Running performance of power-steering railway bogie with independently rotating wheels

This article proposes the concept of a steering bogie which utilizes self-steering ability while realizing further running performance with slight active control on a tight curve. An independently rotating wheel with EEF bogie naturally has self-steering ability, making use of gravity stiffness aroused by nonlinear tread gradient, but has oscillation in the wheel-steering motion. The proposed power-steering railway bogie consists of independently rotating wheels with a power-steering device and enables us to eliminate steering vibration while realizing ideal steering with slight power assist on curving. In this article, the theoretical investigation of the power-steering bogie and the control strategies is mentioned. Experimental results and numerical simulations with a scaled model vehicle show the effectiveness of the proposed bogie design and the proposed power-steering control.