TigerBoard: Creating the Next Generation of Hoverboards

Abstract

Magnetic levitation technology is one of the foremost fields of innovation that exists today. Magnetically-based levitation and propulsion offers many advantages, including higher efficiency and eco-friendliness than current transportation technologies. This thesis aims to develop and optimize a hoverboard powered by magnetic levitation, which will be more lightweight and energy efficient than the prototype currently in existence. Through several iterations of the hover engine and board frame design, the hoverboard was optimized for maximal performance. Preliminary testing indicates that hover engines with CenterMag starms, which concentrate the magnetic flux into a singular pole, generate more lift and are significantly more efficient than hover engines with Axial starms, which utilize a conventional Axial Halbach array with three poles. Furthermore, testing indicates a positive relationship between motor speed and hover height, as well as between substrate plate thickness and hover height. A control system was implemented which used angular actuation of the hover engines to enable translational and rotational motion. Future work for this project includes further testing of the hoverboard in its entirety (rather than of the engines in isolation), as well as the implementation of a more complex control system to eliminate the need for a flight controller and allow for exclusively kinesthetic control.