2D12 FEASIBILITY OF AUTOMATIC PLATOONING OF TRAM CARS AT LOW SPEED(Vehicles-Dynamics)
Details
Sometimes tram cars travel keeping very close to each other due to increase of working trams in rush hours, which is burden for the drivers. The application of the automatic platooning to tram systems is discussed, however the control system has some problems in the previous study. In this paper, the revised control system is introduced and the feasibility of the automatic platooning control system is discussed through numerical simulations. The control system is changed from PD control to PID control, where time gap is used instead of fixed target gap distance. In addition, the emergency brake and the normal brake are distinguished. The numerical simulations are conducted using commercially available dynamics simulation software, SIMPACK. The simulation conditions are assumed of three situations. One is when trams travel on a straight line with accelerating or decelerating, another is when trams travel on a curved line at constant speed, and the other is when trams stop emergently on the straight line. For the emergency stop, two control systems are constructed. The first system is the system achieves the control only from the information from the local sensors, while the second one uses the information obtained from vehicle to vehicle communication as well as the local sensors. The results show the platooning control system is feasible when tram cars travel both on the straight line and on the curved line. And when the leading tram car applies the emergently brake, the two tram cars can avoid the collision with the vehicle-to-vehicle communication, while not possible without the communication. Finally the experimental setup using a test vehicle is introduces.
