A system includes an energy management system disposed onboard a vehicle system configured to travel on a route during a trip. The energy management system is configured to receive trip information from a second vehicle system that includes one or more constraints including at least one of speed, distance, or time restrictions for the vehicle system along the route. The energy management system is further configured to generate a trip plan for controlling movement of the vehicle system along the route during the trip. The trip plan is generated based on the one or more constraints. The trip plan has a plan speed profile that designates speeds for the vehicle system according to at least one of distance or time during the trip. The energy management system is further configured to control movement of the vehicle system during the trip according to the plan speed profile of the trip plan.

A control system includes a communication device onboard a vehicle system approaching or entering an airflow restricted area along a route and one or more processors. The communication device configured to receive status messages that contain data parameters representative of ambient conditions within the airflow restricted area. The processors are configured to monitor the ambient conditions and determine different power output upper limits that a trail propulsion vehicle of the vehicle system can generate within the airflow restricted area based on the ambient conditions and different power outputs generated by a lead propulsion vehicle of the vehicle system. The processors further configured to communicate instructions to control the lead propulsion vehicle within the airflow restricted area to generate the power output of the different power outputs that results in the greatest total available power output of the vehicle system as the vehicle system travels within the airflow restricted area.

A DC-feeding-voltage calculating apparatus includes storage that stores train model information including information for controlling a regenerative power reducing amount in a train in an electrified section; feeding network model information including position information on a substation; and substation model information including control information on a substation voltage. On the basis of: the stored information; a voltage value, current values of feeders by train direction, the voltage and current values being measured in the substation; and first train information on a train including a wireless communication apparatus, an estimator estimates second train information on a train not including a wireless communication apparatus and outputs train operation information. A calculator, on the basis of the stored information and the train operation information, calculates a substation voltage setting value for controlling the substation voltage such that regenerative power is increased in a regenerative car in the electrified section.

A rail vehicle including a wheel assembly having wheels configured to traverse rails of a railroad track, a controller having a processor in communication with the wheel assembly, and a non-transitory computer readable medium, disposed on the vehicle, and containing instructions, which, cause the following steps in real-time as the vehicle traverses the rails: determine a rail pressure of the wheels on the rails, determine a degree of curvature of the rails as the vehicle moves along the railroad track, determine a minimum rail pressure of the wheels on the rails based on the degree of curvature, determine if the rail pressure is equal to or greater than the minimum rail pressure and adjust the rail pressure of the wheels on the rails to be the minimum rail pressure when the rail pressure is less than the minimum rail pressure to maintain stability of the vehicle on the railroad track.

A communication system and method receive, at an energy management system disposed onboard a vehicle system formed from a lead vehicle and one or more remote vehicles, trip data that represents one or more characteristics of an upcoming trip of the vehicle system along a route. A selected portion of the trip data is communicated from the energy management system to a distributed power system also disposed onboard the vehicle system. The selected portion includes identifying information and one or more orientations of the one or more remote vehicles. Using the distributed power system, communication links between the lead vehicle and the one or more remote vehicles are established using the identifying information and the one or more orientations.

A system for optimizing the control of a train that includes an interface for receiving data representing a set of operational parameters for a train that will traverse a predetermined route. A server is interconnected to the interface and programmed to generate a plurality of scenarios using the same set of operational parameters but different control parameters. A simulator is programmed to perform a simulation of the operation of the train as described by the operation parameters and control parameters. The server is programmed to review the results of the simulation and score how closely the simulations achieved one or more performance metrics, thereby identifying which control parameters should be used by the train and allowing the control parameters to be transmitted to the train.

A railcar control device controls a plurality of traction motors included in a train set. The railcar control device includes: a control command input portion to which a control command is input; and a torque command determining portion configured to determine torque commands with respect to a plurality of traction motors such that when a required torque based on the control command input to the control command input portion is less than a maximum value, a torque of a specific traction motor among the plurality of traction motors is made lower than a torque of a different traction motor other than the specific traction motor.

A train braking control method and device supporting multi-stage deceleration, and a storage medium are provided. The method includes the following steps: calculating an initial value of kinetic energy of a train; calculating work of traction force of the train in a process from an initial position to traction removal; calculating work of gravity force of the train in a process from the initial position to a stop; calculating work of braking force of the train in a process from a braking application position to the stop; calculating maximum allowable kinetic energy of the train among all restriction points from the initial position to a stop point; obtaining kinetic energy of the train according to the following formula, determining whether the kinetic energy of the train exceeds the maximum allowable kinetic energy at the restriction point, if so, triggering emergency braking of the train, or else, operating the train normally.

An automated speed control system for a locomotive having a tractive effort mechanism for moving the locomotive along a track and a braking mechanism for reducing the locomotive's speed along the track. The system including a locomotive controller that includes a memory to store computer-executable instructions, and a processor in communication with the memory to execute the instructions to retrieve one or more track grade maps each indicative of a grade of at least a portion of the track along which the locomotive is travelling, retrieve train makeup, obtain a maximum distance to a specified stopping point of the locomotive along the track, and dynamically calculate a speed limit for movement of the locomotive along the track, according to the retrieved track grade map, retrieved train makeup data, and obtained maximum distance to the specified stopping point.

A propulsion controller includes a controller that performs mode switching control and power consumption control, on the basis of a filter capacitor voltage and a main motor speed. The mode switching control switches between an asynchronous mode and a synchronous mode. The power consumption control causes power consumption resistor of a brake chopper circuit to consume regenerative power generated when a main motor operates as a generator. The controller controls an operating point, depending on the position of which the asynchronous mode and the synchronous mode are switched, to a desired position by changing a target value of the filter capacitor voltage controlled by the power consumption control.