Real-time Control of the 3-DOF Sled Dynamics of a Null-Flux Maglev System with a Passive Sled

The real-time control of the 3-DOF dynamics of an electrodynamic (EDS) maglev vehicle is presented. The design is based on a 5-DOF state-space model of the sled dynamics that uses a simple algebraic model to describe the interaction between the null-flux coils on the track and the permanent magnets on the sled. A first order sliding mode controller with integral error term is used to control heave, pitch and roll in real time from position-attitude information measured with sensors located on the sled. Experimental results show that control of the 3-DOF dynamics of the levitated vehicle in real-time can be successfully achieved by the proposed method.