CONTROLLER FOR ESTIMATING AXLE WEIGHTS OF A RAIL VEHICLE, COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED METHOD THEREFOR, COMPUTER PROGRAM AND NON-VOLATILE DATA CARRIER

An overall weight (m) of a rail vehicle (100) is estimated by obtaining a power signal (P) indicating an amount of power produced by a set of drive units (101, 102, 103) to accelerate the rail vehicle (100) between first and second speeds (v; v). Then, the following steps are executed: (a) obtaining wheel speed signals indicating respective rotational speeds (ω, ω, ω) of the wheel axles in the driving subset of the wheel axles (131, 132, 133); (b) producing an acceleration control signal (A1) to a specific drive unit (101) in the set of drive units such that this drive unit applies a gradually increasing traction force to a specific wheel axle (131) of the wheel axles in the driving subset of the wheel axles (131, 132, 133); (c) repeatedly determining, during production of the acceleration control signal (A1), an absolute difference (|ω - ω|) between the rotational speed of the specific wheel axle (131) and an average rotational speed (ω) of the wheel axles (132, 133) in the driving subset of the wheel axles except the specific wheel axle; and in response to the absolute difference (|ω - ω|) exceeding a threshold value; (d) determining a parameter (µ) reflecting a friction coefficient (µ) between a pair of wheels (121a, 121b) on the specific wheel axle (131) and a pair of rails (191, 192) upon which the rail vehicle (100) travels. Steps (a) to (c) are repeated for each of the wheel axles in the driving subset of the wheel axles, and based thereon, a respective fraction (m, m, m) of the overall weight (m) carried by each of wheel axles in the driving subset of the wheel axles (131, 132, 133) is estimated.