Modelling, Simulation & Control of Non-Linear

Magnetic Levitation System

Muhammad Junaid Khan Sahibzada Bilal
Electrical Engineering Department
Electrical Engineering Department
University of Engineering & Technology, Mardan
University of Engineering & Technology, Mardan
Pakistan
Pakistan
[email protected]
[email protected]
Sadia Jabeen Siddiqi
Muhammad Junaid Electrical Engineering Department
Electrical Engineering Department
University of Engineering & Technology, Mardan
University of Engineering & Technology, Mardan Pakistan
Pakistan [email protected]
[email protected]

Haseeb Ahmad Khan

Electrical Engineering Department
University of Engineering & Technology, Mardan
Pakistan
[email protected]

Abstract— This paper deals with the modelling, simulation and The Magnetic Levitation system considered in the work at
linearization of a non-linear dynamic magnetic levitation system. hand is fabricated of a ferromagnetic ball levitated in a voltage-
In this work, a non-linear Simulink model for MLS is presented at controlled magnetic field [3]. The current system that we
the initial stage using MATLAB/Simulink as a tool. The system considered for our analysis is the educational nonlinear
considered is a ferromagnetic ball suspended in a voltage- hardware model of Magnetic Levitation System ED-4810. We
controlled magnetic field – known as the Magnetic Levitation employed the state space analysis technique to scrutinize the
System. These systems tend to be highly unstable and require a range of parameters for stability of the system. Meanwhile, we
controller to achieve linearized behavior and high precision applied the same to linearize the simulation model of the
positioning of the ferromagnetic ball. This paper presents the
aforementioned hardware. The ultimate objective being to make
mathematical modeling as well as simulation results of a dynamic
non-linear magnetic levitation system upon which, state-space
use of matrices and state-space modeling to mathematically
modeling is implemented to achieve linearized and precise position linearize the equations of this system and afterwards, build-up
results. its linear simulation model to make it capable to levitate the
magnet with high precision.
Keywords— magnetic levitation system; linearization; state State space equations are models that use state variables by
space; first order derivatives. a set of first order differential equations to describe a system in
the time-domain. This eliminates the need of performing the
I. INTRODUCTION
extensive Laplace transform and partial fraction expansions to
Magnetic levitation system (MLS) are electro-mechanical study a control system. Hence, state space representation is a
systems that are used to levitate an object in space without any mathematical model of a system as a set of inputs, outputs &
support. This technology is becoming more widespread due to state variables related by first order differential equation.
its friction-less and contact-less properties as it eradicates energy
losses due to friction [1]. It has been widely used in various Regarding this paper, Section-II presents the general
fields such as high-speed maglev passenger trains, high speed description of a magnetic levitation system and its various
computing, highly accurate positioning systems, frictionless components. Section III presents the system dynamics,
bearings and others [2]. Since the evolution of this technology, mechanical & mathematical modelling of the system. Section
researchers have studied a wide number of such systems. In IV represents simulation of the non-linear system as well as the
addition, work has been done on controller design for these state-space controller for linearization of the system. Results of
systems as they are complex and they need pertinent control these simulations are also discussed in the same section. Finally,
action. Nevertheless, these are generally open loop unstable and conclusion of the entire work is given in section V of the paper.
highly non-linear systems. This un-stability factor and natural
nonlinearity of magnetic levitation systems makes their
modelling & control very challenging [2].

978-1-5386-7536-6/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE

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 II. MAGNETIC LEVITATION SYSTEM

Fig.1. shows the diagram of the system. The system

considered here is assembled of a ferromagnetic ball levitated
in a voltage-controlled magnetic field. It consists of Position
sensor, Electromagnetic Actuator, Electrical circuit for power
supply & the Controller.

Fig. 2. Free body diagram showing the mechanical forces acting on a

MLS assembly

Newton’s third Law of motion while ignoring the damping

force & friction force of air, the total force “Facc” acting on the
coil is given as; [1][6]

(2)

Fig. 1. Magnetic Levitation Model ED-4810

(3)
III. SYSTEM DYNAMICS & MODELLING
Where,
By the study of mechanical & mathematical modelling, m represents mass of the ball,
behavior of the system can be modelled as follows: k represents magnetic force constant,
A. Electromechanical Dynamics Modeling x represents ball position and
g represents gravity constant.
Electromagnetic force produced by current within the coil
can be achieved by using Kirchhoff’s voltage law, which is C. Mathematical Modeling
given as [1] [6].
Based on mechanical & electromagnetic dynamic
modelling, MLS can be defined in terms of the following
equations as given below [6].
(1)

Where,
V represents input voltage applied, (4)
i represents current present in coil and
R represents coil’s resistance.
(5)
B. Mechanical Modeling

(6)
Free body diagram of the ferromagnetic ball suspended by
means of balancing the gravitational force, “Fgravity” and the
electromagnetic force, “Fem” is shown below. Eq. (5) specifies that L(x) is a non-linear function of position
of the ball “x” [6]. Several estimates for finding the inductance
of the system have been used. If we take the estimate given in
[4], inductance varies with the position of the ball, that is:

(7)

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 Where L₁ is a system parameter and x is the reference The internal structure of the above block “Magnetic
position of the ball. Putting value of L(x) in Equation (2), we Levitation Model” is built-up as;
get:

(8)
By using product rule, we get the result as follows:

(9)

Also, equation (6) can be re-written as:

(10)
Fig. 4. Created Simulink “Magnetic Levitation Model” block

D. Vector Form of the Mathematical Model

This below mentioned graph looks like dB graph, but
By changing variables i.e. x=x₁, V=x₂, i=x₃ and u=e, Eq. (4), actually the ball has a mean position of 0.7, from which the ball
(9) and (10) can be defined in vector format as shown below; levitates up and down. The time settled here is 10 seconds &
after that, the system goes stop levitating as shown below.

(11)
Where ball’s position is taken as output variable,

(12)
IV. SIMULATION & RESULTS
A. Simulation of the non-linear MLS model
One can obtain the simulations of the system within the Fig. 5. Simulation result of the proposed model
MATLAB/Simulink platform starting from the enacted
equations. Fig. 3 below shows simulations of the conventional
non-linear magnetic levitation system. Fig. 4 shows the internal The physical parameters of the system are as shown below.
structure of the block named as “Magnetic Levitation Model”
and Fig. 5. Shows the simulation result of the non-linear system. TABLE I. PHYSICAL PARAMETERS OF MLS

Parameters Values Units

m 0.5 kg
R 20 Ohm(Ω)
L 0.158 H
g 9.8 m/sec²
K 0.08 --
y 0.03 m
i 1.44 A

The above-mentioned table shows the theoretical physical

Fig. 3. Simulation Model of Non-Linear Magnetic Levitation System quantities used in the model at hand. In order to validate the
performance of these parameters, we present a comparative
analysis of the same with the physical parameters used in the

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 non-linear hardware model of Kumar et.al [2]. Given below is
the list of parameters utilized in [2] for their simulations.

TABLE II. PHYSICAL PARAMETERS OF HARDWARE MODEL MLS [2]

After putting the parameters of the Table-1, we can get the
Parameter Value Unit
result of A & B as shown below, while C & D remains the same.
m 0.04 Kg
g 9.8 m/s²
R 1.2 Ohms
L 0.0092 H
K 0.0001 --
x01 0.012 m
x02 0 m/s
x03 0.75 A

B. Linearization of the System

About the point x1 = x1* = y*, the system is linearized,
which gives the state vector as, These values were added to state space block in Simulink &
for unit step response, the model was achieved. The same model
is shown in figure 6 below.

The time rate of position must be zero at steady state of

levitation i.e. = zero. In addition, the current of the ball at
the time of raising can be defined from Eq. (3), and it must
satisfy the given condition,
Fig. 6. Modelling & Simulation of State Space for MLS

(13) D. Simulation of the Linear MLS Model

C. State-Space Modeling
The linearized model of magnetic levitation system was
The linearized model in state space form can be represented achieved by using the above state space controller, Fig.7 shows
as, the simulation model of the linearized system & Fig. 8 shows
the result of the simulation.

By replacing the values from Eq. (11) and , we get:

Fig. 7. Simulation Model of the Linear Model of MLS

State space model are models that represents a system by a

series of first order differential state equations and algebraic
output equations. The below linearized graph of the MLS shows
that the systems is at zero gain which means that the system
doesn’t levitates from the mean position (i.e. It does not move
up & down) and become linearized.
In order to validate the simulation results, we present the
results extracted from experimental setup on a hardware MLS

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 model as of [2]. Ball position based results of the experiment system”, Recent Advances in Engineering and computational sciences,
UIET Panjab University Chandigarh, pp.1-6, 2014
conducted by the authors of [2] are given in Fig. 9.
[3] Petr Chalupa, Martin Maly and Jakub Novak, “Non-Linear Simulink
Model of Magnetic Levitation Laboratory Plant”, Proceedings 30th
European Conference on Modelling & Simuliation, Tomas Bata
University in Zlin.
[4] Valer Dolga, Lia Dolga, “MODELLING AND SIMULATION OF A
MAGNETIC LEVITATION SYSTEM”, Fascicle of Management and
Technological Engineering, Volume VI (XVI), 2007.
[5] Rudi Uswarman, Adha Imam Cahyadi, and Oyas Wahyunggoro, “Control
of a magnetic levitation system using feedback linearization”,
International Conference on Computer, Control, Informatics and Its
Applications, Jakarta, Indonesia, pp. 95-98, 2013
[6] Ishtiaq Ahmad, Muhammad Akram Javaid ,"Nonlinear Model &
Controller Design for Magnetic Levitation System", RECENT
ADVANCES in Signal Processing, Robotics And Automation,
ISBN:978-960-474-157-1.

Fig. 8. Simulation Result of Linear Model of MLS

Fig. 9. Open loop response of linearized MLS setup [2]

V. CONCLUSION
The work presented in this paper was based on a nonlinear
dynamic magnetic levitation system that was analyzed in terms
of its modelling, simulation and linearization. Due to the
unstable and non-linear nature of magnetic levitation systems,
in this work, we attempted to linearize a non-linear hardware
model by means of state-space analysis and subsequent
simulation. The entire system was modelled in vector form and
state-equations. The derived matrices were then implemented
in the explicitly designed state-space block in the simulator to
observe the results. The achieved results of position and speed
vs. time reveal a fairly precise position of the ferromagnetic ball
in the levitation system.

REFERENCES
[1] P. Šuster and A. Jadlovská, “Modeling and Control Design of Magnetic
Levitation System”, SAMI 2012, 10th IEEE Jubilee International
Symposium on Applied Machine Intelligence and Informatics, January
26-28, 2012 Slovakia.
[2] Tejinder Kumar, Shakshi Rana, S. L. Shimi and Dnyaneshwar Karanjkar,
“Modeling, simulation and control of single actuator magnetic levitation

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