Keywords: scaled roller rig, active control, wheelset guidance, mechatronic bogie, multibody system model, Simpack.

Active control of wheelset guidance is regarded as a promising solution for railway vehicles of the future. Although computational simulations published throughout numerous studies show that active wheelset guidance offers superior properties in comparison with conventional, passive designs, track tests of such a system on vehicles are rather rare. On the other hand on a roller rig it is possible to test railway vehicle running dynamics, and thus verify and demonstrate results of computer simulations, without too high costs and safety risks associated with track tests. Therefore a scaled experimental railway bogie capable of implementing a wide range of wheelset guidance active control approaches was designed, built and implemented on a roller rig at the Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU). The paper summarises the bogie design, its implementation and results of the first experiments. As a functional test of this bogie, experiments aimed on hunting motion stabilisation using an active yaw damping method were carried out. These experiments confirmed the functionality of the newly developed experimental bogie with active controlled wheelset guidance and its capability to be used as a tool for verification of mathematical simulations and demonstration of potential benefits of active wheelset control.

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