Simulation and Control Design of an Uniaxial Magnetic Levitation System

In this paper, three controllers are compared in order to levitate a steel sphere in a SISO magnetic levitation plant. Simulations of the controlled dynamic system are developed in MATLAB and the current and position behavior are addressed and compared with the experimental results. The first controller is implemented and designed using a PD control methodology. The other two controllers are designed in the state space using the pole placement and the linear quadratic regulator methods. All these controllers were designed and implemented using the ds1104 board. This work was done to validate the control methods studied in courses such as classical and digital control usually offered in Electrical Engineering programs.