Title: Extension of operating air-gap in electromagnetic levitation system by using intelligent controllers

Authors: Subrata Banerjee

Addresses: Department of Electrical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Durgapur, Durgapur-713209, India

Abstract: Electromagnetic levitation system (EMLS) is inherently unstable and strongly nonlinear in nature. The parameters of EMLS undergo considerable variation with change in air-gap. This makes the design and implementation of robust controllers difficult. This paper deals with intelligent controllers utilising gravitational search algorithm (GSA) based piecewise linear control and GSA based fuzzy control scheme to extend the range of operating air-gap for an EMLS. Extensive simulation has been carried out for the tuning of controller parameters and it is found the GSA based technique produces improved performance. Robust design of controllers for different zones is confirmed by Kharitonov/Nyquist enclosure. The controllers are tested in a small-scale system in the laboratory confirming the usefulness of the proposed technique. Such systems are useful for magnetic levitation (maglev) based applications those need to operate in a large operating air-gap.

Keywords: electromagnetic levitation; DC-DC power converters; PWM; fuzzy control; gravitational search algorithm; GSA; piecewise linear control; robust control.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAAC.2018.095102

International Journal of Automation and Control, 2018 Vol.12 No.4, pp.526 - 554

Received: 05 Jul 2017
Accepted: 04 Aug 2017
Published online: 01 Oct 2018 *

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