A novel holistic design optimisation algorithm for the ironless inductive position sensor

Abstract

The Ironless Inductive Position Sensor (I2PS) is a state-of-the-art high precision linear position sensor, which is designed to be radiation hard and immune to magnetic fields. This sensor is built for the Large Hadron Collider collimation system at the European Organization for Nuclear Research. It is continuously monitored to assess the precision, accuracy and drifts during the machine’s operation. The ironless inductive position sensor was previously designed and optimised manually on a programmed electromagnetic model and simulated using a finite element model simulator. This sensor has the potential to be used extensively in industry, especially in areas with high radiation and high electro-magnetic interference. To industrialise it, an automated design procedure is required that offers the possibility to a user with minimal knowledge to design and optimise the sensor. This paper identifies the optimisation parameters and constants required in the manual design. It hence presents an automated design procedure which uses a multi-objective optimisation algorithm to automatically produce ironless inductive position sensors tailor-made to the user’s specifications.