Control of a full scale locomotive roller rig for the simulation of wheel sliding

In railway applications, the testing activity of on board components is necessary to optimize the efficiency of the systems and to allow a proper safety level. In order to decrease the times and the costs of the testing phases, the use of dedicated test rigs is increasing. This paper summarizes some studies for the realization of a locomotive roller rig. The main control problems that arise in the design of this type of test rigs are focused, in particular the feasibility of tests where degraded adhesion condition between the wheel and the rail are simulated and a control strategy for the roller motors based on the sliding mode technique is presented.