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How to eliminate motion sickness on tilting trains
Researchers have found that motion sickness on tilting trains can be essentially eliminated by adjusting the timing of when the cars tilt as they enter and leave the curves.
An international team of researchers led by scientists at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found that when the cars tilt just at the beginning of the curves instead of while they are making the turns, there was no motion sickness.
When a tilting train enters a curve, sensors on the front wheels of the train signal to the remaining cars when they should begin their tilt. In this reactive mode, since the sensors cannot be activated until the first car is in the curve, there is an inevitable delay in the onset of the tilt. In addition, the cars tilt more slowly. The researchers established that the late, slow rise in the velocity of the tilt during the curves coupled with the centrifugal force produced by the turn, causes motion sickness.
In contrast, when the curves were sensed from the geographic position of the train on the tracks, determined by a global positioning system (GPS), the tilts occurred earlier and were faster, and motion sickness was eliminated. In this predictive mode, lateral thrust was also reduced as the train rounded curves, making it much easier to walk in the aisles.
“This is a major breakthrough and a very practical solution to a problem affecting people”s everyday lives,” said Dr. Bernard Cohen, lead author of the study and Professor of Neurology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
The findings have been detailed in the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Journal.
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