Design and realization of a novel position-and-speed measurement system with communication function for the low-speed maglev train

•Both the position detection and communication functions are taken account of.•The electromagnetics analysis of the loop-cable system is introduced in detail.•The precision of the position measurement system reaches 1 cm (30 km/h).

The low-speed maglev train system is a new type rail transportation system. The position-and-speed measurement system and the train-ground communication system are the cores of the Automatic Train Control (ATC) system and Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system. However, the position-and-speed measurement system and the train-ground communication system at present are separate, and this raises the maintenance and the operation cost of the maglev train. This paper based on the characteristics of some conventional induction looped-cable systems designs a novel induction looped-cable system. The system realizes the position-and-speed measurement function and the train-ground full-duplex communication function for the maglev train system. The experiment results show that the system can operate reliably on the practical maglev test line.