Permanent magnet based magnetic levitation kit

Abstract

This paper describes a new type of magnetic levitation kit designed for teaching in undergraduate control laboratory at Universidade de Brasilia-Brazil. The kit can achieve stable levitation of a relatively heavy weight with very low power consumption and can also be used to teach on open-loop stable systems. The design allows good linear models and clearly shows to the student the power of feedback, because levitation is only possible in closed-loop. The transfer function of the magnetic part and the full block diagram are also proposed.