Hardware-in-the-Loop testing of pantograph for homologation

This paper reports about research being undertaken as part of the PantoTRAIN project, presently run under the coordination of UNIFE, presenting possible "Hardware-in-the-Loop" (HiL) testing methods for railway pantographs, and assessing their possible use in view of pantograph homologation. Two alternative HiL testing methods are considered in the paper: "open loop HiL" and "closed loop HiL". To show the potential of HiL testing, validation against line measurements are reported in the paper. Finally, the main features of the "open-loop" and "closed-loop" HiL testing approaches with respect to some typical tasks of pantograph virtual homologations and, more generally, in the perspective of supporting the development of a pantograph system, are discussed.