Designing an Electromagnetic Levitation System: Challenges and Considerations

[pioneerboy]

Hi there,

I am thinking about an electromagnetic levitation project. Imagine a tube of about 13cm diameter with a flat rotation-symmetrical object of maybe 4cm diameter at one of its ends. The object should be oriented always perpendicular to the vertical tube...difficult to explain as I don't have the proper words for it...just imagine a cylinder hat without a full cover on its top. Now if we turn this cylinder in any arbitrary direction, I want that the flat object still stays in the middle of the tube and also perpendicular as before. Of course, the object would oscilate a bit until it reaches its ideal position due to air friction. Also, the movement of the cylinder should only be a few degrees per second. I thought about building some kind of control system that recognizes the tube orientation and increases/decreases the current running through the coils that go around the tube circumference to adjust for changing gravitational situations. How difficult do you expect this to be to build?

Thanks,

Lucius

 

[anorlunda]

On YouTube there are lots of videos of magnetic levitation home experiments.

 

[pioneerboy]

Yes, but if we want the object to be controlled in 6 axes of freedom and on a micrometer scale. I have no experience at all with all this and what kinds of stuff would have to be attached to the object, but let's assume it would weight about a pound at most. How about the feasibility here?

 

[meBigGuy]

too many words, too few drawings. Can you draw the physical system you want in a couple orientations and indicate where power is available, etc.