A Hybrid Controller for Stability Robustness, Performance Robustness, and Disturbance Attenuation of a Maglev System

Devices using magnetic levitation (maglev) offer the potential for friction-free, high-speed, and high-precision operation. Applications include frictionless bearings, high-speed ground transportation systems, wafer distribution systems, high-precision positioning stages, and vibration isolation tables. Maglev systems rely on feedback controllers to maintain stable levitation. Designing such feedback controllers is challenging since mathematically the electromagnetic force is nonlinear and there is no local minimum point on the levitating force function. As a result, maglev systems are open-loop unstable. Additionally, maglev systems experience disturbances and system parameter variations (uncertainties) during operation. A successful controller design for maglev system guarantees stability during levitating despite system nonlinearity, and desirable system performance despite disturbances and system uncertainties. This research investigates five controllers that can achieve stable levitation: PD, PID, lead, model reference control, and LQR/LQG. It proposes an acceleration feedback controller (AFC) design that attenuates disturbance on a maglev system with a PD controller. This research proposes three robust controllers, QFT, Hinf , and QFT/Hinf , followed by a novel AFC-enhanced QFT/Hinf (AQH) controller. The AQH controller allows system robustness and disturbance attenuation to be achieved in one controller design. The controller designs are validated through simulations and experiments. In this research, the disturbances are represented by force disturbances on the levitated object, and the system uncertainties are represented by parameter variations. The experiments are conducted on a 1 DOF maglev testbed, with system performance including stability, disturbance rejection, and robustness being evaluated. Experiments show that the tested controllers can maintain stable levitation. Disturbance attenuation is achieved with the AFC. The robust controllers, QFT, Hinf , QFT/ Hinf, and AQH successfully guarantee system robustness. In addition, AQH controller provides the maglev system with a disturbance attenuation feature. The contributions of this research are the design and implementation of the acceleration feedback controller, the QFT/ Hinf , and the AQH controller. Disturbance attenuation and system robustness are achieved with these controllers. The controllers developed in this research are applicable to similar maglev systems

Robustness and Control of a Magnetically Levitated Transportation System

Electromagnetic suspension of Magnetic Levitation Vehicles (Maglev) has been studied for many years as an alternative to wheel-on rail transportation systems. In this work, design and implementation of control systems for a Maglev laboratory experiment and a Maglev vehicle under development at Old Dominion University are described. Both plants are modeled and simulated with consideration of issues associated with system non-linearity, structural flexibility and electromagnetic force modeling. Discussion concerning different control strategies, namely centralized and decentralized approaches are compared and contrasted in this work. Different types of electromagnetic non-linearities are considered and described to establish a convenient method for modeling such a system. It is shown how a Finite Element structural model can be incorporated into the system to obtain transfer function notation. Influence of the dynamic interaction between the Maglev track and the Maglev vehicle is discussed and supported by both analytical results and theoretical examples. Finally, several control laws designed to obtain stable and robust levitation are explored in detail

Third International Symposium on Magnetic Suspension Technology

In order to examine the state of technology of all areas of magnetic suspension and to review recent developments in sensors, controls, superconducting magnet technology, and design/implementation practices, the Third International Symposium on Magnetic Suspension Technology was held at the Holiday Inn Capital Plaza in Tallahassee, Florida on 13-15 Dec. 1995. The symposium included 19 sessions in which a total of 55 papers were presented. The technical sessions covered the areas of bearings, superconductivity, vibration isolation, maglev, controls, space applications, general applications, bearing/actuator design, modeling, precision applications, electromagnetic launch and hypersonic maglev, applications of superconductivity, and sensors

Fourth International Symposium on Magnetic Suspension Technology

In order to examine the state of technology of all areas of magnetic suspension and to review recent developments in sensors, controls, superconducting magnet technology, and design/implementation practices, the Fourth International Symposium on Magnetic Suspension Technology was held at The Nagaragawa Convention Center in Gifu, Japan, on October 30 - November 1, 1997. The symposium included 13 sessions in which a total of 35 papers were presented. The technical sessions covered the areas of maglev, controls, high critical temperature (T(sub c)) superconductivity, bearings, magnetic suspension and balance systems (MSBS), levitation, modeling, and applications. A list of attendees is included in the document

Modeling, Identification, Validation and Control of a Hybrid Maglev Ball System

In this thesis, the electrodynamics of a single axis hybrid electromagnetic suspension Maglev system was modeled and validated by applying it to a single axis hybrid maglev ball experiment. By exploring its linearized model, it was shown that the single axis hybrid Maglev ball has inherently unstable dynamics. Three control scenarios were explored based on the linearized model; (1) Proportional, Deferential (PD) control, (2) Proportional, Deferential, Integral (PID) and (3) PID controller with pre-filtering. This thesis has shown that a PID controller with a pre-filtering technique can stabilize such a system and provide a well-controlled response. A parametric system identification technique was applied to fit the theoretically derived model to a single axis hybrid maglev ball experiment. It is known that the identified model has different model parameters than the theoretically derived parameters. This thesis has examined and discussed the deviation from the theoretical model. Importantly, it was shown that such a system can be identified by estimating the values of two parameters instead of five to increase the accuracy. A Numerical nonlinear simulation was developed for the experiment based on the theoretically derived and experimentally identified model. This simulation was validated by real-time experiment outputs

Nonlinear dynamic analysis on maglev train system with flexible guideway and double time-delay feedback control

In this paper, the dynamic behavior of time-delayed feedback control for maglev train system with double discrete time delays is considered with flexible guideway. Considering the maglev guideway as Beroulli-Euler beam, the mathematical model of maglev system with flexible guideway is constructed. The time delay of the two state feedback signals in the maglev system occurs simultaneously, and the values are different. The present treatment method only considers one single feedback delay, which are insufficiency. Thus, the Hopf bifurcation with double time-delay feedback of maglev train running on the flexible guideway is analyzed considering time-delayed position feedback signal τ1 and velocity feedback signal τ2. A novel method is presented to develop the double-parametric Hopf bifurcation diagram in relation to τ1 and τ2. Sufficient numerical simulations are provided to illustrate the complex dynamical behavior of the discrete delays τ1 and τ2 for maglev system and we verify the obtained theoretical analysis. Finally, the field experiments are carried out to validate the effectiveness of the Hopf bifurcation analytical method preliminarily

Second International Symposium on Magnetic Suspension Technology, part 2

In order to examine the state of technology of all areas of magnetic suspension and to review related recent developments in sensors and controls approaches, superconducting magnet technology, and design/implementation practices, the 2nd International Symposium on Magnetic Suspension Technology was held at the Westin Hotel in Seattle, WA, on 11-13 Aug. 1993. The symposium included 18 technical sessions in which 44 papers were presented. The technical sessions covered the areas of bearings, bearing modelling, controls, vibration isolation, micromachines, superconductivity, wind tunnel magnetic suspension systems, magnetically levitated trains (MAGLEV), rotating machinery and energy storage, and applications. A list of attendees appears at the end of the document

Third International Symposium on Magnetic Suspension Technology

In order to examine the state of technology of all areas of magnetic suspension and to review recent developments in sensors, controls, superconducting magnet technology, and design/implementation practices, the Third International Symposium on Magnetic Suspension Technology was held at the Holiday Inn Capital Plaza in Tallahassee, Florida on 13-15 Dec. 1995. The symposium included 19 sessions in which a total of 55 papers were presented. The technical sessions covered the areas of bearings, superconductivity, vibration isolation, maglev, controls, space applications, general applications, bearing/actuator design, modeling, precision applications, electromagnetic launch and hypersonic maglev, applications of superconductivity, and sensors