Adaptive Fixed-Time Position Precision Control for Magnetic Levitation Systems

A novel adaptive fixed-time controller (AFTC) based on disturbance compensation technology is proposed to achieve high performance position precision control for magnetic levitation system in this paper. Firstly, the dynamic model of the magnetic levitation system is established and a fixed-time controller (FTC) is designed to realize the closed-loop control. However, this approach usually requires a large switching gain to suppress interference, resulting in chattering. In view of this, the generalized proportional integral observer (GPIO) is introduced to estimate and compensate the time-varying interference, which can not only improve the anti-interference ability, but also reduce the chattering by choosing a smaller switching gain. Nevertheless, these two performance improvements come at the cost of the dynamic response rate. In order to improve steady state performance without sacrificing dynamic performance, an adaptive fixed-time controller based on GPIO is proposed, which has a significant advantage because of the adjustable switching gain. Specifically, when the system state is far from the sliding mode surface, a larger switching gain is adjusted to improve the convergence rate. When the system state is close to the sliding mode surface, a smaller switching gain is adjusted to reduce chattering. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed AFTC-GPIO method qualitatively and quantitatively. Note to Practitioners–As a highly nonlinear system easily affected by external disturbances and system uncertainty, high precision position control of magnetic levitation system is a great challenge. In this paper, based on the accurate estimation of lumped time-varying interference by GPIO, an adaptive fixed time sliding mode controller is designed to suppress the disturbance and achieve the high precision control. Traditional sliding mode control inevitably has to choose between improving convergence rate and suppressing chattering, and the dynamic and steady performance of the system cannot be considered simultaneously. In view of this issue, this paper combines sliding mode control with adaptive control, and an adaptive and adjustable switching gain is designed, so that the system has the performance of fast convergence and small chattering. Simulation and experimental results verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. The reported AFTC-GPIO idea can also be extended to control of other types of systems.