10003270Artificial Intelligence Driven Hydraulic Energy Recovery & Delivery for Rail WagonsClosedSmall Business Research InitiativeInnovate UKWe have customers that haul loads of up to 2,700 tons over the mainline to and from specialist sites, such as quarries and ports. Many rely on ageing and highly specialised locomotives on site and Class 66s or 70s to haul cross country. One of the challenges in making good progress on the mainline is being able to get through each section without having to stop so as to not impede the progress of any passenger trains that have a schedule to keep. This results in long delays where the freight train has to wait until the is along enough gap to proceed. Felixstowe to Nuneaton, for example, can take up to 11 hours with several delays of over an hour, where the train sits with engine idling, until allow to proceed. Being able to accelerate more quickly from standstill, e.g. from red lights, would save a considerable amount of time and avoid some these unnecessary delays if the train could get through the sector more quickly. Rather than make complex changes to the locomotives, Meteor Power has designed an energy capture, storage and delivery system that can be fitted to the wagons themselves. Imagine 27 x one hundred ton fully loaded wagons able to move away from standstill under their own power leaving the locomotive to take over once they are moving. Our project is a standalone system fitted to the wagon that captures energy when the train slows down and releases it when it pulls away, or speeds up. Electric motors and battery packs would be both large and heavy. Our proposal uses hydraulics to aid braking and capture 'free' energy and release it later. It can even cut down on brake pad wear. Meteor Power will develop the hydraulic energy capture and storage system alongside the semi-autonomous electronic control to operate with as little input from the locomotive as possible. The system will use artificial intelligence to control the energy capture/release function and analyse whether the train is slowing down, accelerating or if the wagon is just rolling slowly backwards downhill slightly after the brakes were released and is about to drive in the opposite direction. Aside from monitoring the train brake pressure to determine levels of braking the system will be completely self reliant, even to the point of powering the electronics from energy captured from the compressed air train brake system.