UCF and the University of Florida are receiving $1.2 million over two years from Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop a miniature system capable of levitating a large mass with exceptional stability.
The funding comes from DARPA’s Trapped Accurate microSystems (LeviTAS) program, which aims to explore the feasibility of replacing a spring anchor with a levitation system to trap a mass roughly the size of a sugar cube within a volume about the size of a Rubik’s cube for use in defense systems.
The specific project awarded to UCF and UF is called Full Levitation In MAgnetically Stabilized Systems (FLi-MaSS), and is one of eight teams selected as part of DARPA’s LeviTAS program.
Jaesung Lee, an assistant professor in UCF’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Philip Feng, a professor in UF’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and graduate faculty Department of Physics, are collaborating on the project.
Through their FLi-MaSS project, Lee and Feng are hoping to transform levitated systems by achieving unprecedented stability and performance metrics crucial for next-generation navigation sensors that may be applied for defense and civilian uses.
The team plans to achieve this through diamagnetic levitation or a “hovering” effect. Diamagnetic materials are materials that are repelled and stabilized by a magnetic field.
Lee and Feng will also experiment using a diverse set of materials and technologies to engineer and maintain the levitation system.
“We aim to establish FLi-MaSS as an innovative solution with implications for inertial sensing for the Department of Defense and other applications,” says Lee. “The project may enable a significant move forward in the realization of stable levitation systems and unlocks new possibilities in high-performance inertial sensor technology.”
Inertial sensors can measure various parameters of a moving object including velocity, acceleration, orientation and gravitational forces. They’re commonly used in military applications as well as in smartphones, automobiles and airplanes.
The team’s vision for future work is to expand the application of their levitation technology beyond the performance of current inertial sensors. Lee and Feng plan to explore its potential in other fields such as precision measurement systems, quantum engineering and advanced communication technologies.
Additionally, they aim to refine the system for improved scalability and integration into commercial and industrial products with low size, weight and power consumption requirements for potential use in sensors.
By advancing the fundamental understanding and practical implementation of levitation systems through FLi-MaSS research, the researchers say they hope to pave the way for new innovations in various high-tech industries.
UCF Researcher’s Credentials
Lee joined the UCF Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2023 as an assistant professor. He earned his doctoral degree in electrical engineering from Case Western Reserve University and has recently received several funding grants from Sandia National Laboratories and the Department of Energy.
