Comparison of PI and fuzzy logic based sliding mode locomotive creep controls with change of rail-wheel contact conditions

This paper presents locomotive traction controllers based on proportional-integral and sliding mode control with a fuzzy logic creep reference generator; and compares their performance based on tractive efforts under various operation speeds. The effect of change of wheel-rail friction conditions under different controllers is also investigated. In particular, a sliding mode traction controller based on a fuzzy logic creep reference generator is developed to tackle non-linearity and uncertainty due to the contact conditions and operation speeds. It is shown that at high-speed operation, the fuzzy logic based sliding mode controller can achieve higher tractive force with lower creep values.