Magnetic levitation experiment as a SISO system March- 2011

Submitted by Group-2:

Balaji Guggulothu -10323013

Rahul Choudhary -10323024

Uday Kumar -10323003

Tejas P Jadhav -10323404

Introduction:
Magnetic levitation system is a Non-linear MIMO system, but can also be worked as
a SISO system. The system is composed of a disc (permanent magnet) which is positioned in
between the two electromagnets (actuators), vertically. The lower coil is repulsive in nature
with the disc and hence works against the gravitational force acting on the disc and upper coil
attracts the disc, since there polarity is different. The lower repulsive system is open loop
stable and the upper attractive one is open loop unstable. The upper system may be stabilized
with sufficiently high control gain. The position of the disc is sensed by the laser sensors
placed at the top and bottom. The system is nonlinear at all levels, i.e., in actuator, sensor,
plant. The system must be, thus evaluated by linearizing about an operating point.

The configuration settings to calibrate the system properly. When a suitable file is
included, the corresponding system is linearized and run by the software.

The experiment performed is on a SISO system with lower actuator and sensor. Thus
the system dynamics is influenced by attractive force of gravity on the disc and the repulsive
force from the coil. The system is essentially a second order system. The closed loop
implements the pole placement algorithm that must be run by running the suitable file.

Setup Details:

Magnetic fields are used to describe forces at a distance from electric currents. The
Model 730 Magnetic Levitation (MagLev) apparatus may be quickly transformed into a
variety of single input single output (SISO) and multi-input multi-output (MIMO)
configurations. By using repulsive force from the lower coil to levitate a single magnet, an
open loop stable SISO system is created. Attractive levitation via the upper coil effects an
open loop unstable system. Two magnets may be raised by a single coil to produce a SIMO
plant. If two coils are used a MIMO one is produced. These may be locally stable or
unstable depending on the selection of the magnet polarities and the nominal magnet
positions. The plant diagram is as shown in the figure below.
 Up per
sup port arm
Ru ler clamp G lass rod cl amp
screw (2 p l. ) screw (2 p l. )
Protective
coi l co ver 0 1 4

(2 p l. ) 1 1 3 Up per Dri ve
2 1 2
Co il (Coi l #2)
3 1 1

Preci sio n gl ass

Laser Senso r
4 1 0

gu id e rod 5 9

(out of vi ew , 2 p l. ) 6 8
Magnet
7

8
7

6
hei gh t ul er
9 5

Levi tated Co il curren t

1 0 4

magnet i ndi catin g LED

1 1

1 2
3

2 Lo wer Drive
(2 p l. ) 1 3 1 Co il (Coi l #1)
Sen sor 1 4 0

con di ti on in g
el ectron ics Co nnector Magnet
Lo wer
sup port Storage
arm

Side View Front View

Two laser-based sensors measure the magnet positions. The height of the magnet is
calculated using received intensity of the light on the sensor. The lower sensor is typically
used to measure a given magnet’s position in proximity to the lower coil, and the upper one
for proximity to the upper coil.

Block Diagram:

The below figure shows the plant block diagram along with PD controller. Here we
have used derivative control in the feedback path so that there is no zero in the final transfer
function. Here Kp is the proportional gain and Kd is the derivative gain. Transfer Function of
the system without PD controller is

G1(s) = KuKs/( ms2 + cs + k)

The transfer function of the system with PD controller is

G(s) = KpKsKu/( ms2 + (c + KuKdKs)s + ( K + KpKsKu))

Fig: Block Diagram of plant with PD controller

Procedure:

 The transfer function of the system with PD controller is compared with the standard
2nd order transfer function. For given damping ratio of 0.7 and steady state error of 10
% Kp and Kd are calculated.

 With no input applied to the system the lower magnet is at rest on the lower coil.

 Input of 20000 counts is applied to the system, which is equivalent to a height of 2

cm. This is because the plant has been linearized about this height.

 After the magnet is stabilised at height 2 cm, a step input of 5000 counts equivalent to
0.5 cm is applied to the system for duration of 1 second and output is observed.

 Graph of sensor reading and input applied is plotted against time.

Calculations:

Given: Damping Ration(ξ) = 0.7,Steady state error(ess )= 10%

Ku = 0.02369

Ks = 10000

m = 0.121

c = 4.7

k = 59.353242

then G(s) is compared with 2nd order transfer function

KpKsKu/( ms2 + (c + KuKdKs)s + ( K + KpKsKu)) = wn2 /( s2 + 2 ξwns + wn2)

ess = k/( k + KpKsKu)

The Kp and Kd values are calculated as

Kp = 2.254872005

Kd = 0.030241969

For the above values Kp and Kd placed into transfer function then we got the results as
shown in below figure.
Fig:Closed loop step response for Kp=2.2548 and Kd=0.0302

Fig:Closed loop step response for Kp=2.2548 and Kd=0.0102

 Fig:Closed loop step response for Kp=2.2548 and Kd=0.0502

Conclusions:

 The magnetic levitation plant was tested for various values of zeta and steady state
error and the output was observed.

 For under damped zeta it was observed that the oscillations were of large amplitude.

 For critically damped zeta the response was slightly oscillatory. But when the steady
state error was increased its response improved.

 For over damped zeta the response was slow.

 It was observed that the difference in responses compared to standard responses were
due to nonlinearity of the system and approximation of the system by linearization
around 2 cm height.