Multiple Models-Based Fault Tolerant Control of Levitation Module of Maglev Vehicles against Partial Actuator Failures

Maglev vehicles, which can be regarded as large vehicle models, have tens of thousands of electronic components. The security problem of large systems has always been a challenge. If partial actuator failures occur in these components, it will lead to critical safety problems for vehicles traveling at high speed. In this paper, a fault-tolerant control strategy is developed to solve the problem of partial actuator failures in the levitation module control system of maglev vehicles based on multi-models. First, a dynamic model for the multiple-point levitation module of a maglev vehicle is established. Considering the actuator drive redundancy, the mode matrix is given for each possible fault. Next, based on each fault mode, the corresponding control signal is designed to ensure the stability and asymptotic tracking performance of the system, and the multi-controller set is formed. Then, the control switching mechanism is designed to select the most appropriate controller to generate control signals. Through simulations and experiments, the effectiveness of the proposed method with actuator fault compensation technology for multiple-point levitation modules of maglev vehicles was verified.