Manipulator Control System for Railroad Transport Coupling and Braking System Maintenance

The overall length of the main lines of the Russian Railroads (RZD) is 124 thousand kilometers. The locomotive fleet comprises 20 thousand units, and the carriage fleet is 1.2 million units. Day-to-day cargo dispatching is done by 39 shunting stations, the key 26 of which process hundreds of thousands of carriages every day. Only a small number of shunting stations are completely automated. At some of the stations, automated control systems (ACS) are integrated into the complex automated control system for shunting. The majority of stations are equipped with independent automation systems and devices. The key current goal of RZD is to accelerate cargo transportation while maintaining the manageability of processes and the required safety level. This problem can be solved through the automation and robotization of processes based on "digital twins" of infrastructure components. The automation/robotization of train handling and coupling and braking system maintenance will help increase the rolling stock turnover and accelerate the processing capacities of stations and shunting facilities. The goal of this work is to develop a mobile robot arm control system, as well as a robot arm positioning system while handling railroad trains. Within the framework of this research, we studied the existing technical complexes (TC) and mechanisms, and automation and operations control systems for coupling mechanism maintenance developed in Russia, as well as foreign developments in automation/robotization of railroad transport maintenance. The set research and development goals have been successfully accomplished with experimental robotic complex that is undergoing preliminary testing.