The electromagnetic mass damper (EMD) control system, as an innovative active control system to reducestructural vibration, offers many advantages over traditional active mass driver/damper (AMD) control systems. In this paper,studies of several EMD control strategies and bench-scale shaking table tests of a two-story model structure are described.First, two structural models corresponding to uncontrolled and Zeroed cases are developed, and parameters of these modelsare validated through sinusoidal sweep tests to provide a basis for establishing an accurate mathematical model for furtherstudies. Then, a simplified control strategy for the EMD system based on the pole assignment control algorithm is proposed.Moreover, ideal pole locations are derived and validated through a series of shaking table tests. Finally, three benchmarkearthquake ground motions and sinusoidal sweep waves are imposed onto the structure to investigate the effectiveness andfeasibility of using this type of innovative active control system for structural vibration control. In addition, the robustnessof the EMD system is examined. The test results show that the EMD system is an effective and robust system for the controlof structural vibrations.