Design and Development of a "Two- Axis Leveling Platform"

Electronic drives such as stepper motor; either rotary or linear, have found many useful
application and are regarded as the major components in automation. Many
applications evolved rapidly with integrating components such as sensors, controllers,
actuators, drives and switches. Variety of systems that performs similar applications
could be developed using these combinations. Simplicity, better control and cost are the
main criteria in selecting the best configuration. Therefore a good grasp of knowledge
and technology on these elements will be able to enhance the development of the
automation industry. One of such applications in automation filed is a stabilizing or
leveling system.
A two-axis -leveling platform is a system that is capable of leveling a platform
although the base is subjected to uneven motion. The word two-axis in this context
represents two drives (linear stepper motor) that are used to control the platform's
motion compare to some other stabilizing systems that use many drives that eventually
lead to costly design. The project is aimed at designing and developing a physical
model that is capable of demonstrating the idea of leveling a platform when the base is
subjected to uneven motion. The model consists of the basic structure of the platform,
control device such as controller board to control the motor, computer as a processor,
serial port as an I/0 card, linear actuators and control program developed using
Lab VIEW. Thus, the project consists of a system that has both hardware (model) and
software (controller program) components. There are some initiatives taken to keep the
overall cost within the budget since the main constraint in this project is the cost. Under
those constraints, author has found ways to utilize both parallel and serial COM port as
data acquisition medium.
The motor selection was guided by the physical constrains of the system as well
as equations to calculate the required torque, allowable load and speed. The expected
result of this project is to deliver and communicate the idea of leveling a platform in
many applications. Some of the main advantages of using the linear actuators are its
high durability and flexibility of progranuning. In between the accuracy in term of
tilt-angle is an impressive result of the system. Stabilizing a solid surface has found
many useful applications in automotive, military, micro-inspection and measurement
field. This project could be a springboard to explore the new ways in leveling a
platform which carry vast practical applications.