Rapid Control Prototyping of IPM Drives by Real Time Simulation

This paper presents an approach to rapid prototyping of digitally controlled electrical drives based on real-time simulation. The case study refers to an interior permanent magnet synchronous motor drive. A field oriented speed control algorithm is considered, arranged in the rotor fixed d-q frame, with optimization of the torque-to-current ratio and decoupling of the feeding voltages. The real-time simulation platform and the actual drive share the same control hardware, based on the TMS320F2812 digital signal controller. At simulation stage the controlled hardware (motor, converter and transducers) is replaced by proper models running on the digital controller, while the control algorithm is implemented using the same procedures and real-time architecture that will be adopted in the final application. When one backtracks to consider the actual hardware, time and efforts needed for the ultimate controller set-up will be drastically reduced. The case study demonstrates the accuracy, efficiency, and simplicity of the proposed approach which can be easily extended to the prototyping of any kind of control scheme.