Tracking Control of Two Virtually Coupled Trains via Prescribed Performance Control Method

As a new concept in railways, virtual coupling has been proven that could reduce the separation between two adjacent trains, and thus increase the railway capacity effectively. However, the shorter separation distance will lead to the stricter requirements for the tracking accuracy. The prescribed performance control method could restrict the convergence rate and the convergence range of the tracking error, thus could improve the tracking accuracy effectively. Based on this, a novel tracking control scheme for two virtually coupled trains under the framework of the prescribed performance control is developed in this paper. To deal with the system uncertainties, a fuzzy logic system is applied to approximate the unknown resistance. At last, the convergence of the proposed controller is proved by virtue of the Lyapunov stability theorem and its effectiveness is analyzed through numerical simulations.