Wheel assembly for a vehicle guided on a railway track

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11623667-B2
Application number	US-201716319255-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 14, 2017
Priority date	Jul 19, 2016
Publication date	Apr 11, 2023
Grant date	Apr 11, 2023

Abstract

The invention concerns a vehicle guided on a railway track comprising a chassis and at least one wheel assembly interconnected to the chassis and a method for steering said vehicle. The wheel assembly comprises a cross-member having a first end to which a first hub is interconnected by a first steering joint and a second end to which a second hub is interconnected by a second steering joint. A first wheel is attached to the first hub rotatable around a first rotation axis and a second wheel is attached to the second hub rotatable around a second rotation axis. A first sensor determines the lateral position of the first sensor with respect to the rail. The first sensor is attached to the first hub and is, with respect to a direction of travel arranged in front of the supporting area of the first wheel in a horizontal direction spaced a distance A 1 apart. The first sensor is interconnected to an actuator by a control unit which calculates a steering angle for the at least one interconnected wheel depending on the determined position of the first sensor.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A vehicle guided on a railway track comprising a chassis and at least one wheel assembly interconnected to the chassis comprising:
a. a static cross-member having
i. a first end to which a first hub is interconnected by a first steering joint swiveling about a first steering axis arranged in a vertical manner,
ii. a second end to which a second hub is interconnected by a second steering joint swiveling about a second steering axis arranged in a vertical manner, and

b. a first wheel attached to the first hub rotatable around a first rotation axis and a second wheel attached to the second hub rotatable around a second rotation axis,
c. the first wheel and the second wheel each comprise a rolling surface which during operation interacts with a rail of a railway track by a supporting area, wherein a center distance between each steering axis and a center of the related supporting area is within a maximum distance of 0.1 m, and
d. a first sensor to determine a lateral position of the first sensor with respect to the rail,
i. said first sensor being attached to the first hub,
ii. said first sensor being arranged with respect to a direction of travel in front of the supporting area of the first wheel in a horizontal direction spaced a distance A 1 apart with respect to the center of the respective supporting area, wherein the distance A 1 is in the range of 0.1-1.2 m

e. an actuator interconnected to at least one of the first wheel and the second wheel to swivel the at least one interconnected wheel around the respective steering axis by a steering angle, wherein the at least one interconnected wheel comprises the first wheel, the second wheel, or both the first wheel and the second wheel, and
f. the first sensor is interconnected to the actuator by a control unit which calculates a steering angle for the at least one interconnected wheel depending on the determined lateral position of the first sensor.

2. The vehicle guided on the railway track according to claim 1 ,
wherein the at least one wheel assembly comprises a second sensor which is attached to the second hub, said second sensor being arranged with respect to the direction of travel in front of the supporting area of the second wheel in a horizontal direction spaced a distance A 2 apart with respect to the center of the related supporting area.

3. The vehicle guided on the railway track according to claim 2 , wherein the at least one wheel assembly comprises a third sensor which is attached to the first hub, the third sensor being arranged with respect to the direction of travel in back of the supporting area of the first wheel in a horizontal direction spaced a distance A 3 apart with respect to the center of the related supporting area.

4. The vehicle guided on the railway track according to claim 3 , wherein the distance A 1 and the distance A 3 are equal.

5. The vehicle guided on the railway track according to claim 3 , wherein the at least one wheel assembly comprises a fourth sensor which is attached to the second hub, said fourth sensor being arranged with respect to the direction of travel in back of the supporting area of the second wheel in a horizontal direction spaced a distance A 4 apart with respect to the center of the respective supporting area.

6. The vehicle guided on the railway track according to claim 5 , wherein the at least one wheel assembly comprises a fifth sensor which is interconnected to the chassis and to the control unit, wherein the control unit determines out of measured quantities of the fifth sensor one or more of a track type, a track curvature, and track anomalies of the rails in front of the wheel assembly in the direction of travel.

7. The vehicle guided on the railway track according to claim 1 , wherein the first hub and the second hub of the at least one wheel assembly are interconnected to each other by a steering rod.

8. The vehicle guided on the railway track according to claim 1 , wherein the actuator of the at least one wheel assembly is interconnected to the cross-member.

9. The vehicle guided on the railway track according to claim 1 , wherein the actuator of the at least one wheel assembly is in a transversal direction arranged between the wheels of a wheel assembly.

10. The vehicle guided on the railway track according to claim 1 , wherein the first sensor of the at least one wheel assembly measures the lateral position of the first sensor with respect to an inner guiding edge or flank of the rail.

11. The vehicle guided on the railway track according to claim 10 , wherein the rail comprises a groove acting as the inner guiding edge for the first sensor.

12. The vehicle guided on the railway track according to claim 11 , wherein the first sensor of the at least one wheel assembly determines the lateral position of the first sensor with respect to one or more of at least one upper edge and at least one flank of the groove.

13. The vehicle guided on the railway track according to claim 1 , wherein the first sensor of the at least one wheel assembly is one or more of an inductive sensor, a laser sensor, a capacitive sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, an optical sensor, and a radar sensor.

14. The vehicle guided on the railway track according to claim 1 , wherein the sensor of the at least one wheel assembly has a protection means which is positioned in front of the first sensor in respect of the direction of travel.

15. The vehicle guided on the railway track according to claim 1 , wherein the first sensor of the at least one wheel assembly is arranged in a height of about 0.04 m-0.5 m above the rail.

16. The vehicle guided on the railway track according to claim 1 , wherein the first wheel of the at least one wheel assembly is interconnected to a first brake disc, wherein the first brake disc is arranged outside of the first wheel, and wherein the second wheel of the at least one wheel assembly is interconnected to a second brake disc, wherein the second brake disc is arranged outside of the second wheel.

17. The vehicle guided on the railway track according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one wheel assembly comprises (i) a first driving motor which is arranged outside of the first wheel and is interconnected to the first wheel by a first gear box and (ii) a second driving motor which is arranged outside of the second wheel and is interconnected to the second wheel by a second gear box.

18. The vehicle guided on the railway track according to claim 16 , wherein the at least one wheel assembly comprises (i) a rotation axis of the first brake disc which is arranged at an angle with respect to the rotation axis of the first wheel and (ii) a rotation axis of the second brake disc which is arranged at an angle with respect to the rotation axis of the second wheel.

19. The vehicle guided on the railway track according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one wheel assembly comprises (i) a first brake disc which is arranged inside of the first wheel and a thereto interconnected first brake caliper and is attached to the first hub, and (ii) a second brake disc which is arranged inside of the second wheel and a thereto interconnected second brake caliper and is attached to the second hub.

20. The vehicle guided on a railway track according to claim 1 , wherein the control unit is interconnected to a position determining system which provides information to the control unit about a position of the wheel assembly along the rail.

21. The vehicle guided on the railway track accordin

Assignees

• Medela Holding Ag

Inventors

• Larsson Göran
• Stalder Michael

Classifications

• B61F5/52

  Bogie frames · CPC title

• B61F3/16 Primary

  with a separate axle for each wheel · CPC title

• B61F5/383

  Adjustment controlled by non-mechanical devices, e.g. scanning trackside elements · CPC title