MagneticLevitationControllerTuning

Thisexampleshowshowtousenumericaloptimizationtotuningthe
OpenModel
controllerparametersofanonlinearsystem.Inthisexample,wemodela
CE152MagneticLevitationsystemwherethecontrollerisusedto
positionafreelylevitatingballinamagneticfield.Thecontrolstructureforthismodelisfixedandtherequired
controllerperformancecanbespecifiedintermsofanidealizedtimeresponse.

Earnshaw'sTheorem
Earnshaw'stheoremprovedthatitisnotpossibletoachievestablelevitationusingstatic,macroscopic,classical
electromagneticfields.HowevertheCE152systemworksaroundthisbycreatingapotentialwellaroundthepointat
whichtheballistobesuspended,therebycreatinganoninversesquarelawforce.Thisisachievedbyaninductive
coilthatgeneratesatimevaryingelectromagneticfield.Theelectromagneticfieldiscontrolledthroughtheuseof
feedbacktokeeptheballattherequiredlocation.
open_system('maglev_demo')

ModelDescription
Themagneticlevitationsystemisanonlineardynamicsystemwithoneinputandoneoutput.Doubleclickthe
MagneticLevitationPlantModeltoopenthissubsystem.Theinputvoltageisappliedtoacoilthatcreatesthe
electromagneticfield.TheoutputvoltageismeasuredbyanIRreceiverandrepresentsthepositionoftheballinthe
magneticfield.Thediagrambelowoutlinesthissystem.

Thephysicalsystemconsistsofaball(withmass0.00837kg)whichisundertheinfluenceofthreeforces:

Themagneticfieldproducedbyaninductivecoil.ThisismodeledbythePoweramplifierandcoilblockinthe
Simulinkmodel.Theinputtotheinductorisavoltagesignalandtheoutputacurrent.Theforcefromthecoil
dependsonthesquareofthecurrent,theairgapbetweenthecoilandtheball,andthephysicalpropertiesofthe
ball.Thisproducesanupwardactingforceontheball.

Thegravitationalforceactingdownwards

Adampingforcewhichactsinadirectionoppositetothevelocityatanyinstantoftime

ThesethreeforcescausetheresultingmotionoftheballandaremodeledinSimulinkasshown.
open_system('maglev_demo/MagneticLevitationPlantModel')

Nonlinearitiesarisingfromsaturationofthecoilandchangesindynamicsoutsidethelimitsofthemagneticfieldare
alsomodeledintheSimulinkModel.Astheforcefromthecoildecaysaccordingtoaninversesquarelawlarger
voltagesarerequiredthefurthertheballisfromthecoil.Thecontrolsignalisscaledtoaccountforthisandthe
scalingisincludedintheControlsignalscalingblocks.

ControlProblemDescription
Therequirementforthecontrolleristhatitbeabletopositiontheballatanyarbitrarylocationinthemagneticfieldand
thatitmovetheballfromonepositiontoanother.Theserequirementsarecapturedbyplacingstepresponsebounds
onthepositionmeasurement.Specificallywerequirethefollowingconstraintsontheball:

Positionconstraint:within20%ofthedesiredpositioninlessthan0.5second

SettlingTimeConstraint:within2%ofthedesiredpositionwithin1.5second

TomeetthecontrolrequirementsweimplementaProportionalIntegralDerivative(PID)controller.Forconveniencethe
controllerusesanormalizedpositionmeasurementwitharangefrom0to1,representingthebottommostandtop
mostpositionsoftheballrespectively.
SimulinkDesignOptimizationandnumericaloptimizationisideallysuitedtotunethePIDcoefficientsbecause:

Thesystemdynamicsarecomplexenoughtorequireeffortandtimeforanalysisifweapproachtheproblemusing
conventionalcontroldesigntechniques.

Thecontrollerstructureisfixed

Wehaveknowledgeofthestepresponsewerequirefromthesystem.

SettingConstraintValues
Giventhestepresponsecharacteristicwedesire,itissimpletospecifytheupperandlowerboundsoftheresponse.
DoubleclickthePositionConstraintblockintheMagneticLevitationPlantModelsubsystemtoview
constraintsonthepositionoftheball.Theconstraintlinesmaybemovedusingthemouse.

YoucanlaunchResponseOptimizationToolusingtheAnalysismenuinSimulink,orthesdotoolcommandin
MATLAB.YoucanlaunchapreconfiguredoptimizationtaskinResponseOptimizationToolbyfirstopeningthemodel
andbydoubleclickingontheorangeblockatthebottomofthemodel.FromtheResponseOptimizationTool,press
thePlotModelResponsebuttontosimulatethemodelandshowhowwelltheinitialdesignsatisfiesthedesign
requirements.

DefiningTunedParameters
WeselectthePIDcontrollerparameterstotunebyopeningtheDesignVariableseditor,asshownbelow

RunningtheOptimization
Afterspecifyingtheoptimizationparametersandtherequiredstepresponseboundswestarttheoptimizationby
pressingtheOptimizebuttonfromtheResponseOptimizationTool.Duringoptimization,theplotsareupdatedwith
thepositionoftheballforeachiterationandthedarkcurveshowsthefinaloptimizedtrajectoryoftheball(asshown
below).

VerifyingtheResults
Oncewecompletetheoptimization,itisimportanttovalidatetheresultsagainstotherstepsizes.Asuccessful
parameteroptimizationshouldbeabletoprovidegoodcontrolforallstepssizesclosetothetunedstepsizeof1.
Stepsizesfrom.7to1shouldbetestedtoconfirmthecontroller'sperformance.Thefollowingplotshowsthe
responsetoastepinputfrom0to0.85at0.1seconds.

Conclusion
Theverificationstepshowsthatcontroller'sperformancesatisfiestherequirementsspecifiedandthetunedparameter
valuesaresuitableforcontrol.Thetunedparameterscouldbeusedtoprovidebaselineperformanceagainstwhich
othercontrolschemescanbecompared,orabaselineforcontrollersfordifferentoperatingregions.
%Closethemodel
bdclose('maglev_demo')