Research on Velocity Measurement for High-Speed Electrical Contact Sliding Devices Based on the Potential Difference Variation Method

Sliding electrical contact is a dynamic form of electrical contact. High-speed electrical contact sliding devices enable the transmission of electrical energy and signals during the sliding process, which are widely used in transportation, military, aerospace, and other fields. During operation, these devices often operate in harsh environments characterized by high voltage, high current, and strong magnetic fields, resulting in highly complex motion characteristics and patterns. To ensure normal operation and verify performance, a rational measurement and control system design is essential. This paper focuses on the research and feasibility verification of a measurement and control system for high-speed electrical contact sliding devices, with the main research contents as follows: Firstly, this paper elaborates on the current research status of control strategies and physical quantity measurement methods for high-speed electrical contact sliding devices. The trigger control of the pulse forming network during operation is critical to ensuring proper device functionality, requiring high control precision. This study emphasizes the analysis of commonly used slider speed measurement methods between rails and their working principles. Addressing the issue that existing speed measurement methods cannot accurately measure slider movement speed, this paper proposes a voltage-based speed measurement method. Secondly, a detailed analysis of the pulse forming network’s working principle is conducted, leading to the proposal of a high-precision control scheme and an antiinterference pulse signal transmission scheme. In addition, an integrated measurement and control system based on the main controller, signal conditioning, data acquisition, and host computer interaction was constructed. By optimizing the driving circuit and timer configuration, precise generation of multi-channel programmable pulse sequences and synchronous trigger signals was achieved, meeting the requirements for multi-module collaborative operation. A high-voltage isolation, filtering, and amplification integrated signal conditioning circuit was designed to realize multi-dimensional signal acquisition. Based on the LabVIEW platform, host computer measurement and control software was developed, enabling functions such as pulse parameter visualization, multi-channel trigger logic control, and real-time data storage and analysis. Finally, a high-speed electrical contact sliding device platform was designed and developed for experimental verification. The test data verified the system’s reliability, and analysis of the rail voltage data confirmed that the voltage-based speed measurement method can accurately measure the slider speed between rails.