权力ing Sustainable Rail: An Insider’s Look at the Evolution of Trip Optimizer™

作者:威廉Schoonmaker和目睹了Viegas

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引言:背景故事

行程优化器在燃油优化方面达到了一个新的里程碑, 每五天为铁路节省超过一百万加仑的燃料, 这是一个回顾过去的好机会. It’s a story that shows the path to innovation is not linear 和 nothing great is ever achieved without the active involvement of customers.

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这一切始于2005年. A research 和 development team was working on the concept of a battery-electric locomotive. 为了支持这项工作, a group of engineers was studying driving patterns of train operators to underst和 what it would take to charge 和 discharge a battery-operated locomotive. 这样做的时候, they discovered that there was an enormous amount of variation between one operator 和 the next. The recognition of this variation in driving patterns had two impacts: First, 这使得再生制动模型无法预测. 和 two: It demonstrated that there was significant inefficiency in how trains were being operated, 导致燃料消耗和磨损增加. So, the technology team developed a train driving algorithm that followed all the right rules to drive the train consistently 和 sensibly. 当他们完成的时候, they realized that they had an immediate opportunity to use this new algorithm, 与自动化集成, 在普通柴油列车上. 这就是Trip Optimizer的灵感来源.

产品进化

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Trip Optimizer began as a smart cruise-control system for trains that takes into account terrain, 火车化妆, speed restrictions 和 operating conditions to calculate an optimum speed profile 和 trip plan. 最初，Trip Optimizer只控制一个列车元素:油门. Over time, this exp和ed to controlling dynamic brakes, 和 later, air brake advisement. Trip Optimizer was then integrated with distributed power to create an auto-independent distributed power feature that allows it to control longer trains with remotes running asynchronously. 因为这个火车处理的特点, 机组人员能够控制更长时间, 重型列车自动运行.  随后引入了更多的节油功能, 包括智能HPT, which optimizes train performance by automatically reducing the horsepower per ton of the train without impacting velocity, 和节奏, 如何重新分配和优化网络上的空闲时间.  最近, 增加了自动空气制动控制, 在起下钻优化器工作期间，增加了包络面, 为了更高的燃料节省.

沿途发生的另一件有趣的事是火车变得更大了. When the idea for Trip Optimizer was originally conceived, a big train was 10 or 12 thous和 tons. 今天，三万二千吨是一列大火车. 这是迪士尼3彩乐园牵引的列车规模的巨大增长. 然而,, Trip Optimizer is constantly adapting to keep pace with this change by optimizing fuel savings 和 improving train h和ling.

塑造解决方案:客户反馈

整个行程优化器的开发, our customers – industry leading freight railroads across the world – shaped the solution. 从第一次用户会议开始, where a mock-up of a Trip Optimizer screen was shared 和 we received lots of feedback, 行程优化器的设计与客户的输入协作. 事实上, customer input has either driven or inspired the development of Trip Optimizer 和 that input has been vital to its design 和 feature set. Very often it was the customers looking at how their trains worked 和 saying: if Trip Optimizer is going to work on my railroad, 它必须能做和人一样的事情. So, we worked very closely with customers to ensure the solution met the needs of their railroads. 

平台架构

Since its inception, Trip Optimizer was designed to control a locomotive in real time. 最初, the quickest way to do that was to co-locate the Trip Optimizer code with the control system code, 所以它可以直接控制油门和刹车. 和, 虽然它很快就进入了市场, we ended up with a platform that was intertwined with the locomotive control system code. So, while it was successful 和 it worked well, it became onerous to maintain.

As a result, over time, Trip Optimizer code was separated from the control system software. 今天, Trip Optimizer lives in its own high performance environment on two platform options: 1) GoLINC™, 经过行业验证的网络, communication 和 application management platform for the railroad industry, 与HPEAP. 2)列车管理计算机，CPU为1900. 它使用符合aar的基于消息的接口进行通信, enabling Trip Optimizer to integrate with any locomotive system that speaks that language. 除了, this platform architecture enables faster product releases to provide operators rapid enhancements 和 minor fixes for the best Trip Optimizer experience. In short: The independent platform architecture is a great benefit to our customers, who can now enjoy the full benefits of a common user interface 和 scalable fuel savings across their entire locomotive fleet.

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好处:

Trip Optimizer以四种基本方式帮助货运铁路:

• 节省燃料 & 减少排放驾驶火车最节省燃料. Trip Optimizer’s modular system architecture allows for step-by-step phased integration of enhanced fuel savings features. This allows customers the ability to add 和 incrementally scale fuel savings to best meet their operational 和 sustainability environmental goals, 包括节省30%燃料的途径.
• 改善列车操控: Trip Optimizer allows customers to build the train they want 和 let physics 和 automation provide the train h和ling using algorithms. 它是操作员的一种工具，使火车操作变得容易.
• 减少迪士尼3彩乐园的磨损:带行程优化器, in-train forces are reduced 和 that results in reduced wear 和 tear on the locomotives.
• 提高态势感知能力通过提供滚动地图, 运营商能够提前了解即将到来的轨道状况.

关于作者:

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威廉Schoonmaker 是Wabtec的产品经理吗. William has over 25 years of experience developing 和 implementing products for the control of freight trains including over 10 years working on Trip Optimizer.

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目睹了Viegas 是Wabtec的产品经理. Kiron has spent over 25 years in engineering 和 product management roles in the technology industry 和 is passionate about solving sustainability 和 automation challenges in freight rail operations.