Design and analysis of the nonlinear feedback linearizing control for an electromagnetic suspension system

This paper presents some results on the robust stabilization of a class of feedback linearizable nonlinear single-input/single-output (SISO) systems exhibiting parametric uncertainty. We characterize a class of nonlinear systems with bounded uncertain parameters which can be transformed into a linear interval matrix robustness problem. We also present some analysis and implementation of nonlinear feedback linearizing control for an electromagnetic suspension (EMS) system. We show that the EMS system is nonlinear feedback linearizable and satisfies the proposed condition, and hence that the proposed nonlinear feedback controller for an EMS system is robust against mass parameter perturbation and force disturbance. Some tests are performed for making an experimental comparison between feedback linearizing control and classical state feedback control using linearization by small perturbation analysis.