Controller design and test results for a four axis HTS coil based Maglev system

Controller design and experimental results are reported in this paper for a four axis high temperature superconductivity (HTS) coil based electromagnetic levitation (Maglev) system. The HTS coils are made of Bi2223/Ag multifilamentary tapes. It has been experimentally proved that the designed controller works satisfactorily, although the physical parameters of a HTS coil based electromagnet (HTSEM) vary significantly with the frequency of the input voltage. A performance comparison has also been made between the classical lead-lag compensator and the modern H∞ loop-shaping controller. It becomes clear that robust control theories are capable of providing a controller with better performances, which is in a good agreement with numerical simulations. Moreover, it implies that the particular parameter variation characteristics can be simply dealt with by the available robust control theories that are naturally existent in a HTSEM.