A fault-tolerant multiprocess controller for magnetic bearings

A fault-tolerant microprocessor system designed to provide digital control for an active magnetic bearing is described. This particular control problem demands significant processing power, is easily divided into relatively independent parallel tasks, and cannot tolerate controller failures. The overall system requirements and architecture are described, as is the design of the digital control module and the analog I/O board. The fault tolerance of the system is evaluated. Extensive computer simulations of system reliability models verified that the design satisfies all of the reliability requirements. Although the system was designed for a specific problem, much effort was expended to make it general enough for applications to a wide range of real-time applications.<>