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Usman Arshad Siddiqui, Dawood Javed, Jr., and Third C. Author, Member, IEEE
CONTROL SYSTEM DESIGN OF
MEGNETIC LEVITATION
Abstract:

This paper is about the design of controller of magnetic levitation system that can suspend the steel object or sphere in air.
Magnetic levitation is highly advanced technology and also very popular in research, The magnetic levitation means to levitate
(rise or cause to rise the object in air) the object by using electromagnetic field, In our daily life the use of natural resources
increasing which cause the shortage of these resources in upcoming generation especially in transportation which is causing
loss of crude oil and other resources, the magnetic levitation provides less consumption of electrical energy due to the lack of
contact there is no friction thus the efficiency increases, reduces maintenance cost and increase the life of the system . Being an
efficient the magnetic levitation technology can be used in various industries. This paper is about the design a controller for a
magnetic coil that that levitate steel object. The issues involved in magnetic levitation are stability, nonlinearity and lifting
force. The lifting force should be as much as the coil attract the object and the stability of the system ensures that the system
should remain stable when object levitates

inductor used can easily be built by taking a nut bold of

I. INTRODUCTION1
Magnetic levitation is the process by which a
ferromagnetic object is suspend against the gravity through
magnetic field generated by the inductor. This technology
eliminates the contact between two stationary or moving
parts that’s why they are widely use in various field such as
high speed trains, magnetic bearings and so on. The
magnetic levitation system is unstable and has uncertain
nonlinear dynamics. These types of the systems are usually
unstable in open loop conditions this is why they need to
construct the high-performance feedback system
II.CONSTRUCTION
The magnetic levitation consists of the position sensor,
bold inductor and controller the Figure 1 shows the basic
model of magnetic levitation system.
5mm in diameter, length of 6 inches and 2300-2500 turns
of copper wire winding on the bold. Then for sensing the
positioning of the ball the use of IR receiver and
transmitter could be the best choice as we changes the
position of the ball up and down the amount of light
detecting accordingly, the controller looks the position of
the ball and compare it to the reference position and adjust
the current needed to levitate the steel ball or object.
Now days the most advanced technology used for
levitation is the use of the control DC because of the low
power consumption. As above described the nature of the
system the feedback controller are used to stabilized them
the controller design usually use linear control technology
its mean to achieve the outcomes on desired operating
point the linear model of the system can work only on a
small area of the operating point, so first step before
designing the control system for the system is to linearize
the system

III. SYSTEM MODELING

The inductor is use to create the electromagnetic force
and its magnetic field depend upon the amount of the
current flowing in the coil. The magnetic field of the
inductor can be control by adjusting the current. The
1
Figure 1: Basic Model
The levitation of the ball or any steel object with the use
of electromagnetic is difficult because it is open loop
unstable system and force, current and the distance
between the electromagnetic and the ball occupies the
nonlinear relationship, the main task is to maintain the
equilibrium and it can be possible when the magnetic force
balances the gravitational force. As slight we move ball
near to inductor it will increases the magnetic force which
allow ball in contact with the inductor or we move ball
away it cause decrease in magnetic force and allow ball to
fall in this cause the most effective method to stabilize the
nonlinear system around the operating point is to take the
first order approximation and then use standard control
techniques for linear systems
The equation of motion on the ball accordingly Newton’s
law
 mẍ = f ( I , x) - mg
y = h(x)
Where “x” is the position of the and the current through
the coil is represented by “I”. “g” is the gravitational
constant (g = 9.8 m/). In the above equation the function f (
I , x) describe the magnetic force acting on the ball as a
function of x and I and the function h(x) describe the
voltage drop IR receiver
IV. LINEARIZATION
For the linearization of the system we take some
approximation in equation of motion the new generalize
form of equation of motion is.
mẍ = f( x , I) – mg = f ( Io , xo) + Ki ∆I + Kx ∆x - mg
The ∆I represent the change in current (∆I = I – Io), Io is
the current after placing the ball and ∆x is the change in
position (∆x = x – xo), By tuning the gain we can cancel
out the gravitational force at equilibrium. We also linearize
the output function around the equilibrium.
mẍ = Ki ∆I + Kx ∆x
y = ∆x
V. ELECTRIC CONTROL DESIGN
equil
IR LED AND TRANSMITTER:
Voltage follower:
The first two op amps are voltage follower which
creates the buffer between the IR receiver and the inputs of
the summer amplifier with the gain equals to one to avoid
the overloading effect.
SUMMER AMPLIFIER:
The summer amplifier is used to sum up the output of
the two voltage buffers and then the output of the summer
is connected to the input of the analog controller.
Vout = Vx + Vy
Figure 2: Electrical Circuit
ANALOG CONTROLLER:
The transfer function of the analog controller in red
block is
G(s) =
GAIN CONTROLLER:
The gain controller circuitry shown is used to adjust the
gain of the analog controller with respect to the current inn
electromagnet and the position of the ball, and then output
of the controller circuit is connected to the inverting
amplifier with the gain equals to 1 to reverse the polarities.
VOLTAGE DIVIDER:
The voltage divider divides the voltage between the
controller and the electromagnet circuitry, set the values of
the resistors after testing the electromagnet circuitry and
adjust it with accordingly to the controller output, after
than use the inverting amplifier to reset the voltage polarity
and amplifies the voltages for the electromagnet,
The power transistor is used to control the current
through the electromagnet and the freewheeling diode
across the electromagnet is use to protect the last op amp
(inverting amplifier) from the potentially large voltage
spikes if the magnetic current stops abruptly.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper the main focus was to design the electrical
control system of the magnetic levitation, there is always
nonlinearity occurs which drag the performance and the
stability, then appropriate controller is design for the
system to overcome these problem and make system
effectively works even some uncertainties acts on it.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The preferred spelling of the word “acknowledgment” in
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to thank ... .” Instead, write “F. A. Author thanks ... .” http://www.atm.com
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here. [30] R. J. Vidmar. (1992, August). On the use of atmospheric plasmas as
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