Team Lifted
Andrew Cober
Dan Crowe
Sujan Gautam
Anthony Schubert
Ryan Yeash
Magnetic Levitation



Use electromagnets
to lift and control a
ferromagnetic object
Control xyz position
Control yaw, pitch,
and roll of specialized
object
Goals

Effectively control the object with 1cm
accuracy
 XYZ

control
Control orientation within 90 degrees in all
axes
Design
Four electromagnets mounted on an
overhead platform
 Cyclone II FPGA used to control the
current to the electromagnets
 Control based on IR distance sensing of
the object

Specifics
DC buck converter used to control current
flow to electromagnets
 Software control loop used to connect IR
sensors and magnets via converters
 User controls object position with buttons
 Wood apparatus initially, convert to
aluminum at a later date

Approach

Breakup design as much as possible
 Hardware/Power

Construction of apparatus, PCB, and developing
reliable power converters
 Control

Mathematical control algorithm
 Software

Build framework that allows control specifics to be
implemented later
Functional Block Diagram
Hardware Block Diagram
NiosII Softcore
Software Flow Diagram
Cost Estimate
Qt.
6
4
4
4
4
2
1
Part
Electromagnets
IR Sensors
Buck Converters
Photo Diode
Photo Detectors
PCB-Parts and Fab.
Cyclone II Dev. Board
Attained From
www.solenoidcity.com
www.Sparkfun.com
www.solenoidcity.com
DigiKey
DigiKey
Advanced Circuits, Digikey, Mouser
Altera
Misc.
Resistors, Capacitors, IC's
Apparatus
Digikey
Home Depot
Ea.
$40.00
$12.00
$80.00
$1.00
$1.00
$70.00
$150.00
Cost
$240.00
$48.00
$320.00
$4.00
$4.00
$140.00
$150.00
$30.00
$30.00
Total
$966.00
Division of Labor
Andrew
Cober
Mechanical
Dan Crowe
Anthony
Schubert
X
PCB
Power
Control
Ryan Yeash
Sujan
Gautam
X
X
X
X
X
System
Modeling
X
Control
Algorithm
X
Firmware
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Timeline Estimate
Milestones





One week: Complete research, finalize feasibility
CDR: Obtain all parts, PCB design completed,
develop software framework
M1: Get an object to hover in the middle of 1sqft.
area
M2: Control xyz coordinates of the object
Expo: Control orientation and completion of
project
Risks
Power limitations into the magnets may
limit object size and levitation height
 Control complexity may be too difficult to
implement
 FPGA may be too complex

Contingency Plans
Scale back to control over only the spatial
coordinate, not the orientation
 Control an object on a surface rather than
mid air
 Use photo diodes rather than IR sensors
for object position
 Rescale from FPGA to MSP

Possible Extensions

Addition of LCD to display object data
 Touchscreen
for user control
 Trackball control
Wireless communication between
apparatus and user interface
 Implement multi-core processing on
Cyclone II

Questions