Trajectory tracking for the magnetic ball levitation system via exact feedforward linearisation and GPI control

The output feedback control of the popular magnetic ball levitation system is addressed from a suitable combination of several complementary viewpoints. We use: first, recent developments on exact feedforward linearisation controllers for nonlinear flat systems to substantially reduce the linear feedback controller efforts through pre-compensation. Second, an on-line ball velocity estimation strategy is proposed by using a model-based integral reconstructor, which is a linear combination of iterated integrals of the input and the output of the system, thus avoiding the use of traditional observers or noisy derivative estimations. Finally, we use a generalised proportional integral (GPI) controller which compensates the errors in the integral reconstructor and further bestows the enhanced robustness on the closed-loop system via output tracking error iterated integration feedback. This methodology only requires the measurements of the position of the levitated ball and of the control input voltage. The proposed feedback regulation scheme is shown to locally guarantee an asymptotically exponentially stable behaviour of the controlled ball position and, definitely, allows for the possibilities of safely carrying out the rest-to-rest trajectory tracking tasks on the ball position. The proposed output feedback controller is actually implemented on a laboratory prototype with excellent experimental results for, both, stabilisation and trajectory tracking tasks.