Design, Analysis and Implementation of a Drive System for Delsbo Electric Light Rail Vehicle

Abstract: The aim of this project is to design and implement a drive system and a driving strategy for a lightweight, battery-driven rail vehicle partaking in the Delsbo Electric student competition. The goal of the competition is to create a vehicle which consumes as little energy as possible.  A simulation model of the vehicle is developed in Simulink, based on existing hybrid car models. Different drive cycles are written in MATLAB and tested in the vehicle simulation, which calculates energy consumption, power and torque usage and other important data. This data is used to select an optimal driving strategy and dimension the drive system components.  The final drive system design consists of a permanent-magnet synchronous motor powered by lead acid batteries and controlled by a microcontroller and motor driver through a user interface consisting of a control board with buttons and switches.  The chosen driving strategy combines slow acceleration and constant speed in slopes with the pulse and glide strategy on flat parts of the track. The simulation shows a total energy consumption of 0.67 Wh/person and km, which is in the same order of magnitude as results from previous years, which is promising for the competition. However, the actual energy consumption can not be known until the vehicle has been built and tested. There is a lot of uncertainty around its parameters at this stage, which affects the reliability of the simulations.