Fault-Tolerant Adaptive Control of High-Speed Trains Under Traction/Braking Failures: A Virtual Parameter-Based Approach

Advanced control is a key technology for enhancing safe and reliable operation of high-speed trains. This paper presents an automated train control scheme for high-speed trains with combined longitudinal aerodynamics and tracking/braking dynamics, with special emphasis on reliable position and velocity tracking in the face of traction/braking failures. The controller is synthesized using a so-called virtual-parameter-based backstepping adaptive control method, which exhibits several salient features: 1) The inherent coupling effects are taken into account as a result of combining both longitudinal and traction/braking dynamics; 2) fully parameter independent rather than partially parameter independent control algorithms are derived; and 3) closed-loop tracking stability of the overall system is ensured under unnoticeable time-varying traction/braking failures. The effectiveness of the developed control scheme is authenticated via a formative mathematical analysis based on Lyapunov stability theory and validated via numerical simulations.