μSynthesis Active Guidance Control for Longitudinal Coupled Tramcar with Independently Rotating Wheels

Abstract:

This paper presents an active guidance control method by changing the output torque of the longitudinal drive motor for tramcar using independently rotating wheelsets (IRWs) with longitudinal coupling bogie, to improve the guidance ability and reduce the wheelrail wear. The robust μsynthesis method is used to tackle the nonlinear characteristic and parameter uncertainty of the tramcar which generate mainly from the wheelrail interface, the measurement noise and external disturbances. Three control schemes are proposed based on the single wheel controller. The effect of the controller is verified by the cosimulation of MATLAB and SIMPACK. The results show that when the front and rear wheelset states are used as the controller input signal, the relative best control effect can be obtained, the total wear number of the front and rear wheelsets is reduced by 38% on a straight track, and by 54% on a curved track.

Key words:low floor tramcar; independently rotating wheels; longitudinal coupling bogie; active guidance; robust μsynthesis control