PRT Vehicle Architecture and Control in Masdar City

Abstract

The carbon neutral, zero emission Masdar City incorporates Personal Rapid Transit (PRT), the solution that provides on-demand, private transit directly from origin to destination. The city will feature a network of guide-ways with a large station density ensuring short walking distances (maximum 150 meters). The guide-ways are located at grade, while the pedestrian level is elevated to create a new street level (the podium). In the first phase of the network, operations will start with 10 PRT vehicles sharing the track with 3 freight (FRT) vehicles. A total number of 6 stations are available: 2 people stations, 3 freight stations and a maintenance station. The paper addresses the technical side of the PRT operation. The vehicle architecture is presented, including an overview of the important vehicle components with their purpose. The main working principles of the vehicle control system, used to guide the vehicles accurately along the track, are discussed. Results of the actual driving performance and accuracy are incorporated to show that the vehicle control system is well capable of meeting the high demands of driverless people transit.