An observer-based adaptive control design for the maglev system

In this study, a nonlinear adaptive controller that can be used to control a magnetic levitation (maglev) is designed. The designed controller is equipped with a nonlinear velocity observer to provide the control without measuring velocity. Its capability to adaptively compensate all parametric uncertainties during the control process is one of the main advantages of this controller. Utilizing this capability, control of the maglev system can be realized without using any knowledge about system parameters. Due to the fast convergence capability of the designed observer and the desired model dependent structure of the adaptation rules, the proposed control design provides better performance than most of the robust and adaptive controllers that have been frequently used to control maglev system. The observer dynamics are analyzed via a Lyapunov–like preliminary analysis. Then, convergence of the observation and the tracking errors under the closed–loop operation and stability of the closed–loop error dynamics are proven via a Lyapunov–based stability analysis where the result obtained in the mentioned preliminary analysis is used. Performance of the designed observer–controller couple is demonstrated via experimental results. The efficiency of the designed controller is tested against a robust proportional–integral–derivative (PID) controller and an another Lyapunov–based nonlinear robust controller called as robust integral of sign of error (RISE) controller. Experimental results show that the designed controller performs the best tracking performance with the least control effort among these three controllers.