Speed Control of BLDC Motor Using Fuzzy Logic

Controller Based on Sensorless Technique

J.Sriram1, K.Sureshkumar2
1
Electical and Electronics Department, 2Electrical and Electronics Department, Meenakshi College of Engineering
Chennai-78, Tamil Nadu, India
1
[email protected]
2
[email protected]

Abstract— Brushless dc (BLDC) motors are very popular and making it useful in application where space and weight are
are replacing brush motors in numerous applications due to its critical factors, PM motors have been widely used in
superior electrical and mechanical characteristics owing to its automotive (hybrid vehicles), computers, household products
trouble free construction. This paper presents the BLDC motor and especially in aerospace application [1].
sensorless speed control system with fuzzy logic implementation.
However, the PM BLDC motors are inherently
The sensorless techniques based on the back EMF sensing and
the rotor position detection with a high starting torque is electronically controlled and require rotor position
suggested. The rotor position is aligned at standstill for without information for proper commutation of currents in its stator
an additional sensor. Also, the stator current can be easily windings. But it is not desirable to use the Hall sensors for
adjusted by modulating the pulse width of the switching devices high temperature applications where reliability is of utmost
during alignment which will be helpful to reduce cost and importance because a sensor failure may cause instability in
complexity of the drive system without compromising the the control system [11]. Another major problem is associated
performance. The design analysis and simulation of the proposed with the conventional controllers that are widely used in the
system is done using MATLAB version 2010a and the simulation industry due to its simple control structure and ease of
results of sensored drive using PI controller and sensorless drive
implementation. But these controllers pose difficulties under
using proposed methods are analyzed.
the conditions of nonlinearity, load disturbances and
parametric variations [3]. Traditional control systems are
Keywords— Brushless dc motor, Hall sensored drive , PI based on mathematical models in which the control system
controller, Back EMF sensorless drive, Fuzzy controller described using one or more differential equations that define
the system response to its inputs. In many cases, the
I. INTRODUCTION
mathematical model of the control process may not exist or
Recently the increase in energy prices spurs higher may be too expensive in terms of computer processing power
demands of variable speed Permanent Magnet (PM) motors and memory and a system based on empirical rules may be
drives. Also, recent rapid proliferation of motor drives into the more effective for closed loop speed control.
automobile industry, based on hybrid drives, generates a This paper develops to remove the drawbacks associated
serious demand for high efficient PM motor drives. The with sensored control and use of traditional controllers by
Brushless dc motor (BLDC) is a Permanent Magnet DC using zero crossing point (ZCP) based on Back electromotive
Synchronous motors. These are used in great amount of force (Back-EMF) sensorless control with fuzzy logic
industrial sectors because their architecture is suitable for any controller. The sensorless control requires good reliability and
safety critical applications, from a modelling perspective various speed ranges with the high starting torque for BLDC
looks exactly like a DC motor and having linear relationship motor drive system. To satisfy these requirements, this paper
between current and torque, voltage and rpm [4,5]. The proposes an efficient sensorless speed control to avoid high
electromagnets do not move, the permanent magnets rotate energy prices.
and the armature remains static, the position sensor and
intelligent electronic controller are required to transfer current II. PRINCIPLES OF SENSORLESS BLDC MOTOR CONTROL
to a moving armature, which performs the same power Brushless DC motor drives have need of rotor position
distribution as a brushed DC motor. Regular uses of cheap information for appropriate operation to execute phase
induction motor drives, which have around 10% lower commutation. Position sensors are generally used to provide
efficiency than adjustable PM motor drives for energy saving the position information for the driver. So this type of position
applications [10]. BLDC motor have many advantages over sensors is not used in sensorless drives. The advantage of
brushed DC motors and induction motors, such as a better sensorless drives comprises of less hardware cost, increased
speed versus torque characteristics, high dynamic response, system reliability, decreased system size and reduced
high efficiency and reliability, long operating life (no brush feedback units. And also they are free from mechanical and
erosion), noiseless operation, higher speed ranges and environmental constraints [2].
reduction of electromagnetic interference (EMI). In addition, Various control methods arises for sensorless drive, in
the ratio of delivered torque to the size of the motor is higher, which a back-EMF is the most cost effective method to obtain

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the commutation sequence in the star wound motors and
current sensing provides enough information to estimate with
sufficient rotor position to drive the motor with synchronous
phase currents. BLDC motor drives that do not require
position sensors but it contains electrical dimensions are
called a sensorless drive. The BLDC motor provides
sensorless operation based on the nature of its excitation
intrinsically suggest a low-cost way to take out rotor position
information from motor-terminal voltages. In the excitation of
a 3 phase BLDC motor, apart from the phase-commutation
periods, two of the three phase windings are functioning at a
time and no conducting phase carries in the back-EMF as
shown in Fig. 1. Since back-EMF is zero at standstill and
proportional to speed, the measured terminal voltage that has
large signal-to-noise ratio cannot detect zero crossing at low
speeds. That is the reason why in all back-EMF-based
sensorless methods the low-speed performance is limited, and
an open-loop starting strategy is required [7,8].

Fig. 2 Waveform of Back EMF and phase current with respect to Hall state.

As a result the interval for every phase of a BLDC motor is

conducted at 120 electrical degrees. Hence, in BLDC motor
only two phases conduct current at whichever time. The third
phase is called floating phase. In order to produce greatest
torque, the inverter is to be commutated at every 60° by
calculating zero crossing of back-EMF on the floating phase
of the motor, therefore the current is in phase with the back-
EMF.
Fig. 1 (Thick solid line) Signals of the three phase Hall-effect sensors and III. MATHEMATICAL MODELLING OF BLDC MOTOR
(dotted line) ideal trapezoidal back EMF.
BLDC motor modelling is similar to three-phase
In BLDC motor the stator iron has a non-linear magnetic synchronous machine modelling. The model is developed, in
saturation features that is the fundamental from which it is which the permanent magnet enclosed with the rotor and it
feasible to find out the initial position of the rotor. When a contains different dynamic characteristics. Fig. 3 shows the
stator winding is energized, then DC voltage is applied for a Inverter BLDC motor-drive model. The BLDC motor is fed to
particular time and a magnetic field with a fixed direction will a three-phase voltage source is not necessary to be sinusoidal
be recognized. Then, the stator current responses are changed or square wave can be applied. The peak voltage produced
owing to the inductance variation and this variation of the over there should not exceed the maximum voltage of the
stator current responses which comprises of the information of motor.
the rotor position.
A. Back-EMF Zero Crossing Detection Method
The zero-crossing detection method is an easiest method of
back-EMF sensing approach and it is based on finding the
instantaneous at which unexcited phase crosses zero due to
back-EMF [4]. This zero crossing activates a timer that might
be as easy as an RC time constant; accordingly the next
sequential inverter commutation take place at the end of
timing interval.
For a distinctive operation of a BLDC motor, the back-
EMF and phase current should be associated to generate Fig. 3 Inverter with BLDC Motor drive model.
constant torque. Fig. 2 shows the waveform for current The fundamental model of the armature winding for the
commutation point which can be attained by the zero crossing BLDC motor is defined as [3],
point of back-EMFs and a six-step inverter commutation
design for driving the BLDC motor [5,7]. (1)

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 crossing detection technique and fuzzy logic intelligent
(2) controller is used for efficient speed control as shown in the
Figure 4.
(3)
Where, L and R are the armature self-inductance [H] and
armature resistance [Ω] of the stator phase winding
respectively, Va, Vb, Vc are terminal phase voltage [V], ia, ib, ic
are motor input current [A] and ea, eb, ec are trapezoidal
motor back emf [V] of respective phases.
Therefore the circuit equations of the three windings in
phase variables are,

(4)
As it has been considered that motor is not saturated and Fig. 4 Proposed block diagram of sensorless speed control of BLDC motor.
negligible iron losses, the stator resistances of all the windings
are equal, self-inductance are constant and mutual inductance A. Sensing Back EMF
are zero. The comparator with zero cross detection technique is
(5) achieved by sensing the back EMF. The back EMF sensing is
(6) based on the information that only two phases of a BLDC
motor are connected at a time and the third phase is presented
to note the back EMF voltage. Consider phase C as floating
for a particular step,
(7)
(15)
The trapezoidal Back EMF of no conducting phases,
Where, is the terminal voltage of the phase C, is the
phase Back EMF and is the neutral voltage of the motor.
(8) From phase A, the term for neutral voltage is expressed as,

(9) (16)
From phase B, the equation turns out to be,
(10)
The electromagnetic torque is given by, (17)
Where, is the voltage drop on MOSFET.
From equation (16) and (17),
(11)
(18)
The equation of a motor for a simple system with inertia J,
Considering a three-phase system by neglecting the third
friction co-efficient B and load torque is given by, harmonics,
(19)
(12) And the terminal voltage ,

(13) (20)
The output power is given by, From equation (15) to (20), it is to be noted that the
(14) terminal voltage of the floating phase of PWM is directly
The parameters R, B, J are influence the speed response of proportional to the back EMF voltage plus the half of dc bus
the Brushless DC motor. voltage.
In proposed method, the comparators are used for
IV. PROPOSED SENSORLESS SPEED CONTROL OF BLDC MOTOR generating the gating signals, by comparing , and to
The proposed method is based on the fact that rotor . If is greater than , then the comparator outputs high
position can be detected by using a trapezoidal Back-EMF of level, else the comparator outputs low level, which is
BLDC motors. Since Back-EMF of the BLDC motor is not expressed as as shown in Fig. 4. At the rising edge of ,
measured directly, it is estimated by the comparator with zero the MOSFET should be ON, and the MOSFET should

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be OFF, at the falling edge of , the MOSFET should be Fig. 6 illustrates the membership function of fuzzy logic
ON, and the MOSFET should be OFF. Similarly, controller that used the fuzzification of two input values and
according to the rising and falling edge of and defuzzification output of the controller. There are seven
respectively, the other commutation instants should be clusters in the membership functions, with seven linguistic
obtained. The gating signals and are generated from variables defined as Negative Big (NB), Negative Medium
the every commutation instants. Consequently, the BLDC (NM), Negative Small (NS), Zero (Z), Positive Small (PS),
motor could work normally on the prior state which is Positive Medium (PM), and Positive Big (PB). Fig. 7 shows
obtained from the switching table. the MATLAB simulation diagram of fuzzy logic controller.

B. Design of Fuzzy Controller

The generated signals are employed in fuzzy controller and
reference current controller which in gate driver circuit is
produced for control system as shown in Fig. 4. The current
control loop regulates the BLDC motor current to the
reference current value generated by the speed controller. Fig.
5 shows the basic structure of a fuzzy logic controller. The
fuzzy controller is composed of the following four elements
fuzzification, fuzzy rule-base, fuzzy inference engine and
defuzzification.

Fig. 7 Matlab simulation diagram of fuzzy logic control.

Fig. 5 Basic structure of FLC with BLDC motor.
A sliding mode rule-base, used in the fuzzy logic controller
Error (e) and change in error (ce) are the inputs for the is given in Table I. The fuzzy inference operation is
fuzzy controller whereas the output of the controller is change implemented by using the 49 rules.
in duty cycle (Δdc). The error is defined as the difference
between the ref speed and actual speed, the change in error is
defined as the difference between the present error and
previous error and the output, the Change in duty cycle which
could be either positive or negative and added with the
existing duty-cycle to determine the new duty-cycle.
Fuzzy logic uses linguistic variables instead of numerical
variables. The process of converting a numerical variable in to
a linguistic variable is called fuzzification. Fuzzy logic
linguistic terms are most often expressed in the form of logical
implications, such as If-Then rules. These rules define a range
of values known as fuzzy membership functions [7]. Fuzzy
membership functions may be in the form of a triangle, a
trapezoid or a bell.

Fig. 8 Simulation diagram of proposed sensorless speed control of BLDC

Fig. 6 Membership functions of fuzzy controller. motor with FLC.

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 The min-max compositional rule of inference and the specification and Fig. 11 (c) . The sensorless drive using PI
center of gravity method have been used in the defuzzification controller has 24.13% of torque ripple which is considerably
process. The developed MATLAB model shown in the Fig. 8 reduced to 13.7% of torque ripple using proposed model are
is use to observe the phase current waveforms, back-EMF, analysed from Fig. 12(a) and Fig. (b).
speed and torque to assigned motor specification shown in
Table II.
TABLE I
FUZZY RULE BASE

Change Error
in error NB NM NS Z PS PM PB
NB NB NB NB NB NM NS Z
NM NB NB NB NM NS Z PS
NS NB NB NM NS Z PS PM
Z NB NM NS Z PS PM PB
PS NM NS Z PS PM PB PB
PM NS Z PS PM PB PB PB
PB Z PS PM PB PB PB PB

TABLE II Fig. 9(a) Variation of Back EMF signal with reference set at 1400 rpm
MOTOR SPECIFICATIONS FOR SIMULATION

No. of phases 3
Type of connection Star
Pole pairs (p) 4
Back EMF waveform Trapezoidal
Back EMF flat area 120
Back EMF constant (ke) 0.25 (V/rad/sec)
Stator phase resistance(Rs) 2.875 Ω
Stator phase inductance(Ls) 8.5e-3 H
Constant voltage (V) 146
Constant torque (N.m / A peak) 1.4
Rated speed (wr) 1400 rpm
Rotor inertia (J) 0.089 (kg.m2)
Friction coefficient (F) 0.005 (N.m.s)
Fig. 9(b) Variation of stator current with reference set at 1400 rpm.
V. SIMULATION RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
In order to validate the control strategies as described,
digital simulations were carried out on a converter for the
BLDC motor drive system using MATLAB/SIMULINK,
where the parameters used for the DC motor drive system is
given in Table II. Simulation studies were carried out to
evaluate the performance of both sensored and sensorless
based speed control of BLDC motor. The output waveform of
back EMF and stator current are shown in figure. The torque
response of the proposed method in figure shows considerably
reduces the torque ripple. The speed response for sensored
drive using Proportional integral controller and sensorless
drive using Fuzzy controller are observed. Also,
electromagnetic torque of the PI and Fuzzy intelligent
controllers analysed under comparator with zero crossing back
EMF sensorless drive technique.
Fig. 11(a) shows actual speed attains reference speed at 2.8
sec and Fig. 11(b) shows that the overshoot under sensorless
drive PI controller, where proposed method improves settling
time to 2.3 sec as shown in the Fig. 11(c) for the given motor Fig. 10 Generated pulse from fuzzy logic controller.

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 VI. CONCLUSIONS
Sensorless speed control of BLDC motor drive with fuzzy
logic implementation based on comparator with zero crossing
detection have been experimented using MATLAB and
evaluation of results are observed. The simulation results have
shown that speed response of the BLDC motor can be
controlled without sensors and also reduces the torque ripple.
The results obtained from sensorless speed control of BLDC
Fig. 11(a) Speed response of sensored drive technique using PI controller.
motor demonstrates that the system is less cost compared to
sensored control and also good dynamic performance is
obtained. This makes the motor suitable in application such as
fuel pump, robotics and industrial automation. The proposed
speed control scheme is robust, efficient and easy to
implement in place of sensored applications.

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Fig. 12(b) Variation of Electromagnetic torque with reference set at 1400rpm

under sensorless drive using fuzzy logic controller.

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