Abstract:The aim of this paper is to combine two techniques to control a nonlinear Magnetic Levitation System (MLS). Firstly, a feedback linearization technique (here, exact linearization with state feedback) is applied to obtain a linear system. Secondly, the linearization is made via direct cancellation of nonlinear functions, which represent the phenomenological model of the system. Finally, to deal with the presence of uncertainty in the system model, an adaptive controller is used. The controller is based on model reference adaptive control to estimate the functions that contain the nonlinearities of the system. The exact linearization and the adaptive controller were implemented in a simulated environment (Matlab Simulink ©). The linear adaptive controller structure guarantees the parameters adaptation and the overall stability of the system. The results show that the controller output signal tracks a reference input signal with a small error.