Magnetic Levitation Control through the Introduction of Bogie Pitch Motion into a Control Law

The uneven reaction surface profile facing the lift magnets in attractive Maglev vehicles naturally brings about pitch motion of the bogie. In particular, in the placement configuration of the long stator of the linear synchronous motor (LSM) on the track for high-speed propulsion, surface irregularities and the offsets between the stator packs create measurable airgaps, i.e., the clearance between the magnet and the stator, with discontinuously extreme values, resulting in bogie pitch motion. This occurs because the airgap velocities and accelerations derived by the differentiations of the measured air-gaps are used to determine the voltages applied to the magnets. This paper incorporates bogie pitch motion into a control law for each magnet controller to reduce the variations in both the airgap and the pitch angle. The effectiveness of the proposed method is analyzed using a full-scale Maglev vehicle running over a test track.