Adaptive Finite-Time Sliding Mode Control of Virtually Coupled Train Set with State Constraints

This paper proposes an adaptive finite-time control method to the cruise control problem for second-order virtually coupled train set (VCTS) with parametric uncertainty and state constraints. It is worth noting that this paper offers a novel way to deal with state constraints by embedding the barrier functions into the sliding manifold. To begin with, by analyzing the dynamic evolution of the VCTS in an actual environment, a leader-following VCTS dynamics model is formulated. After that, by embedding the barrier functions into the sliding manifold, a novel adaptive finite-time cruise control protocol is designed to ensure the speed and position tracking errors of the VCTS converge to a small region around zero, whilst providing the state constraints. The suggested method is highly applicable to engineering because it does not need gathering of exact dynamic details about trains and can achieve finite-time convergence. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is validated in simulation analysis.