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Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) is the largest Spanish technological university specialized in all engineering fields and architecture. With two recognitions as Campus of International Excellence, its outstanding research activity together with its highly-qualified professional trainings, make UPM a really competitive university at international level. More than 2.400 researchers carry out their activity at the UPM, grouped in more than 200 Research Groups, 20 Research Centers or Institutes and 55 Laboratories, all of them committed to transform the knowledge generated into innovation advances applied to the productive sector, contributing to solve the challenges of the European citizens.

The Department of Mechanical Engineering promotes research in the area of ​​knowledge of Railways Technology, the innovation, experimentation, training and educational programs within the different technological areas of rail transport.

One of the objectives of the research results is internationalization with technology transfer and knowledge generation mechanisms carried out in collaborative activities of public, private or mixed financing; carrying out national, European and non-community programs, fundamentally in America and Africa. These activities are carried out in collaboration with the different actors in the railway industry, national, regional and local infrastructure managers, passenger, freight and urban and metropolitan transport operators, as well as user groups. These activities focus on the following research lines:

• Railway operation and exploitation, whose objective is the generation of knowledge through the development of models and tools aimed at capacity analysis and planning of network operation, the impact of freight traffic on the network, power demand and efficiency, evacuation plans, accessibility and mobility analysis
• Energy system, demand planning and analysis, network management, smart-grid, contact line and catenary pantograph interaction, analysis of electromagnetic disturbances, network imbalances, electrical protections and analysis of the exposure of the human body to the railway electrical environment.
• Rail dynamics, wheel-rail contact analysis, structure analysis and material analysis
• Components of the train control technique, level crossings, ATC, ERTMS and CBTC, operational compatibility of rolling stock facilities and equipment with the track infrastructure, virtual coupling, automatic and autonomous vehicle.
• Maintenance, whose objective is the application of models and methods for predictive and cognitive maintenance through the definition of sensor networks, in particular for wheel-rail and pantograph-catenary interaction, switch machines and quality detection systems for infrastructure.
• Education and training applying Virtual Reality capacities.
• Industrial Heritage
• Transversal technologies applied to the railways domain: 3D Modelling, Generative Design, Virtual Twin, Industry 4.0 and Circular Economy.

• Professor. Mechanical Engineering Department. Juan de Dios Sanz Bobi. 

With experience in railway research and innovation since 1992 when he started his activity in the department of Transport Automation System of ALCATEL. In 2001, he joined to the Foundation for the Promotion of the Industrial Innovation as head of railway installations and it was in 2006 when he joined the UPM Mechanical Engineering Department, where he teaches Railways, Graphic Engineering, Safety and Industrial Quality and Engineering for the Society Challenges.

In the railway field, the main lines of his research focus on train control facilities, railway energy systems, railway planning, intelligent transport, decision support systems, maintenance, freight transport, railway electrical disturbances and effects on the human body exposure. Management of 15 R&D Projects financed in public calls and 75 R&D Contracts of special relevance with Companies and / or Administrations (national and / or international). Author of different monographies in train detection systems, electrical disturbances in the railway domain, electrical traction and level crossings, several articles in International magazines and communications. One patent, stiffness compensator for rigid catenary systems, and one software registration, SOLARPAN for designing safety solar power system for level crossings.

He participates in the Spanish standardization entity, UNE AEN / CTN 203 committee, acting as an expert in different CEN / CENELEC and IEC standardization committees for this entity. Likewise, within the UPM agreement with the National Accreditation Entity (ENAC), he participates as a technical expert in railway sectoral activities within the EN ISO / IEC 17020, 17025 and 17065 standards.

He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Spanish Railway Technology Platform (PTFE). Participate in ERRAC (Permanent Advisory Group) and ALICE (UPM membership). Since April 2015, he has been a member of the scientific committee of the SHIFT2RAIL Joint Undertaking. In 2018 he joined, as transport and logistics expert, to UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe) under Spanish delegation.

• Full Professor. Mechanical Engineering Department. Maria Luisa Martinez Muneta

Full professor at UPM in the Mechanical Engineering Department with participation in UPM R&D structures as head of rail research centre from  2012-2014 and head of the research group in educational innovation on graphic engineering. Main research lines focus on the sustainable transport, evacuation and emergencies, BIM, Design Thinking, 3D print and circular economy. More than 75 papers in international research publications and 5 industrial patents for plastic and composite material.  Relevant projects in rail technology under Spanish founding and European Projects (FP7 transport) and Leonardo Da Vinci Program (WEBD. Web based learning biomedical and design engineering” Ref. I-00-B-F-PP-120758, 3DWebEPL and 3D Web-based learning and training in the field of the Enterprise Product Lifecycle. Ref. 15095-LLP-LdV/RM/ff..). She is co-author of 9 books, 5 book chapters and editor of 3 books. She is engaged in teaching creativity and design thinking for engineering. She produced the first MOOC about Design Thinking in the MIRIADAX platform in 2017 with more than 8000 inscriptions

• Full Professor. Mechanical Engineering Department. Jesus Felez Mindan

Full professor at UPM in the Mechanical Engineering Department with participation in UPM R&D structures as head of research group on Modelling and Simulation in Mechanical Engineering. Expert in railway technologies, simulation and transport systems, with more than 25 years of experience in these fields, combining extensive experience in R&D&i in these fields with university management. Participation and / or Management of 30 R&D Projects financed in public calls and 50 R&D Contracts of special relevance with Companies and / or Administrations (national and / or international). Author of 12 Books, 70 articles in International magazines, 4 patents and / or software registrations, 140 communications to international conferences. Director of 8 PhD in railways.

• Full Professor. Mechanical Engineering Department. Jose Antonio Lozano

Professor of Mechanical Engineering. His research lines focusses on simulation, Bond-Graph, finite elements, simulation of vehicle dynamics, accidents and their reconstruction; vibrations, traction and braking for railways, cable cars and intelligent transport systems. Highlighting its participation in 27 R&D contracts of special relevance with Companies and / or Administrations, and R&D Projects financed in public Calls. He has written a monographic publication on “Railway Traction”. He participates in three committees as reviewer of articles in scientific-technical magazines.

Experiences

• UPM researchers have contributed to different European projects in the railway Domain from FP6 (2TRAIN) or FP7 (INESS, SUSTRAIL, SMART-WAY) but also in H2020 projects as different participation level under scope of Framework Agreement with the Spanish Railway Foundation(E-LOBSTER as standardization expert group or SAFER-LC as advisory)
• Funded project by national or regional funds:
• DPI2016-79960-C3-1-P. FIRO. Development of intelligent manufacturing systems with robots Collaborative.Funded by Spanish Program for promoting Scientific and Technical Research of Excellence State. Sub-program for knowledge generation.
• Automated system for making decisions of safety evacuations n High-Speed passenger trains. Funded by the Spanish Ministry for Public Works and Transport.
• ALIS. Modelling based on Intelligent Algorithms for the Integration of Electrification, Safety and efficiency Energy in Railway Systems. Funded by Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness and European Regional Development Fund.
• Research projects for technology transfer under national funds:
• PCD1605420204, Development and Implementation of Mathematical Models for the analysis and optimization of railway networks. Funded by Spanish Industrial Technology Development Centre-CDTI.
• FUNDRAISINE. Development of new methods and functionalities applicable to Rail Maintenance implemented in a prototype of vehicle FUNDED BY SPANISH INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT CENTRE-CDTI.
• NEOTEC ADS. Development of a new tachometer for the rail sector. Funded by Spanish Industrial Technology Development Centre-CDTI.
• PCD1805420405-SIGRAIL. Advanced calculation system for the optimization of signalling and communication systems, as well as the operation plan of a railway system. Funded by Spanish Industrial Technology Development Centre-CDTI
• FERRO_VR. Development of accessible Virtual Reality technologies. Funded by Spanish Industrial Technology Development Centre-CDTI

Principal Publications

• J Felez; Y Kim; F Borrelli. A Model Predictive Control Approach for Virtual Coupling in Railways IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems. IEEE. 20-7, pp.2728-2739. ISSN 1524-9050.
• JdDSanz; A. Calvo. Characterization of the dynamic behavior of transition systems between rigid and flexible catenary 2019 7th International Engineering, Sciences and Technology Conference.(IESTEC). pp.479-484. ISSN 978-1-7281-1691-4
• JdD Sanz. A. Calvo. Analysis of the capability of non-specific simulation software for studying the dynamic interaction between pantograph and rigid overhead conductor rail. Transportation Research Procedia. VOL 33 pp 187-194. 2018. ISSN 2352-1465
• Álvarez, S. Corbera, F. Beltrán, J. A. Lozano. Fuel optimization strategy for hydrogen fuel cell range extender vehicles applying genetic algorithms. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews; ISSN: 1364-0321 Volume 81, Part 1, pp. 655-668. Elsevier.
• Berbey, R. Galan, San Segundo, JdD Sanz. A real time rescheduling algorithm based in Lyapunov stability’s index for metro lines. Revista Iberoamericana de Automatica e Informatica Industrial (Riai). ISSN 1697-7912. VOL 11 pp 167-178
• Corbera, R. Álvarez, J.A. Lozano. Integration of cutting time into the structural optimization process. Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization. ISSN: 1615-147X (Print) 1615-1488 (Online); pp, 1 – 21. Springer.
• J Felez; C Garcia-Sanchez; Jose A. Lozano. Control design for an articulated truck with autonomous driving in an electrified highway IEEE Access. 6, pp.60171-60186. ISSN 2169-3536.
• JdD Sanz, ML Mtez Muneta, M. Sanz. Freight railway transport: critical variables to improve the transport applied to infrastructure costs and its associated traffic flow. CIT 2016.
• Felez. , A. Bermejo; 2018. Design of a counterbalance forklift based on a predictive anti-tip-over controller Integrated Computer-Aided Engineering. IOS Press. 25-3, pp.273-288. ISSN 1069-2509.