Automated Online Design of Robust Position and Speed Digital Controllers For Variable Speed Drives

This paper addresses the automatic online robust position and speed control design for variable speed drives while under varying load conditions using genetic algorithms (GA). Both the structure and parameters of the digital position and speed controllers are optimized online automatically directly on an experimental drive prototype. The automated design procedure is performed while the drive is being subject to varying mechanical load. Different mechanical load profiles are accurately emulated using a programmable load emulator. Experimental results of the online GA optimization of the speed and position controllers are presented and simulation results are shown for comparison