A Hierarchical Control Strategy for Active Pantograph in High-speed Railway

The pantograph-catenary system (PCS) is the only channel for high-speed trains to receive electric energy Active pantograph control is one of the promising methods for reducing contact force (CF) fluctuation. We propose a novel hierarchical control strategy subject to the pantograph dynamic characteristics. The bottom-layer and top-layer controllers compensate for the span and dropper passing frequencies, respectively. We then establish a complete simulation system with an aerodynamics-based air spring model to reproduce the PCS dynamic. Finally, we design the agent's state, action space, and reward function to train a DRL-based hierarchical controller end-to-end. The proposed method's effectiveness and robustness are evaluated under various working conditions.