Control and design of a single degree-of-freedom magnetic levitation demonstration

Abstract

Controlling and stabilizing magnetic suspension systems is a difficult design task because several non-linearities and noise in both magnet physics and sensor performance can cause instability. This thesis investigates methods of building and controlling a stable, single degree-of-freedom magnetic suspension system that will be robust to changes in ambient conditions. Synchronous detection is a technique that is successfully implemented in this hardware to create an optical position sensor that rejects a wide range of environmental light disturbances. Inspiration from two magnetic levitation demonstration setups at MIT yields a new operating, stable levitator with improved robustness.