Experiments in fuzzy control of a Magnetic Levitation System laboratory equipment

The paper is focused on the experimental validation of two control solutions dedicated to the position control of a sphere in the Magnetic Levitation System with Two Electromagnets (MLS2EM) laboratory equipment. A state feedback control structure is first designed to stabilize the system. A fuzzy control solution based on a Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy controller is next designed to ensure better control system performance including zero steady state control error. The real-time experiments involve three types of disturbance inputs applied to the lower electromagnet if the MLS2EM: pulse width modulated signal, sinusoidal signal and pseudo-random binary sequence. The experimental results show prove that the fuzzy control structure ensures very good tracking errors for all three disturbance inputs.