Construction and control of a magnetic levitation system

Abstract

This project aimed to design and build a low-cost magnetic levitation system based on attraction, using a single coil. The materials and components were carefully selected to keep the cost of the system as low as possible, making it suitable for educational purposes such as laboratory demonstrations or science classes. The system consists of a base made of aluminium and PLA onto which a single coil has been screwed. The intention of the project is to levitate a neodymium magnet underneath the coil by constructing a levitator that works by attraction, i.e. that compensates the force of gravity that the magnet suffers to keep the magnet floating in the air. A PID control algorithm has been implemented using an Arduino microcontroller to regulate the levitation distance between the magnet and the coil. The design and construction of the system were performed with an emphasis on simplicity and affordability. The use of a single coil and inexpensive materials made it possible to achieve a functional prototype at a low cost. The system was tested and the performance of the PID controller was evaluated. The results showed that the system was able to achieve stable magnetic levitation. However, the tuning of the PID parameters was found to be challenging due to the non-linear behavior of the system and an unexpected behavior of the sensor that was expected to give measurements of the magnet position. The sensitivity of the system to external disturbances and noise was also observed. Therefore, a low-cost attraction-based magnetic levitation system was successfully designed and implemented using a single coil, a hall effect sensor and an Arduino microcontroller with a PID control algorithm. The system provides a valuable educational tool for teaching principles of electromagnetics and control engineering. Future work could focus on further improving the system’s performance through the use of more advanced control strategies, such as a sliding mode or fuzzy-logic control