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A magnetic manipulator for noncontact steering of magnetic objects is considered. This system utilizes a flexible array of permanent magnets, each equipped with a servomotor to independently control its direction. The total magnetic field produced by the magnets can be shaped effectively by adjusting the directions of all magnets, which in turn, provides an effective control over the magnetic force it applies to a magnetic object. The dynamics of this object under such controlled magnetic force is inherently unstable and is represented by a set of highly nonlinear state-space equations. Despite the nonlinear nature of these equations, it is shown that an optimally designed linear state feedback can successfully stabilize the object and steer it along arbitrary reference trajectories inside a reasonably large operation region. The key to this success is the optimal scheme of this paper for linearizing the dynamics of the magnetic object.
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