An antislipping fuzzy logic controller for a railway traction system

A controller has been designed to avoid the wheel-rail slipping in a scale model of a train. This scale model is being employed because of the difficulties in testing this nonlinear phenomenon in a real locomotive. The controller uses rules based on the knowledge about the slipping behavior of a skilled human operator; it has been developed using a fuzzy logic approach. Different simulations have shown that this fuzzy antislipping controller works satisfactorily decreasing the torque to be applied to the electrical drive when the slipping situation has been detected, and reducing both the slipping value and the time spent in recovery adherence.