Development of an RFID Sensing Unit Mounting in the RailDriVE Vehicle

Kurzfassung

The purpose of this thesis was to develop a concrete assembly for the use of RFID technology in the RailDriVE vehicle. The RFID technology is a component of a reference measuring system. With this technology, supported by other components of the system, it is possible to determine exactly the position of the vehicle. The reference measuring system evaluates and validates the accuracy of the positioning system under test and both systems will be mounted at the vehicle. In the following paragraphs there are listed the conclusions that can be obtained from each chapter of the thesis. RFID technology is going to be used in this thesis because it is suitable to identify specific positions at relevant speeds. This technology can work from few centimeters to long distances in real time with a high level of satisfaction of the requirements. In the reference measuring system of this thesis the tags with the precise information of each position will be installed along the railway track and the antennas will be mounted below the RailDriVE vehicle. When the vehicle passes over a tag, the antennas can detect it and the reader can read out its information. Identec Solutions’ equipment is selected because the RFID technology needs to be compatible to the system of the TU-Braunschweig in order to use the same test track to check the accuracy of the reference measuring system. Secondly, six solutions for the assembly of the support have been proposed. After this, the selection process starts, every solution has been studied and at the end the best one is selected. In the chosen solution the support is mounted at the back part of the vehicle between the rail wheels and the auxiliary stairs. If in the future it will be necessary to change the position of the support the discarded solutions can be taken into consideration and the way to fix the whole support to the vehicle can be used to another application. The four thread holes can be employed to fix other pieces to the vehicle. In the final design the most important parts are a platform where the antennas will be fixed, a shaft, security pieces to avoid the shaft carrying out all the loads and plain bearings at the shaft to allow the movement. The support has a revolving system to change its position where it does not interfere with any other part of the vehicle. It will be always either in work position mode, where a large and continuous reading length is obtained, or in repose position mode, where it is protected from crashes. This support fulfills all the requirements.