Simulation-based development of a steering concept for tugger trains

Abstract

Tugger trains became more important for in-house transport in the last years. Important properties of these trains are the manoeuvrability and the tracking capability, because they determine the space requirements. In this article the tracking capability of tugger trains with different steering concepts is discussed. To compare the directional stability objectively driving manoeuvres and a quality criterion are defined. With an analytic model important results for the steady-state circular course drive can be calculated. Additionally more complex driving manoeuvres are simulated. It can be demonstrated that the nature of the driving manoeuvres influences the tracking capability. Steering concepts that are directional stable at steady state circular courses are unstable at not-circular courses. With the help of these results a new steering concept is developed which is distinguished by a very simple design a good direc-tional stability.