ABSTRACT
Excessive vertical and lateral motion of a train body could endanger the operation
safety of a high-speed train. The situation is further complicated if actuation faults
occur. This chapter investigates a semi-active approach for suppressing such
motions. By using the structural properties of the system model, a new control
scheme is proposed to account for various factors such as input nonlinearities,
actuator failures, and external disturbances in the system simultaneously. The
resultant control scheme is capable of automatically generating the intermediate
control parameters and literally producing the PD-like controller - the whole
process does not require precise information on the system model or system
parameters. Furthermore, unlike traditional PD control, the one proposed has the
stability-guaranteed algorithms to self-adjust its PD gains and there is no need for
human tuning or a trial and error process. Such user-friendly features are deemed
favorable for practical implementation. The effectiveness of the proposed controller
is tested using computer simulations in the presence of parametric uncertainties and
varying operation conditions.
