Planar electromagnetic levitation system control

Magnetic levitation (Maglev) is a technique to suspend an object without any mechanical support. It has become the greatest technology in the railway's infrastructure domain. There are three types of maglev technology, Electromagnetic suspension system (EMS), Electrodynamics suspension system (EDS) and Inductrack technology. In this study, the EMS has been used based on one degrees-of-freedom (1-DOF) suspension system model. The main objective of this study is to establish stabilized controlling of closed-loop system for 1-DOF Maglev experimentally using a real-time control Simulink feature of (SIMLAB) microcontroller. Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) and Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) controllers, as well as phase lead compensation controller are utilized to examine the stability performance of the Maglev control system under the effect of unbalanced change of load and wave signal on Maglev plane. The physical system contains four parallel coils with four magnet discs on the lifting plane. The mathematical model of EMS system has been derived to analyze and predict the system response. The effect of unbalanced change of applied load on single point, line and plane are presented. Furthermore, in order to study the effect of sudden change in input signal, the input of wave signal has been applied on all points of the prototype maglev plate simultaneously. The results of pulse width modulation (PWM) reveal that the control system using LQR controller provides faster response to adjust the levitated plane comparing to PID controller. Moreover, the airgap distance that is controlled using PID controller is rather stable with little oscillation. Meanwhile, LQR controller has provided more stability and homogeneous response.