Virtually coupled train stop control based on contractive MPC

For the small virtual coupling scheme proposed for the problem of metro line traffic tension, train stop control when entering the station is an important direction. The distance between virtual coupling (VC) trains after they have stopped has a significant impact on the flexibility of station operations. In order to achieve the goal of gradually reducing the train spacing during stopping process, this paper proposes a train stop control approach based on contractive model predictive control (MPC) on the premise of ensuring safety. The stability of the controller is demonstrated in the paper. We have done simulation for two scenarios. The simulation results prove the feasibility of this approach, which has obvious advantages compared with ordinary MPC in stopping time performance.