Robust magnetic bearing control using stabilizing dynamical compensators

This paper considers the robust control of an active radial magnetic bearing system, having a homopolar, external rotor topology, which is used to support an annular fiber composite flywheel rim. A first-order dynamical compensator, which uses only position feedback information, is used for control, its design being based on a linearized one-dimensional second-order model which is treated as an interval system in order to cope with parameter uncertainties. Through robust stability analysis, a parameterization of all first-order robustly stabilizing dynamical compensators for the interval system is initially obtained. Then, by appropriate selection of the free parameters in the robust controller, the H₂ norm of the disturbance-output transfer function is made arbitrarily small over the system parameter intervals, and the H_∞ norm of the input-output transfer function is made arbitrarily close to a lower bound. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate both stability and performance robustness of the developed controller.