Air speed estimation from a pneumatic levitator using a Extended Kalman Filter in LabVIEW

Abstract

This paper is focused on the results obtained in the both air speed and ball speed estimation by application an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) on a pneumatic levitator, only using sphere position measurement. The EKF is implemented using real system data offline that were subsequently processed by LabVIEW software. Initially, the mathematical model of the levitator whose dynamics is non-linear are considerate. The system states are: the sphere position, the sphere speed and the air speed. Finally, the air speed and sphere speed are possible to estimate using an EKF and then those estimation are validated through the measurement of sphere position and the sphere speed calculated with offline system data.