A fixed structure sliding mode control of the low-power consumption Maglev system for high speed transportation

This paper presents a robust zero-power control scheme for a high-speed Maglev system with controlled-PM electromagnets. A novel fixed structure sliding mode control method is applied to the robust controller synthesis for removing the control-voltage chattering and enhancing the suspension stability. Analytical expressions of the RMS gap variation and the average regulation power loss under the excitation of random guideway irregularity are derived on the basis of this new control scheme by using a frequency domain approach. Expressions obtained are important to the assessment of the suspension dynamics and the determination of the controller gains. The equivalent three-mass model with the guideway roughness modeled by both the power spectral density method and the discrete frequency method are adopted to simulate the overall vehicle ride dynamics. Numerical results gained from extensive simulations verify the superiority of applying this novel control scheme to the high speed Maglev transportation