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Magnetic Ball Suspension System

I.Abstract
This paper is intended to serve as a solution for the problem
posted in the event “Empowered” in Technex-08. It
contains the design of a magnetic ball suspension system
which can stabilize a steel ball in air using an actively
controlled electromagnet. With Cx=diag(c1,c2,c3) where the c1, c2, c3 are gains for
the sensors and ka is the power amplifier gain.
II.Introduction
A. Suspension system parameter identification
The suspension of a steel ball using an electromagnet is a
The values of the steel ball mass m, coil resistance R, and
system which is unstable due to the attractive nature of
inductance L are obtained straightforward. A precision
force. If at all there is any disturbance then the ball departs
balance is used for measuring m. The value of R is
from its position of equilibrium. The purpose of this paper
measured using a multimeter and the value of L is
is to present an actively controlled model which can keep
determined by measuring the time constant of the coil
the ball in equilibrium by adjusting the current in the coil of
current response to a voltage step.
the electromagnet.
The constant parameters a, k1, and k2 are obtained by the
following procedure. An initial low current is applied to the
III.Suspension system dynamic equations coil terminals in order to keep the steel ball on a base near
Consider a steel ball of mass m, placed at a distance z under the operating point where the value of z is taken, which is
an electromagnet as shown in figure 1. The modeling of the called zeq.. With the steel ball at zeq the current is increased
electromagnetic suspension system is based on its until the ball goes upward at t=teq when the value of i is
electrical, mechanical, and electromechanical equations [1], taken, which is called ieq. Fig. 2 illustrates this procedure.
[2] The procedure is repeated several times and the value of ieq
is taken as its mean value. Repeating the same procedure
for different values of z, new values for zeq and ieq are
found, yielding the curve zeq X ieq. Taking two points of the
curve on which the force is equal to the
gravitational force and using (1), it can be written

and a can be determined. Finally, the value of L0 can be


Here f is the electromagnetic force, i is the current in the calculated as-
coil, L and R are the inductance and resistance of the coil ,
a is constant and L0 =L(0)-L(infinity).
The system dynamic equations are linearized at an Here g is the acceleration due to gravity and from these
operating point (z0,i0). Since z is kept around z0 the values k1 and k2 can be calculated using equation (6) and
inductance L() is approximated by a constant L. Defining , (7).
zl=z-z0, il=i-i0and u=v-Ri0, the linearized equations around the
operating point are given by IV.System Components

A. Control Configuration-
A position detector consisting of a 5-V infrared emission
as a light source and a photo transistor MRD-300 as a photo
receiver is used. For measuring the coil current a Hall effect
sensor NW-SC50 is used. In order to control the coil
current, a power amplifier working with an analog pulse
width modulation (PWM) circuit of 5-kHz switching
frequency and a transistorized dc chopper is used. A DSP
board with a 12-bit 12-kHz A/D converter and a digital
Defining the suspension system state variables as x1= zl, input–output (I/O) modules and 12-bit D/A are used for
x2=(d/dt) (z)l and x3=il, we can write state and output computing the control signal and for data acquisition. A
system equations standard 386-CPU-based 25-MHz computer serves as a
terminal. Fig. 3 shows the complete control system
diagram.

where x is the system state vector, y is the output.


=
B. Gains and Ranges of the Sensors
The gain and range of the position sensors are obtained as
, and H=C, with the sampling
follows . First, the position sensor characteristic curve
period.
. with Vz the output voltage of the sensor is foundUsing the suspension system parameters and a sampling
and then a linear region is chosen, yielding the rate of 1 ms system (11) can be written as
intervals[Vzmin Vzmax] and [Zmin Zmax]as seen in Fig. 5.
Finally, the position sensor
gain, denoted as (8), is obtained by taking the
derivative of the characteristic curve at which yields
c1= arctan(@) .
Note that the assembling of the position sensor is such that
z=z0 is made to correspond to Vz=[Vzmin+Vzmax]/2 as can be
seen from Fig. 5. Also, note that the system output y1
in (8) is equal to Vz-(Vzmin+Vzmax)/2 . Since dz/dt is The system (12) is controllable. The linear quadratic
estimated from z , the value of c2 (8) equals c1 . optimal control is given by
In general, the Hall effect current sensor is almost linear.
(13)
Thus, the sensor gain c3 , may be calculated by the ratio of
Where K is a gain matrix obtained from the minimization
the output voltage variation to the input current variation.
of
Similarly to the system out y1 & y2 in (8) is the current
sensor value translated.

D. Signal Conditioning with Q a symmetric positive semi definite matrix and R a


The output range of the position sensor [Vzmin Vzmax] scalar positive.
must be transformed into the input range of the A/D V. FILTER DESIGN
converter. The feedback control signal u in (13) uses the steel ball
This transformation can be done in a variety of ways using position and velocity,x1 and x2 , respectively, and the coil
a level translator stage [3]. The gain of this stage called Sz current x3 . The velocity x2 is not directly detected but
is given by , estimated from the position x1. A velocity estimation scheme
from the position is very sensitive mainly to quantization
where RADin is noise. Also, the switching circuit causes coil current ripple
the input range of the A/D converter. In a similar way [Vimin and interference on the phototransistor signal. In addition,
Vimax], denoting the output range of the current white noise and line interference are present but in low
sensor, the corresponding stage gain called Si is given by level.
To reduce the quantization noise effect, signals x3 and x1 are
.
filtered with first- and third-order digital filters,
Similarly, the output range of the D/A converter,
respectively.
RADout must be transformed into the input range of the
A higher order filter is chosen for the latter due to the fact
power amplifier,[umin umax] .
that x2 is estimated from x1. In order to allow the study of
With Su the gain of this stage it is given
the filter effects, the coefficients of the digital filters are let
By
to be adjusted. These coefficients are obtained from all-pole
. filters as follows.
E. Conversion Scaling First, choose the poles and ,n=1,2 and 3 for
The values of the digitized signals do not correspond the current and position filters, respectively. The open loop
numerically to the analog ones. For the A/D ranges RADin controller frequency responses from x1(s) to u(s) with and
and RADout, the conversion scaling factor without filters, seen in Fig. 6, suggest that filter pole
frequencies about 160 Hz do not deteriorate the controller
is obtained. In a similar way, for the D/A ranges RDAin and response. Then, the digital filters are obtained from the
RDAout, the conversion scaling factor continuous transfer function of all-pole filters by using
backward approximation. As an example, consider the
current filter with
is obtained. transfer function given by ,
IV. Quadratic Optimal Controller
The discrete form of system (8) is obtained by using a zero
order sample holder for the system input, which yields Where superscript f denotes filtered signal. Bytransfer
function given by ,

(11) Where superscript f denotes filtered signal. By using


backward approximation, the difference equation is found
Where F=exp(AT), as
where and

. In a similar way, position filter coefficients f3,f4,f5 and f6


are obtained. Finally, the complete system including the
switching circuit interferences and quantization is simulated
to verify the filter performance for the orders and
frequencies adopted.

VI.Refernces
[1] T. H. Wong, “Design of a magnetic levitation control
system—An undergraduate project,” IEEE Trans. Educ.,
vol. E-29, pp. 196–200,1986.
[2] K. Oguchi and Y. Tomigashi, “Digital control for a
magnetic suspension system as an undergraduate project,”
Int. J. Elect. Eng. Educ., vol. 27, pp. 226–236, 1990.
[3] R. Gayakwad and L. Sokoloff, Analog and Digital
Control Systems. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall,
1988.
[4] Optimal Control: Linear Quadratic Methods (Prentice
Hall Information and System Sciences Series) by Brian
D.O. Anderson and John B. Moore.
[5] Digital implementation of a magnetic suspension
control system for laboratory by Vilma A.Oliviera,
Eduardo F. Costa and Jerson B. Vargas.
[6] GASTON, F. M.F ., and IRWING,. w.: 'Linear quadratic
optimal controller
realisation on systolic arrays'. Proc. ITN, Southampton,
England, 1990, pp. 111-116.

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