A Unified Transfer Function Approach to Control Design for Virtually Zero-Power Magnetic Suspension

This paper studied the virtually zero power control both theoretically and experimentally. A transfer function approach was used in the analysis and design of control system. The general structures of controllers achieving virtually zero power control were derived for both current- and voltage controlled magnetic suspension systems. A direct synthesis method of constructing virtually zero power controllers was developed based on the analysis. Several experiments were carried out with an apparatus with a single degree of freedom of motion. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed synthesis method.