Highly Responsive Drive of a Repulsive Multi - Degree-of- Freedom Magnetic Levitation Planar Motor by Model-Based Feedforward Control

Magnetic levitation planar motors have recently gained attention in various manufacturing industries due to their non-contact, multi-degree-of-freedom motion capabilities with a single actuator. In industrial applications, planar motors must operate with high stability, speed, and precision, which are often achieved through feedback control. However, feedback control involves an inevitable delay, which degrades their tracking performance since it compensates for errors only after they occur. One way to deal with this delay is to introduce a model-based feedforward controller. It estimates the required input from the reference trajectory and the plant model, and applies it to the plant before any error appears. In this research, we developed a physical model for the motion of the magnetic levitation planar motor through system identification. Additionally, a feedforward controller based on the model was designed and integrated into the control system. This approach was experimentally validated in two cases, showing clear improvements in tracking performance.