Railcab: Unmanned taxi

German scientists are developing a small unmanned taxi, which can transport passengers or goods on railroad tracks. Using the momentum as a magnetic field, this vehicle has an average speed of 160 km / hour.

The University of Paderborn team successfully built the Railcab automatic transport system and are continuing to test it to complete the system before putting it into use.

According to engineering professor Joachim Lückel, a member of the research team, Railcab is powered by the force of magnetic fields generated by solenoids, ie the metal coils become magnetic when electric current passes.

Railcab will create a new vigor for railway transport and will become a formidable competitor for future trucks.(Photo: Spiegel)

When continuously charged, the solenoids roll between tracks and create a magnetic field that drives the vehicle forward. Railcab, which looks like a railroad car, can run individually on tracks. With global positioning system, each one has the ability to choose the fastest route to move to the destination. But on the main roads, they could run to each other to become a train - at that time, each railcab was regarded as a train car, and the cars ran close together but did not touch each other. . Experts are trying to narrow the distance between cars to 20cm.

Since each Railcab can be independently controlled, when it needs to turn, each car will automatically split to divert without affecting the direction and speed of other cars.

With such an operation, Railcab will help save energy by taking advantage of 'slip-stream ', ie the reduced pressure area is created behind an object moving in an environment, usually not gas.

According to the team, this particular type of taxi can run at an average speed of up to 160 km / hour. Due to running smoothly, which does not stop during transport between locations, Railcab will significantly shorten the time to transport passengers and goods.

To date, more than $ 15.5 million has been invested in Railcab research over the past four years, and experts say they need an additional $ 28 million to create a model of the right size. demand for practical use.

Railcab can transport passengers at speeds of 160 km / h and run between locations, helping to shorten transit times.(Photo: Spiegel)

According to Professor Joachim, Railcab will not be more expensive than any car of the same size. The operating cost of Railcab is not yet determined, but the team claims it will be lower than the cost of operating a rail system.

And a big advantage is that Railcab does not require the construction of new rail systems, but it can run on existing rail systems in Germany after these systems are improved.

With the above characteristics, experts believe that this unmanned taxi model will create a new life for the railway transport industry and will become a formidable competitor of the trucks in the future. hybrid

Quang Thinh