Design Methodology for a Magnetic Levitation System Based on a New Multi-Objective Optimization Algorithm

Multi-objective (MO) optimization is a developing technique for increasing closed-loop performance and robustness. However, its applications to control engineering mostly concern first or second order approximation models. This article proposes a novel MO algorithm, suitable for the design and control of mechanical systems, which does not require any order reduction techniques. The controller parameters are determined directly from a special type of rapid analysis of simulated transient responses. The case study presented in this article consists of a magnetic levitation system. Certain difficulties such as the nonlinearity identification of the magnetic force and duo magnetic field sensor scheme were addressed. To point out the advantages of using the developed approach, the simulations as well as the experiments performed with the help of the created algorithm were compared to those made with common MO algorithms.