Constrained Control Design for Magnetic Bearing Systems

We study control problems in magnetic bearing systems that are subject to both input and state constraints. Apart from the usual restrictions on voltages and currents in the circuit systems, most magnetic bearing systems are subject to a severe state constraint: the motion of the rotor (the suspended object) is only allowed in an extremely small airgap, otherwise the collision of the rotor and the stator would cause severe damages. Traditional methods for avoiding a collision include increasing the airgap and increasing the currents, which would usually result in unnecessarily large capacity of power supply and power loss. In this paper we present a systematic approach for dealing with all the input and state constraints by using some recently developed tools for constrained control design. Issues on the stability region, robustness, disturbance rejections, and transient response are addressed. We hope that by dealing with the constraints properly, safety operation can be ensured with relatively small currents and power consumption. Experiments on the balance beam test rig in our laboratory show that the design techniques are effective.