An adaptive safety control approach for virtual coupling system with model parametric uncertainties

Abstract

Virtual coupling attracts extensive attention from the railway communities due to its promising capacity increase and flexibility improvement. Accurate control that guarantees system safety and performance remains a problem that needs to be further studied. This paper investigates the virtual coupling train system (VCTS) safety control problem with model parameter uncertainties using an adaptive nonlinear control strategy based on urban rail transit systems. A safe automatic train control model is introduced, and a novel control framework consisting of two levels is designed to give an overall virtual coupling train control architecture. For the leading train, we deploy an automatic train control system based on dynamic programming. Then, considering parameter uncertainties, we design an adaptive nonlinear controller that ensures safety and control efficiency for the following trains. The proposed control strategy can ensure that a virtually coupled train set tracks the given speed curve and keeps inner distance while guaranteeing the string stability and safety of the platoon, considering parameter uncertainties. The simulation results show that the proposed approach leads to great performance improvement in virtual coupling train operations.