Application of Proteus VSM in modelling brushless DC motor drives

This paper presents simulation and hardware implementation of 3-phase Permanent Magnet Brushless DC (PM BLDC) motor drive for low power applications. For this drive system, pulse width modulation (PWM) control has been implemented for a 120-degree six-step trapezoidal PM BLDC motor drive. The processor used is PIC16F877 which is a common, flash-able and low-cost microcontroller unit (MCU) with functions to perform commutation sequence, rotating direction control, speed control and reading Hall sensor signals. The controlling technique uses sensored type in order to make this design suitable for low-speed and high-speed applications plus control simplicity. This paper also introduces the application of Proteus VSM (Virtual System Modelling) software as a realtime simulation tools to model the performance of PM BLDC motor drive before hardware implementation. Expected results can be monitored and analyzed throughout virtual simulation of all components used. Experimental verification has been carried out to validate the simulated circuit and the results were compared. The usage of Proteus VSM enables shorter product development time, thus reducing development cost for industrial applications.