with energy regeneration down to 0km/h.
The system has been tested on a modified former London Underground District Line vehicle belonging to Vivarail.
“The control strategies are the critical element,” Mr Neil Cooney from SET told IRJ. “We have a good deal of confidence of how to drive down the track to manage the wheel-rail contact patch. We are trying to avoid any unnecessary energy in the wheel-rail contact patch to eliminate rolling contact fatigue. The real benefit is on curved track, especially with curves of less than 1000m radius, where we can achieve low rail wear and energy consumption.
The Acti-Wheel system is using torque vectoring for cornering,which was invented for rally and racing cars,sending more power to the outer wheel or braking the inner wheel similar to how a tank steers,in the future the ev’s tri-motor 2nd gen Tesla Roadster and top of the range Cybertruck with a motor for each rear wheel and quad motor Rivian,will all use torque vectoring,the idea for the Acti-Wheel must have been inspired by motors inside wheels designs for ev’s.
The article also mentions double decks,the Aeroliner 3000 double decker train design is British loading gauge size and will fit under low UK’s bridges and tunnels but the passenger capacity increase is 30% with only 3 seats per row 2+1 on the top deck,this is possibily due to the narrower sloping roof of the top deck to fit under the arches of low bridges and tunnels,however the TGV Duplex that the Aeroliner 3000 is based on has 2+1 1st class and 2+2 2nd class top deck seating,full size double decker trains usually have a passenger capacity increase of up to 57%,so if the Acti-Wheel lowers the height of the floors this could allow full sized upper decks with 4 seats per row 2+2 carrying more passengers.