Magnetic levitation (Maglev) systems are employed in a wide range of applications and are therefore of significant practical importance, which has led to growing research interest. This paper presents the design of a terminal synergetic control (TSC) and feedback linearization-based proportional-integral-derivative plus second-order derivative (FL-PIDD2) controller for the Maglev system. For developing the control law of both controllers, the mathematical model of the Maglev system is converted into a canonical system where the expression of the nonlinearity is displayed in the last differential dynamic equation of the system. The determination of the TSC and FL-PIDD2 gains for achieving the desired dynamic response is carried out using the multi-verse optimization (MVO) approach. Computer simulations on MATLAB are used to examine the performance of the proposed controllers. The simulation outcomes reveal that the TSC has superior response performance and a lesser effect from external disturbances compared to the results of the FL-PIDD2 controller. Furthermore, compared to the published results of the classical synergetic control (CSC) and the feedback linearization based state feedback controller (FL-SFC), TSC have also shown better than the CSC and FL-SFC in terms of performance and robustness.
