\ MaC Lab: Magnetic Bearing  
Magnetic Bearing

The MBC500 is a tabletop rotor system supported by electro-magnets rather than traditional journal bearings. Fitted with a turbine, the rotor can be spun up to high speeds to investigate various control stategies regarding the stabilization of a spinning rotor. Due to the actuator-sensor configuration, the MBC500 is also a good Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) testbed for controls research.

The MBC500 is also used as the experimental platform for Professor Tsao's Advanced Mechatronics Graduate Class (MAE 277). Students perform a system identification of the system and create advanced controllers for it (e.g. repetitive controllers, state observers, minimum variance ,etc).

Researchers:

  1. Chris Kang
  2. Herrick Chang
  3. Yigang Wang
  4. Kevin Chu
  5. Jason Wilson

Related Publications:

  1. Christopher Kang and Tsu Chin Tsao, "Control of Magnetic Bearings with Plug-In Time-Varying Harmonic Resonators", Proceedings of American Control Conference, Portland, Oregon, 2014.
  2. Kevin C. Chu, Yigang Wang, Jason Wilson, Chi-Ying Lin and Tsu-Chin Tsao, "Modeling and Control of a Magnetic Bearing System", Proceedings of American Control Conference, Baltimore, Maryland, 2010.
  3. Herrick L. Chang and Tsu-Chin Tsao. Repetitive control of a levitated shaft - fpga implemen-
    tation based on powell-chau filters. In International Symposium on Flexible Automation, 2010,
    volume Best Paper Award (Theory), July 2010.