Abstract: This paper is intended to present a neuro-PI (proportional-integral) controller for tuning the dynamic response of a running maglev vehicle at high speeds. The maglev vehicle is simulated as a rigid car body supported by a rigid magnetic bogie-set with a uniformly distributed spring-dashpot system, in which the electromagnetic force is controlled by an on-board PI controller. Considering the motion-dependent nature of electromagnetic force working in a maglev system, this study presents an iterative approach to compute the dynamic response of the running maglev vehicle system based on the Newmark method. The proposed neuro-PI controller is trained using back propagation neural network in such a way that its PI gains are correlated to the generated dataset of moving speeds and the maximum vertical accelerations of maglev oscillators including the midpoint and two ends of the rigid car body. Numerical simulations demonstrate that a trained neuro-PI controller has the ability to control the acceleration amplitude for a running maglev vehicle within an allowable region of restricted acceleration.

Brief Biography of the Speaker: 
Studies
Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, National Taiwan University
Academic Positions
Associate professor of Tamkang University in Taiwan
Scientific Activities
1. Vibrations of high speed rails
2. Geometrical nonlinear analysis of framed structres
3. Structural stability of tapered beams

Dr. Yau is currently an associate professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan. He received his M.S. degree and Ph.D. in civil engineering from National Taiwan University in 1986 and 1996, respectively. His main area of research is on the dynamics of vehicle-bridge interaction with emphasis on high speed railway system, including train-induced resonance phenomenon of bridge response, assessment of running safety and ride quality of traveling vehicles, and influence of ground settlement on a train running over a series of bridge units. He has published over 50 journal papers and articles, and is also the second author of the book: Vehicle-Bridge Interaction Dynamics. His recent research interests focus on vibration control of a running maglev-train and nonlinear dynamics of vehicles traveling over a suspension bridge.