Proportional-Integral-Derivative Gain-Scheduling Control of a Magnetic Levitation System

The paper presents a gain-scheduling control design procedure for classical Proportional-Integral-Derivative controllers (PID-GS-C) for positioning system. The method is applied to a Magnetic Levitation System with Two Electromagnets (MLS2EM) laboratory equipment, which allows several experimental verifications of the proposed solution. The nonlinear model of MLS2EM is linearized at seven operating points. A state feedback control structure is first designed to stabilize the process. PID control and PID-GS-C structures are next designed to ensure zero steady-state control error and bumpless switching between PID controllers for the linearized models. Real-time experimental results are presented for validation.