Final Report Project # 26 Magnetic Levitation Control

The project was to design a controller for a magnetic coil that can levitate a permanent magnet or steel ball in the air. It started by planning the different phases over the upcoming months. Then, some hardware parts such as the magnetic coil and the electronic circuit for supplying the coil, to produce the electromagnetic force were designed. During this period each group member was able to use his theoretical knowledge and apply it to practical matters to better understand the underlying phenomena behind magnetic materials and electronic circuits. To analyze different aspects of the system such as electrical and mechanical dynamics the magnetic levitation system was modeled using Simulink. The simulation results had a significant effect on the designing of the actual controller, as the behaviour of the system became evident at this time. Afterward, a prototype using Arduino MCU was developed to examine the system behavior before implementing the controller in the X2C. The final version of the system then prepared by assembling the electronics, implementing the control algorithm using the X2C for code generation and tuning the controller. During the project, we dealt with a lot of obstacles such as software and hardware incompatibility, the intrinsic nonlinearity of the coil force, etc. Critical thinking and proactivity were among some of the skills that were acquired by group members in the process of working on the project.