省電力ソーラー磁気浮上装置の開発

概要

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Extra low-power suspension in the gravitational field of ground is achieved by a magnetic suspension system whose power source is solely a solar generator. Presently, solar cells become more efficient and cost-saving year by year. In this study, photovoltaic power generation technique is combined with the zero-power magnetic suspension. The zero-power control achieves the steady state in which the attractive force produced by a permanent magnets balances the weight of the floator and the control current converges to zero. Therefore, the power consumed for suspension is very small. However, the peripheral devices including sensors and a controller need power for their operations. The consumption power in the peripheral devices becomes dominant in the total power in the steady state. In this work, dedicated power-saving peripheral devices are newly fabricated. The average consumption power in the electromagnet is 20mW to suspend a 90-gram mass, while the consumption power in the peripheral devices is 13mW. The photovoltaic cells used in the apparatus has a maximum power capacity of almost 2W in the summer sunlight of 120klx. The system achieves stable suspension even under the illuminance of a fluorescent lamp of 5klx in the standalone.