Electrostatic suspension of glass plate

This paper reports about the successful suspension of a glass plate by electrostatic forces. In order to implement a stable suspension, the electrostatic forces exerted on the glass plate are actively controlled on the basis of the gap lengths between the glass plate and the stator electrodes. In this paper, the dynamic model of the suspension system and the influence of the resistivity of glass on the system stability are described, followed by stator electrode design, the experimental apparatus and a stabilizing controller. Experimental results show that the glass plate can be suspended at a gap length of about 0.3 mm. The influence of air humidity on the suspension initiation time, and the lateral dynamic characteristic are also described.