196 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON EDUCATION, VOL. E-29, NO.

4, NOVEMBER 1986

Design of a Magnetic Levitation Control System

Undergraduate Project
T. H. WONG

Abstract-A magnetic levitation control system is built as a class- controller amplifler electromagnet
room demonstration device for systems and control courses. System operating R
linearization and phase-lead compensation techniques are used to con- point
trol the unstable nonlinear system. Col

INTRODUCTION
pho to resils tor
A CLASSROOM demonstration device is always very ligght source
lih sorc

helpful in teaching engineering courses particularly

for automatic control. The magnetic levitation control Fig. 1. Magnetic levitation control system.
system is considered an interesting and impressive device
for this purpose. In addition, the system is so simple and d2x
small that is very convenient to be carried from class to m 2 = mg - f (3)
class.
There are, generally, two approaches for the design of where
magnetic levitation. One way is by using the eddy current
magnetic repulsive force [1]. Another way is by using f electromagnetic force
electromagnetic attractive force [2]-[4]. This design proj- i coil current
ect is based on the second method because it is more ef- x distance between electromagnet and ball bearing
ficient than the first method in energy consumption [4]. C constant
The magnetic levitation system is an unstable nonlinear e voltage across the coil
system. The following is a detailed description of how to R coil resistance
design the controller to stabilize the system. L coil inductance
SYSTEm ANALYSIS
m mass of ball bearing
g gravitational acceleration.
In Fig. 1, a ball bearing of mass m is placed underneath
the electromagnet at distance x. The current flowing into The system dynamic equations are nonlinear. Before we
the electromagnetic coil will generate electromagnetic can apply the linear control theoty, the system dynamic
force to attract the ball bearing. The net force between the equations are linearized at an operating point. The linear-
electromagnetic force and gravitational force will induce ized equations describing the variations from the operat-
an up or down motion of the ball bearing. The photores- ing point are obtained by using only the linear terms from
istor senses the variation of the position of the ball bearing the Taylor series expansion. If the variables of the oper-
by the amount of shadow casted on its surface and feeds ating point are expressed with subscript "0" and the var-
back this signal to the control circuit and amplifier to iables at the neighborhood of the operating point are rep-
regulate the input current i. The ball bearing is kept in a resented with subscript "1," then linearized equations are
dynamic balance around its equilibrium point. 200 2Ci2
The system's dynamic equations can be obtained as (see fi= 2 i1 -2-I
3 (4)
Appendix) x0 x0
i 2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~di,
f () M(1) el= Ri1 + L d- (5)
di d 2x,
e= Ri+L (2) mdF2L = f (6)

Manuscript received July 11, 1985; revised December 19, 1985. where
The author is with the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tulane li 2
University, New Orleans, LA 70118. fo = mg = C l
IEEE Log Number 8610515. \Xo/

0018-9359/86/ 1100-0196$01.00 © 1986 IEEE

WONG: MAGNETIC LEVITATION CONTROL SYSTEM 197

disturbance 70
E, electromagnet
controller __________
bal l-bearingl_r
+ IE(S)l T(S) IF (S) X1(S)1I m 7
90 /00

Fig. 2. Block diagram.

Fig. 3. System's dimensions (mm).
Laplace transformation of (4)-(6) yields Im

F1(S) = kLI,(S) -- Xl(S)] (7)

E1(S) = (R + LS)11(S) (8)

mS2X1(S) = -F1(S) (9)
where -- -58 -49.5 49.5 Re

k = 2C °.
x2o
The block diagram of the magnetic levitation system is
shown in Fig. 2. The characteristic equation of the control
system can be obtained. Fig. 4. System root loci (constant amplifier gain).
Q(S) = xoLmS3 + xoRmS2 -kioLS -
kioR + Gc(S)kXoB = 0. (10) TABLE I
From (10), we know that the system is unstable without xO 0.008 m
a proper controller. m 0.068 kg
R 28 Q
L 0.483 H
COMPENSATION TECHNIQUE iOC 0.76 A
7.39 x i0-5 N .m2 /A2
In Fig. 3, the electromagnet is made of a 3600-turn coil k 1.756 N/A
of gage 22 insulation wire closely wound around a low B 1.14 x 103 V/m
carbon steel cylinder of diameter d = 25 mm and length
1 = 100 mm. The other measured parameters are listed in
Table I. First, considering Gc(S) is a proportional controller (i.e.,
Equation (10) can be rearranged as constant amplifier gain), the root loci of the system is
shown in Fig. 4.
V(S) = I + LGS3c+ R S2 kxB
Q(S) =

xOLMS3 ± xORmS2 -
GC(S)kXOB
1 +

LS k
0

Fig. 4 indicates that system can never be stabilized by

kioLS - kioR simply adjusting the amplifier gain only. It is required to
(11) shift the loci to the left of the S plane so that the system
can be stabilized by selecting the proper amplifier gain.
and Since a lead network can serve this purpose, a phase-lead
kB controller is considered for Gc(s). The technique of the
GC(S) ML phase-lead compensation design in this case is to place
Q(S) = 1 + =0. the zero of the compensator in between 0 and -49.5, and
ki0 Fki0 > S,<JV
close to -49.5, on the, real axis of the S plane, while the
pole of the compensator is placed about 10 times the zero
mx0 L
position [7]. Hence, the phase-lead compensator is cho-
(12) sen as
Substituting the parameters into (12), we get G'(S. - K S + 4014

Q(S) 1 +(S + 49.5)(S - 49.5)(S + 58) = 1)The characteristic equation of (13) becomes
198 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON EDUCATION, VOL. E-29, NO. 4, NOVEMBER 1986

Im

K' - 4.702 x 106

s2 /
K'= 3.05 x 10 /
(K = 50)

{ t 72g)j;tZ ~~~~~K'=1. 421 x 106

-400 -58 40 S1 49.5 Re

-4.5\

n 100

Fig. 5. System root loci (with phase-lead compensation).

+42 V

110 1000II h

-42 v_ (15)~ ~~~~0

outpu)lt disturbance
detection input
Fig. 6. Electronic circuit of the magnetic levitation system.

K' (S + 40) /-'9015

Q(S) = 1 + (S + 49.5)(S - 49.5)(S + 58)(S + 400) 33t

K' = 60990 K, K: amplifier gain. 233

< 3 3 1 ]0
The root locus of (15) for K' changes from O OD is
shown in Fig. 5. In Fig. 5, for a stable system the mini-
mum system gain is K' = 1.421 x 106 or K = 23 at point -40 20AF
Si and the maximum system gain is K' = 4.702 x 106 or _l ______ 0 |
K = 77 at point S2 We select the medium amplifier gain
of K = 50. The control circuit for the magnetic levitation Fig. 7. Design layout (mm).
system is shown in Fig. 6.
a feedback signal to control the position of the ball bear-
SYSTEM DESIGN AND EXPERIMENTS ing. Since the photoresistor is very sensitive to the inten-
The layout of the control demonstration device is shown sity of light on its surface, a black tube is used to cover
in Fig. 7. The deviation from the equilibrium position of the photoresistor and to block the disturbance effect from
the ball bearing casts a shadow on the photoresistor which outside light sources. In designing the system, the lead
will generate the varying voltage corresponding to the compensator is achieved by using a simple RC circuit as
changing position. Then, the changing voltage is used as in Fig. 8.
WONG: MAGNETIC LEVITATION CONTROL SYSTEM 199

c frequency response. The demonstration device was

brought to the class twice for the course. First, a dem-
+ + onstration was conducted at the beginning of the semester
From R2 To to explain the concept of feedback control systems. Stu-
amplifier
photorRt2
phtresistor Vl
2 2RV
inpVt dents reacted with a great deal of curiosity and interest.
0 O The second demonstration was given after the students
Fig. 8. Lead compensator. had learned the root locus compensation technique. In this
demonstration, the complete magnetic levitation control
system from system modeling, analysis, and synthesis was
used as a live control system design example. The stu-
dents' responses were enthusiastic. Many questions were
asked about the technical details in the design of the con-
trol system.
In demonstrations, in order to enhance the effect, a
function generator was used to supply a sinusoidal wave-
forn of different frequencies at the disturbance input of
the circuit. Then, the ball bearing would oscillate at the
frequencies accordingly.
Students' reaction to this course is very encouraging;
that can be observed from 58 percent of senior students
choosing this course as their one of the two career elec-
9. tives out of six courses offered by the department this se-
Fig. 9.Actual levitated system.metr
Fig. Actual levitated system.
mester.
x
(mm) CONCLUSION

8.5 The magnetic levitation control system has proven suc-

cessful for classroom demonstration of feedback control.
7.0 l/_,_,_,_,_,_ ._It is very effective in teaching a control course using this
0.08 0.16 Tlme (Second) demonstration device as a live control system design ex-
ample. It is also possible to include this device as part of
a control lab for compensator design with a different op-
erating point or a different size of the ball bearing.
Fig. 10. System step response. This paper presents the design details on how to use the
linear control theory to control a nonlinear unstable mag-
The most difficult part for this design work is to select netic levitation system.
RI and R2 such that the steady state value of V2 has the
proper bias voltage to the power transistor which, in turn, APPENDIX
will supply the current for the coil to generate the electro- DERIVATION OF SYSTEM EQUATIONS
magnetic force approximately equivalent to the weight of
the ball bearing at the operating point. Several experi- The magnetic forcef exerted on the ball bearing is given
mental trials are necessary. by the well known equation [21
Fig. 9 is the picture of display of the controlled system. '2 dL
In Fig. 10, the system's dynamic time response is ob- f= -- - (Al)
tained from HP 7015B X-Y recorder by applying a step 2 dx
disturbance to the system. If the disturbance exceeds the The inductance L has its largest value when the ball bear-
linearized range, the system will become unstable and loss ing is next to the coil and decreases to a constant value LI
of control. In the lab experiments, we found that the limit as the ball bearing is removed to x = oo. For the present
of allowable disturbance to the system is about + 1.0 mm purpose we assume that this dependence is
away from xo. Loxo
DEMONSTRATIONS L L + x (A2)
The magnetic levitation system is intended to be used where Lo is a constant and xo is the operating levitation
as a classroom demonstration device for my control and gap. Substituting (A2) into (Al) we get
automation course which also includes six control labs 2 2
consisting of instrumentations, dc-motor system parame- f = 2 LoXo (' = C . (A3)
ter identification, velocity control, position control, and 2 0 (D
200 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON EDUCATION, VOL. E-29, NO. 4. NOVEMBER 1986

The differential equation of the circuit is a magnetic

[61 L. 0. Kehinde, "Analysis of limit cycle oscillations in Int.
suspension system using the describing function method," J. Eng.
d(Li) Sci., vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 419-437, 1984.
e = Ri + (A4) 17] J. J. D'azzo and C. H. Houpis. Linear Control System Analysis and
dt Design, Conventional and Modern.New York: McGraw-Hill, 1975.
Since x isSince ept around
x i alwayskept
always cloe neighborhood
aroud the close neighbrhood of [8] H. H. Woodson and J. R. Melcher, Electromechanical Dvnamni cs:
Part I Discrete Systems. New York: Wiley. 1968.
xo, L can be considered as a constant that will greatly sim- 19] G. H. Hostetter, C. J. Savant. Jr., and R. T. Stefani, Design of Feed-
plify the system model without losing much accuracy. back Control Systems. Ncw York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston,
Therefore, (A4) can be written as 1982.
110] R. H. Cannon, Dynamics of Physical Systems. New York: McGraw-
di Hill 1967.
e =Ri +L-. (AS)
dt
The equation of motion of the mechanical system is
d 2x
m 2=mg-J (A6)
The simplified system dynamic equations are (A3), (A5),
and (A6).
REFERENCES _ _ T. H. Wong received the B.S.M.E. degree from
REFERENCES Tatung Institute of Technology, Taiwan, in 1967,
11] E. R. Laithwaite, 'Electromagnetic levitation," Proc. IEE, vol. 112, the S.M. degree from the Massachusetts Institute
no. 12, pp. 2361-2375, 1965. of Technology, Cambridge, in 1974, and the
[2] B. V. Jayawant and D. P. Rea, "New electromagnetic suspension and Ph.D. degree from the State University of New
its stabilisation," Proc. IEE, vol. 115, no. 4, pp. 549-554, 1968. York at Buffalo, in 1983.
13] B. V. Jayawant, P. K. Sinha, A. R. Wheeler, R. J. Whorlow, and J. From 1967 to 1968 hc served in the Chinese
Willsher, "Developement of I-ton magnetically suspended vehicle army as an R.O.T.C. Officer. From 1968 to 1972
using controlled dc electromagnets," Proc. IEE, vol. 123, no. 9, pp. he was with Toung-Yuan Electrical Company and
941-948,e1976. m Tatung Company, Taiwan. He joined the Me-
[4] F. Matsumura and S. Yamada, 'A control method of suspension con- chanical Engineering Faculty of Tatung Institute
trol system by magnetic attractive force," Trans. I.E.E.J., (Japa- of Technology Taiwan from 1974 to 1980, and taught courses primarily in
nese), vol. 94-B, no. 11, pp. 33-40, 1974. the systems and controls areas. In 1983 he became an Assistant Professor
15] R. Frazier, P. Gillinson, and G. Oberback, Magnetic and Electrical at Tulane University, New Orleans, LA. His research interests include sys-
Suspension. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1974. tem dynamics and control theory.