For the pantograph-catenary coupling system, improving its current collection quality is a major measure to improve the performance of the pantograph-OCS system. Active control and regulation of the pantograph-OCS system is a proven effective method, which takes into account both economy and feasibility. Aiming at the problem of active control, this paper adopts an improved algorithm called optimal model reference adaptive active control (OMRAC), which is based on linear quadratic optimal control (LQR) model adaptive control (MRAC) and improved by model adaptive control (MRAC). The simlink modeling of the pantograph-catenary coupling system is carried out by using the DSA380 pantograph, and the LQR active control and the OMRAC active control are introduced, and the comparative test analysis is carried out. The experimental results show that the active control algorithm adopted in this paper is superior to the conventional LQR active control strategy, and can still have good performance under high speed operation, which provides a new idea for the research of active control strategy of pantograph-OCS system.