Distributed Cooperative Cruise Control of Multiple High-Speed Trains Under a State-Dependent Information Transmission Topology

The cruise control problems for high-speed trains are investigated in this paper. Both a single train and multiple trains on a railway line are considered. The cars in a single train are modeled as a group of ordered particles connected by flexible couplers. Each car is viewed as an intelligent agent that communicates with its neighbors, making the train a multi-agent system. The information transmission topology among these agents is represented by a connected undirected graph. Distributed cooperative control laws are constructed that achieve displacement and speed consensus among cars at a desired profile, while guaranteeing the coupler displacements to be within a safety range and converge to the nominal value. For multiple trains on a railway line, each train has access to the information of the trains within its wireless communication range, making all cars in these trains a multi-agent system. The underlying communication topology is now a state-dependent undirected graph. Distributed control laws are designed such that, besides achieving coordinated control of cars among each train, consensus among trains at the desired displacement and speed profile and connectivity among trains are also achieved, while avoiding collision. Extensive simulation results are presented to illustrate the theoretical conclusions we have reached.