Energy minimization for catenary-free mass transit systems using Particle Swarm Optimization

In this paper, a train model and algorithm of energy minimization control using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) are introduced for a catenary-free mass transit system. The train model is created in MATLAB/Simulink. Since the performance of the train heavily depends on the supercapacitor (SC) voltage. Tractive effort reduction is considered under low SC voltage in the simulations. Impact of coasting point on the running time is investigated and simulation results are used to find optimum coasting point under several constraints, such as running time, charging time, maximum charging current, SC voltage and distance between stations.