Cascade control strategy design for electromagnetic guidance system

This work simulates lateral motion in magnetic levitation (maglev) transportation systems using a novel electromagnetic guidance device. First, current control modules, a pulse-width-modulation (PWM) controller and buck converter, are used for driving electromagnets. The electromagnetic guidance system, which has two current control modules, a gap controller, and a bipolar switching mechanism, controls the gap between the moving platform and rail. A cascade dynamic model, which has a current control module, electromagnet, and moving platform, is established. Based on the dynamic model, a novel cascade sliding mode (CSM) controller and a cascade sliding-mode-based genetic algorithm control (CSGAC) scheme are ultilized. Finally numerical simulations are done to verify the control performance of the proposed control systems.