Online Tuning PID Controller Parameters of High Speed Electric Train Pantograph Using Fuzzy Gain Scheduling

Pantograph is one of the most important equipment of Electric trains which transferred power from the Catenary to train. Permanent connection of pantograph to the catenary is necessary under all circumstances. On the other hand, the catenary parameters have uncertainly and are variable in a span. This feature challenged the pantograph control issue especially in high speed trains. Maintaining the contact force between pantograph and catenary system under these uncertainties is the aim of this article. So, the dynamic equation of a 2 Degrees of Freedom (2-DOF) pantograph-catenary system is derived and a PID controller is designed, firstly. The Overshoot, Undershoot and oscillations are high in contact force under PID controller, because there are uncertainties in catenary parameters. For reducing the uncertainties effects, the PID parameters are tuned by gain scheduling method. For achieve to better responses, the fuzzy logic is combined to gain scheduling method and the PID parameters updated online using this fuzzy gain scheduling method. Finally, the performance of three controllers on pantograph-catenary system is simulated and analyzed under practical situations. The results show that the combination of fuzzy logic with gain scheduling method lead to improved performance of PID controller for pantograph-catenary system.