A compact active three-degree-of-freedom magnetic suspension system is fabricated which has a new configuration of magnetic poles. The fabricated magnetic suspension system has a differential structure consisting of an upper and a lower electromagnets. The electromagnet consists of four poles with coils and a single common pole whose opposite plane of the floator has a permanent magnet to achieve zero power control. Modal control is applied because local zero power control may make the whole system unstable when the number of control channel are larger than the number of freedom of motion to be controlled. The system parameters of each mode are identified experimentally to design the modal control system. The characteristics of the fabricated magnetic suspension system are studied experimentally.
