Motor Control Design with Simulink

Motor control algorithms regulate speed, torque, and other performance characteristics, often for precision positioning. Brushless electric motors consume nearly half of the electricity produced worldwide. From small consumer items to large industrial machines, electric motors are present in an ever-wider range of products. The growing demand for electric motors puts a lot of pressure on engineers to meet challenging design specifications and ensure a motor’s efficient and safe operation.

Motor control algorithms regulate an electric motor’s speed, torque, and other performance characteristics. Evaluating motor control algorithms with Simulink® is a popular approach used by engineers and researchers to determine the suitability of motor controller designs, reduce time to market, and keep your cost at a minimum before committing to expensive hardware testing.

A workflow to evaluate motor control algorithms:

1. Building accurate system models, often from motors, loads, drive electronics, and sensor libraries
2. Generating processor-optimized C- or HDL code for real-time simulation and hardware implementation
3. Verifying and testing control algorithms using simulation and prototyping hardware

Challenges faced in motor control algorithm evaluation

• Starting design work before motor hardware becomes available
• Quickly implementing control software on an embedded processor once hardware becomes available
• Implementing complex control algorithms within a short time frame.

Video on motor control design with Simulink

In this video, we discuss how you can reduce motor control development time by using simulation models to design and verify control algorithms and deploy those algorithms to hardware using automatic code generation. Topics include the following:

• Model and simulate electric motors
• Develop motor control algorithms
• Use field-oriented control
• Generate control calibrations based on a motor’s parameters
• Design space vector modulation
• Use Clarke and Park transformations
• Perform real-time testing.

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All products mentioned in this user story are developed by MathWorks.

• MATLAB
• Simulink

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