Artificial Intelligence Driven Hydraulic Energy Recovery & Delivery for Rail Wagons

我们有客户通过主线往返于采石场和港口等专业地点，运送多达2700吨的货物。许多人依靠现场老化和高度专业化的机车和66级或70级机车来运输全国。在主线上取得良好进展的挑战之一是能够在不停车的情况下通过每一段，以便不阻碍任何需要遵守时间表的客运列车的进度。这导致了长时间的延误，货运列车必须等待，直到有足够的间隙才能继续前进。例如，费利克斯托到努尼顿可能需要长达11个小时，几次延误超过一个小时，火车在发动机空转的情况下坐着，直到允许继续前进。如果火车能够更快地通过该扇区，能够更快地从停滞状态加速，将节省相当多的时间，并避免一些不必要的延误。与对机车进行复杂的更改不同，Meteor Power设计了一种可以安装在货车上的能量捕获、存储和传输系统。想象一下，27x100吨满载的货车能够靠自己的动力离开停滞状态，让机车在移动时接手。我们的项目是安装在货车上的独立系统，当火车减速时捕捉能量，当火车离开或加速时释放能量。电动马达和电池组将既大又重。我们的方案使用液压系统来帮助刹车，捕捉“自由”能量，并在以后释放。它甚至可以减少刹车片的磨损。Meteor Power将在半自动电子控制的同时开发液压能量捕获和存储系统，以尽可能少地从机车输入操作。该系统将使用人工智能来控制能量捕获/释放功能，并分析列车是否在减速、加速，或者马车在松开刹车后是否只是缓慢地向下稍稍后退，即将向相反的方向行驶。除了监控列车制动压力以确定制动级别外，该系统将完全独立，甚至可以利用从压缩空气列车制动系统获取的能量来为电子设备供电。

We have customers that haul loads of up to 2,700 tons over the mainline to and from specialist sites, such as quarries and ports. Many rely on ageing and highly specialised locomotives on site and Class 66s or 70s to haul cross country.One of the challenges in making good progress on the mainline is being able to get through each section without having to stop so as to not impede the progress of any passenger trains that have a schedule to keep. This results in long delays where the freight train has to wait until the is along enough gap to proceed.Felixstowe to Nuneaton, for example, can take up to 11 hours with several delays of over an hour, where the train sits with engine idling, until allow to proceed.Being able to accelerate more quickly from standstill, e.g. from red lights, would save a considerable amount of time and avoid some these unnecessary delays if the train could get through the sector more quickly.Rather than make complex changes to the locomotives, Meteor Power has designed an energy capture, storage and delivery system that can be fitted to the wagons themselves. Imagine 27 x one hundred ton fully loaded wagons able to move away from standstill under their own power leaving the locomotive to take over once they are moving.Our project is a standalone system fitted to the wagon that captures energy when the train slows down and releases it when it pulls away, or speeds up. Electric motors and battery packs would be both large and heavy. Our proposal uses hydraulics to aid braking and capture 'free' energy and release it later. It can even cut down on brake pad wear.Meteor Power will develop the hydraulic energy capture and storage system alongside the semi-autonomous electronic control to operate with as little input from the locomotive as possible. The system will use artificial intelligence to control the energy capture/release function and analyse whether the train is slowing down, accelerating or if the wagon is just rolling slowly backwards downhill slightly after the brakes were released and is about to drive in the opposite direction.Aside from monitoring the train brake pressure to determine levels of braking the system will be completely self reliant, even to the point of powering the electronics from energy captured from the compressed air train brake system.