Magnetic bearing experiment for integrated teaching and research laboratories

Magnetic bearings represent an important technology which often places considerable demands on control system designers. These unstable plants are multivariable, nonlinear, and have lightly damped modes associated with suspended rotors. In this paper we describe how these challenges can be brought into teaching and research laboratories with a self-contained, yet flexible, magnetic bearing experiment. Moreover, we discuss how many experiments can be performed with this system which range in complexity from undergraduate SISO identification and control experiments, to graduate level control design, and research experiments in multivariable, adaptive, and nonlinear control.