Development of magnetic levitation system

Abstract

A Magnetic Levitation System is considered to be a classical control problem due to its inherent non-linearity which makes it a bench mark to test the efficacy of any control algorithm. Hence, it is highly challenging to design a control system to maintain the system stable. Applications of these systems range from high speed rail transportation to various industrial applications like magnetically levitated wind turbines. Based on an extensive literature survey of the existing methodologies adopted to control such systems, an attempt to develop an embedded implementation of the system is proposed. In order to levitate an object of desired mass and at a desired distance an electromagnet with ample magnetizing force is designed. A driver board is used to drive current to the electromagnet based on the closed-loop feedback signal from a Hall Effect sensor through a microcontroller so as to levitate the object at a desired distance. The system is further stabilized using a lead compensator. Also a PID controller is implemented as an alternate method for achieving levitation.