Development for Tilting Train Dynamics simulator

This paper describes the construction of a half sphere screen driving tilting simulator that can perform six degree-of-freedom (DOF) motions simulator to a tilting train. The mathematical equations of Tilting Train dynamics are first derived from the 6-DOF bicycle model and incorporated with the bogie, carbody, and suspension subsystems. The equations of motion are then programmed by visual C++ code. To achieve the simulator functions, a motion platform that is constructed by six electric-driven actuators is designed, and its kinetics/inverse kinetics analysis is also conducted. Driver operation signals such as carbady angle, accelerator, and tilting positions are measured to trigger the Tilting dynamics calculation and further actuate the cylinders by the motion platform control program. In addition, a digital PID controller is added to achieve the stable and accurate displacements of the motion platform. The experiments prove that the designed simulator is adequate in performing some special rail road driving situations discussed in this paper.