MECH 4010/4015: Design Review Package

In partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Mechanical

Engineering senior year design project of a Magnetic Levitation
demonstration device

Team #11
Fuyuan Lin
Marlon McCombie
Ajay Puppala
Xiaodong Wang

Dept. of Mechanical Engineering

Dalhousie University

23rd October, 2013

21st October, 2013

Team 11
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Dalhousie University
Subject:

Invitation to Senior Year Design Review Panel for Team 11

We would like to request your participation in a Senior Design Project Review

meeting on Friday, October 25, 2013 from 11:30 to 12:30.
Our team is working on the design and development of a Magnetic Levitation
Demo for the Mechanical Engineering course, Control Systems II. Attached to
this invitation are an agenda for the design review, the project scope,
definition, preliminary requirements, some information on our current
progress, and a grading scheme for the review.
The purpose of the design review is to introduce our project its preliminary
requirements, and anticipated challenges. In addition, the design review is
meant to initiate discussion on the project and to receive professional
feedback on our current approach to a solution.
Your participation in the design review is vital to the success of the review
and our project. If you have any questions about the review please feel free
to contact any member of our team. Our contact information is as follows:

Fuyuan Lin
fy330663@dal.ca
Marlon McCombiemr587226@dal.ca
Ajay Puppala
aj874646@dal.ca
Xiaodong Wang xd367973@dal.ca

Sincerely,
Team 11

MECH 4010/4015: Design Project I

Agenda
11:30AM 11:35AM Introductory Remarks
Welcome
Group Members & Supervisor Introduction
11:35AM 12:00PM Project Overview
Project Background and Scope
Project Requirements
Anticipated Challenges
Current Progress
12:00PM 12:25PM Open Discussion
Questions & Answers
Feedback
12:25PM 12:30PM Closing Remarks

Project Background & Scope

Demonstrations provide the opportunity for students to predict theoretical
outcomes of real life applications of course material which in turn allow them
to confirm their initial understanding of those same concepts. By making a
prediction, students develop an expectation based on their initial
understanding of the concept. As they observe the demonstration they find
out whether their prediction is accurate. If not, the instructor can discuss any
differences between their initial understanding and what the demonstration
actually shows.
In most cases, students lack the motivation to pay attention in class because
they believe that they may never use the concepts being taught. Where
some students may have an interest in the course material, others do not
understand the materials correlation to real life problems. Additionally, some
students are better able to grasp concepts through visual interpretation as
opposed to simply listening to lectures or reading material on the subject.
Demonstrations help in bridging the gap between visual and verbal
communication of course material. Although diagrams may be a step further
to having a better visual understanding of a concept, a demonstration that
produces live feedback vastly improves the delivery of course material. This
concept is similar to a salesman increasing the appeal of a product by
showing its many uses through infomercials; i.e. demonstrations of the basic
use of a known concept (e.g. the Magic Bullet). The only difference for course
material from this analogy is that the concepts being taught are new to
students and may not be initially understood from course lectures.
Consequently, demonstrations allow students an extra chance to try out their
own theories on a subject to confirm their understanding.

Thus, the scope of our project is to design and build a portable and
compact device that magnetically levitates an object to
demonstrate the different design theories presented in MECH4900
Systems II.

Design Requirements
The main purpose of the project is to design and build a portable control
system demonstration platform to magnetically levitate an object. The
demonstration device must be capable of implementing the various control
design theories presented in the Mechanical Engineering course Systems II
(MECH 4900) at Dalhousie University.
Since the system is used for pedagogical demonstration, it must be viewable
from a distance and/or using cameras. In addition, the device shall not
exceed the input power requirements of a common household outlet.
Consequently, the system must not pose any potential risks to any user.
The system should be portable, easy to carry, and ready to run when
plugged in. The user shall be able to simulate a wide variety of control
methods available in MATLAB/Simulink; e.g. lag, lag-lead, PID, etc, and then
test the designed controllers on the demonstration hardware.
Users shall interact with the device using a graphical user interface (GUI);
consequently, the device shall require no additional programming by any
user. The device shall be capable of presenting the control systems output
on a figure that superimposes the desired, simulated, manipulated, and
measured controller variables, and other information; such as, bode
diagrams, and Nyquist plots. The cost of the design should not exceed
$1,000.

Anticipated Challenges

Programming microcontroller
o Team has previous programming experience at level required
o Team has no previous knowledge of microcontrollers
o Using MATLAB/Simulink toolbox
Visible motion of levitated object
o Achieving visible motion of the levitated object
Linearization of non-linear system
Choosing object and electromagnet core material
o Needs to be easily magnetized
Testing
o Retrieving and plotting data from sensors
o Achieving levitation and motion during levitation
o Building a control circuit to achieve required magnetic field
strengths
o Achieving a suitable balance of heat generated in wires and

magnetic field strength

Building device
o Integration of all components: microcontroller, electromagnet,
control circuit, and sensors
Time & budget management
o Determination of Bill of Materials
o Compensating for lead time when ordering materials
Building prototype electromagnet by end of November

Current Progress
General System Schematic

(Photo courtesy of:

http://imageshack.us/a/img191/2628/captureaid.png )

Research on magnetic levitation

It is possible to calculate the maximum magnetic force for specific
conditions. An algorithm found in a paper on magnetic levitation has been
used to calculate a required magnetic force for an assumed ball bearing
mass. The assumption made on the mass of the ball bearing (0.06kg) and
diameter of the electromagnet steel core (30mm) will help determine the
magnetic field that is needed to levitate the ball bearing. Based on that, it is
possible to choose the wire gage and length of wire and thus the operating
voltage and current are determined. The current was derived from a relation
between magnetic-motive force and number of coils on the steel core.
According to the current calculated, we need AWG 19 wire at a length of 336
feet. The maximum current that wire gage 19 can suffer is 14A, so it is
necessary to control the current in this limited range. We were able to source
a 1.5 inch diameter and 4 inch long steel rod from the universitys machine

shop and a suitable spool of wire for sale on eBay.

Selection and Preparation of Microcontroller

It was determined that a microcontroller unit (MCU) would be needed to
facilitate control of the electromagnet and retrieval of some kind of feedback
(e.g. position of the levitated object) for the system to work as required. It
was further determined that our options for MCUs were limited based on
available toolboxes in MATLAB and Simulink. Consequently, we narrowed
down our selection to an Arduino and LEGO NXT MCU because they were
available for free from our project supervisor and university labs for testing.
A decision was made to go with the Arduino because of its command line
simplicity and available resources on campus (i.e. Lab technicians).
An Arduino microcontroller unit was borrowed from the Measurements
Laboratory at the university. Some research was conducted on basic
commands using the Ardiunos development environment; as a result, it was
programmed to blink two LEDs in a specific pattern. Some more research
was then conducted on controlling the MCU using MATLAB. Consequently,
serial communication was established with the MCU to make some LEDs
blink and a roundtrip command was used to send an integer to the MCU
and back to the MATLAB command window.

Research on Sensors
A wide variety of sensors can be used to detect the position of the levitating
object. A few examples might include photoelectric sensor, Hall Effect
sensor, and Linear Variable Differential Transformer (LVDT). The range of
levitation primarily depends on the strength of the electromagnet; it also
depends on the range of the sensor detection in order to position the object.
Thus, careful examination and analysis is required in selection of sensors to
optimize the design.
One type of sensor widely used in this type of devices is the photoelectric
sensor. An LED array is placed on one side of the levitating object and the

sensor is placed on the other side. The system is programmed in such a way
that it would let more current into the electromagnet (to increase the
strength of the magnetic field around the coil) if the ball is moving away from
the range of LED. A major limitation in using this type of sensor is caused by
the size of the LED array which limits the range of detectable motion.
Another type of sensor considered for the design is the Hall Effect sensor. It
primarily detects the magnetic strength of the field that passes through it.
The sensor is placed at the bottom of the electromagnet and it measures the
combined field strength of the electromagnet and levitating object. The
sensor allows for the control system to be programmed in such a way that it
would let more current into the electromagnet if the strength measurement
by the sensor is low. The major limitation with this type of sensor is that it
requires a reference table of magnetic strength versus the corresponding
position of the levitated object.
Other types of sensors that can be used are LVDT and image sensors. Further
research is needed to understand their suitability.

Brainstormed Design Sketches

Figure 1 - Magnetic Levitation Track design

Figure 2 Single electromagnet design with photoelectric sensor

Figure 3 Single electromagnet design with Hall Effect sensor

Figure 4 - Double electromagnet design with Hall Effect sensor

Figure 5 Single multiple coil electromagnet design with Hall Effect

sensor

Figure 6 Vertical ring electromagnet design

Figure 7 Toroidal electromagnet design

Future Plans
Our current plans include the following:

More research on effects of electromagnet core size and material, wire

material, and operational currents

Design block diagram of system
Design controlling electrical circuit
Deciding on all theories to be demonstrated by system
Selection of sensor based on mechanical design of device
Test retrieval and plotting of data from sensors from MATLAB through

Arduino
Build an electromagnet prototype based on calculated theories for

levitation by end of November

o To be powered by a voltmeter
o To facilitate testing for a correlation between magnetic field
o

strength/input signal and position of the levitated object

To determine an optimal object for levitation
Control electromagnet from MATLAB and Arduino
Preparation of Bill of Materials for device
Plan for lead time in ordering parts