High Performance Position Control of Permanent

Magnet Synchronous Drives

Antonio Pesántez1,2, *, Luís Neves1,3, Rodrigo Sempértegui2
1
School of Technology and Management, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Leiria, Portugal
2
Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department, University of Cuenca, Cuenca, Ecuador
3
INESC Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
*
Corresponding Author, email: [email protected]

Abstract— In the design and test of electric drive control maintenance, etc., make the PMSM an interesting choice in
systems, computer simulations provide a useful way to verify applications such as industrial robots, CNC milling machines,
the correctness and efficiency of various schemes and control electric vehicles, wind turbines, etc. [1] [2] [3].
algorithms before the final system is actually constructed, A widely used control method in high-performance AC
therefore, reducing development time and associated costs. drives is field oriented control, also known as vector control.
Nevertheless, the transition from the simulation stage to the This approach allows to regulate the three-phase AC machine
actual implementation has to be as straightforward as possible. currents by controlling the current space vector in the rotating
This paper presents the design and implementation of a position reference frame, making the control similar to that of the
control system for permanent magnet synchronous drives using separately exited DC machine, but maintaining all the benefits
the dsPIC33FJ32MC204 microcontroller as the target processor of AC machines [4].
to implement the control algorithms. The overall system is
The overall performance of an electric drive will depend not
simulated and tested in Proteus VSM software which is able to
only on the accuracy and speed of the control, but also on the
simulate the interaction between the firmware running on the robustness of the controller to operate correctly even if there are
microcontroller and the analogue circuits connected to it. The significant external disturbances, uncertainties in motor
electric drive model is developed using elements present in the parameters, and lack of precise mathematical models.
Proteus VSM library. As in any high-performance AC electric
drive system, field oriented control is applied. The complete This paper deals with the design and implementation of a
control system is distributed in three control loops, namely PMSM drive control system, considering two types of
torque, speed and position. A standard PID control system, and controllers namely: a PID-based controller and a hybrid
a hybrid control system based on fuzzy logic, are implemented controller based on fuzzy logic. The PMSM drive is simulated
and tested. The natural variation of motor parameters, such as and tested through the software Proteus VSM, using the
dsPIC33FJ32MC204 as the target processor. Simulation models
winding resistance and magnetic flux, are also simulated.
for stator resistance and permanent magnet flux variations are
Comparisons between the two control schemes are carried out also presented.
for speed and position control using different error
measurements, such as, integral square error, integral absolute II. LITERATURE REVIEW
error and root mean squared error. Comparison results show a Machine parameters change dynamically with temperature
superior performance of the fuzzy-logic-based controller when variations, magnetic saturations, skin effect, etc. These changes
coping with parameter variations, and by reducing torque may affect the performance of an electric drive. To deal with
ripple, but the results are reversed when periodical torque these drawbacks, various nonlinear control techniques such as
disturbances are present. sliding mode controllers, fuzzy-logic controllers, adaptive
Keywords—electric drives prototyping; permanent magnet controllers, and hybrid controllers have been developed in recent
machines; position control; Proteus VSM, dsPIC30F/33F, fuzzy years. Some of these non-linear control techniques, applied to
controllers. control PMSM drives, are reviewed in this section.

I. INTRODUCTION A. Model Reference Adaptive Control

Advances in microprocessor technologies and embedded The idea behind the model-reference adaptive control
systems have made possible implementations of complex technique is to develop a closed loop controller with parameters
control algorithms which requires intensive math computations. that can be modified to change the response of the system. The
Moreover, the recent development in power electronics and desired response of the process to a signal input is specified as
semiconductor devices have given a way for AC motor drives to a reference model. The output of the process is compared with
be used instead of DC drives, in high-performance applications. the output of the reference model to generate an error signal. An
adaptation mechanism looks at this error and calculates the
The permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) has adequate parameters for the main controller in order to
gained an important place in applications where high- minimize the error. Lyapunov’s stability and Popov’s
performance speed and position control are required.
hyperstability theories are standard design methods for the
Characteristics such as high mass-power ratio, high torque-
inertia ratio, high power density, high efficiency, reduced control law in adaptive control systems.

_____________________________________
978-1-5386-1069-5/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE
 A model reference adaptive controller applied to control need of having a prior knowledge of the constrain conditions of
position on a PMSM have been proposed by Liu Mingji et al. the system, thus, increasing the portability of the controller to
[5]. The experimental results show a satisfactory performance other nonlinear dynamic systems. The adaptive hybrid controller
of the electric drive despite uncertainties and parameter was applied to the position loop, skipping the velocity loop and
variations. thus, giving the torque reference directly to the current/torque
controller. The experimental results successfully confirmed that
B. Fuzzy Logic Model Reference Adaptive Control the proposed adaptive hybrid control system grants robust
Basically, Fuzzy Logic is a multilevel logic which allows to performance and precise dynamic response to the reference
define intermediate values when evaluating a statement. It is an model regardless of the PMSM parameter variations and load
attempt to catch and represent the human knowledge. In fuzzy disturbances.
logic, an affirmation can be truth for many degrees of truth, The above referenced works present various non-linear
from completely true to completely false [6]. control methods which can be applied to cope with uncertainties
Nowadays, fuzzy logic is widely applied in control systems. and parameter variations in PMSM electric drive systems.
A fuzzy logic controller will use fuzzy membership functions Nevertheless, the controller’s complexity, the required
and inference mechanisms to determine the appropriate control processing power to implement the control algorithms, and the
signal. Fuzzy-logic-based controllers are usually applied associated costs have to be taken into account when
together with other types of controllers/systems to achieve implementing electric drive control systems.
better performances [7].
Ying-Shieh Kung and Pin-Ging Huang [8], have presented III. ELECTRIC DRIVE MODEL
a high-performance position controller for PMSM using a
A. PMSM Model
fuzzy-logic controller in the position control loop with and
adaptation mechanism based on the gradient method. The The dynamic behavior of the PMSM, in the d-q reference
overall system, including the adaptive controller and the frame, is governed by the following equations [12]
SVPWM scheme were implemented in a TMS320F2812 DSP 1
= − + (1)
chip taking advantage of it power processing and peripheral
availability, and experimental results demonstrated that in step 1
command response and frequency command response, the rotor = − − − (2)
position can fast track the prescribed dynamic response, thus,
obtaining a high-performance position controller for PMSM. 3
= − − (3)
2
C. Sliding Mode Control
Sliding mode control is a nonlinear control method whose Where
purpose is to alter the dynamic of a nonlinear system applying a is the electrical angular frequency
discontinuous control signal that force the system to “slide” , are the d-axis and q-axis currents respectively
along a defined state-space trajectory. The intrinsic
discontinuous characteristic of the sliding mode allows a simple , are the d-axis and q-axis voltages respectively
control that can be designed to switch between only two states , are the d-axis and q-axis inductances respectively
(on/off) without a precise definition, therefore, adding is the stator resistance
robustness against parameter variations [9]. is the permanent magnet flux linkage
Fadil Hicham et al. [10], present a velocity control of PMSM is the number of pole pairs
based on the sliding-mode and a fuzzy-logic system for is the total inertia
chattering minimization. The proposed system was tested by is the viscous friction
means of computer simulations using the software tool PLECS is the load torque
integrated with MATLAB/Simulink. The controller was The electrical speed is related with the mechanical speed by
implemented in a eZdspF28335 board using
MATLAB/Simulink rapid prototyping to control an 80W =
PMSM. Results confirmed the effectiveness of the fuzzy-logic The machine model in the d-q reference frame is
sliding mode controller to reduce the chattering effect and to implemented in Proteus using controlled voltage/current
cope with uncertainties. sources, and discrete elements (resistors, inductors, capacitors).
D. Hybrid Non-Linear Control Figure 1 shows this implementation.
Various control techniques can be applied together in order The three-phase model of the PMSM is obtained applying
to obtain an enhanced control performance. A hybrid position reference frame transformation circuits. The three-phase input
controller for PMSM conformed by three main controllers voltage is converted to a bi-phase voltage source in the fixed α-
namely, an adaptive fuzzy-logic-neural-network controller, a β reference frame (Clarke’s transformation). Since the machine
robust controller and an auxiliary controller based on the sliding model is developed in the rotating reference frame, the α-β to
mode had been proposed by Fayez F.M. El-Sousy [11]. This d-q transformation (Park’s transformation) must be applied.
complex controller is designed in order to guarantee stability and
high-performance operation of the PMSM, and to eliminate the
 Dynamic estator q-axis equivalent circuit B. Inverter Model
IQ
1.0*I(A,B)
ID*W
The inverter is simulated considering the following
IQ equations
Vqr
RS LQ
V_Q
2.98 7mH

P/2*LD*ID*W = (2 − − )
2.0*0.007*V(A,B) 3
W
VA*VB
P/2*PHI_MG*W
2*V(A)*V(B) = (2 − − )
PHI_MG
3
= (2 − − )
Dynamic estator d-axis equivalent circuit 3
ID
1.0*I(A,B)
This simplified representation of a three-phase inverter is
used in order to reduce computational load and required
ID

RS_ LD simulation time.

V_D
7mH

C. Signal Conditioning Circuits for dsPIC33FJ32MC204

2.98
Vdr

P/2*LQ*IQ*W
The signal conditioning circuits are not directly
IQ*W
2.0*0.007*V(A,B)

implemented in Proteus because the unnecessary computational

Electromechanical dynamic equivalent circuit load added. Instead, voltage controlled voltage sources with the
appropriate multiplication factors are used to adequate the
W

TLOAD
1.0*V(A,B)

Te = 3/2*Zp*[phi_mg * iq + (Ld-Lq) * id * iq] TORQUE_E

1.0*V(A,B) 1/B
J
0.0002
signal levels to the microcontroller inputs.
TORQUE_E 2000
The dsPIC33FJ32MC204 was selected as the target
IQ
VA*VB
3/2*ZP*PHI_MG*IQ
3*V(A)*V(B)
processor to implement the control algorithms because of its
PHI_MG
Viscous Friction Moment of Inertia
peripheral availability for motor control applications, such as,
PWM module with center-aligned mode, ADC module with
3/2*ZP*(LD-LQ)*ID*IQ
ID*IQ
-3.0*0.0*V(A,B) 500ksps sampling rate, quadrature encoder interface, etc.
IV. CONTROLLERS DESIGN
The PMSM electric drive control system is designed with
Figure 1. Proteus model of the PMSM in the d-q reference frame three control loops, namely current/torque, speed and position.
PI controllers with feedforward compensation are designed for
The d-q currents obtained from the model are transformed the current/torque loop. A PI controller, as well as a fuzzy tuned
to the three-phase fixed reference frame applying the PI controller are designed for the speed loop. Finally, a
corresponding inverse transformations (inverse Parks’ and proportional controller and a fuzzy-logic controller are
inverse Clark’s transformation), thus, completing the three- designed for the position loop.
phase machine model. A. PI Current Controller
The Proteus implementation of the required Clarke’s and
Parke’s transformations are carried out using voltage controlled The first control loop required for any high-performance
voltage sources and multiplier voltage sources. The drive control system is the current/torque loop. In this loop, the
implemented equations are: d-axis and the q-axis currents of the PMSM are regulated using
for Clarke’s transformation PI controllers. Figure 2 presents a block diagram of the current
= control loop for a PMSM.
As can be seen in the PMSM mathematical model presented
1 2
= + in equations (1), (2) and (3), there are nonlinear cross-coupling
√3 √3 terms in the differential equations for the d-q currents. These
for Park’s transformation cross-coupling terms can be eliminated with an input-and-
= cos( ) + sin ( ) output linearization and feedforward manipulation [12]. Using
the auxiliary variables , defined such that
= cos( ) − sin ( )
1 1
= +
for inverse Park´s transformation
= cos( ) − sin ( ) 1 1
= − −
= cos( ) + sin ( ) By replacing the above equations into the PMSM model
for inverse Clarke’s transformation equations (1) and (2), the following first order differential
= equations are obtained
1 1
√3 =− +
=− +
2 2
1 1
√3 =− +
=− −
2 2
 With the controller parameters calculated, the voltage
control signals will be

= + ( ) +

= + ( ) +

Where
= ∗−
= ∗−
=−
= +
Figure 2. Current control of PMSM
B. PI Speed Controller
The Laplace transfer functions of the above equations are Rewriting the speed differential equation (3) as
1 3
( ) =− + −
= 2
( ) + and applying the Laplace transformation to get the relationship
1 between the angular velocity and the q-axis current
( ) 3
= + Ω ( )= ( )
( ) + 2

Whit these first-order plant models, the PI current 3

Ω ( ) 2
controllers are parametrized using pole-placement. The PI =
controller parameters for the d-axis current are ( ) +
2 −
= Now, replacing in the q-axis current differential equation (2)
1 with the value given by the PI current controller, and assuming
cancelation of the nonlinear terms, the following differential
2 − equation is obtained
= 1 ∗ ∗( )−
=− + − + ( )
and for the q-axis current
2 − Taking the Laplace transformation of the above equation leads
= (4) to
1
( )=− ( )+ ∗( )− ( ) + ∗( )− ( )
2 −
(5)
=
+
( )
The damping coefficient is selected to be 0.707 or 1. The ∗ =
( )
natural frequency determine the desired closed-loop settling + + +
time, which also correspond to the desired bandwidth of the
closed-loop system. Therefore, the larger is, the shorter the The following identities are obtained from equations (4) and (5)
desired closed-loop settling time is. of the q-axis current controller design
Selecting relative to the bandwidth of the open-loop =
system and using a normalized parameter 0 < <
1, the parameter is calculated as =2 −
1
= Applying the above identities, the transfer function from the q-
1−
for the d-axis current control, and for the q-axis current axis reference current to the actual q-axis current is given by
control
1 2 − +
= ( )
1− ∗ =
( ) +2 +
As the normalized parameter gets closer to 1, tends to
∞. The parameter is selected around 0.8 or 0.9 in order to
obtain a fast response.
Using the above transfer function together with equation (3),
the relationship between the reference q-axis current ∗ ( ), and
the electrical speed Ω ( ) is given by

3 2 − +
Ω ( ) 2
∗ =
( ) + +2 +

In order to design a PI controller using the pole-placement

approach, a first-order plant model is required. Therefore, the
above transfer function needs to be approximated by a first Figure 3. Block diagram for the fuzzy-tuned PI speed controller
order model.
If the natural frequency is chosen to be much greater than As can be seen in the block diagram, the fuzzy inference
the mechanical relationship , the inner current-loop dynamics system has two inputs which are the error and the error
variation, and has two outputs corresponding to the proportional
can be neglected, leading to an approximate first order model and integral parameters of the PI speed controller.
given by Five triangular-shaped membership functions with 50%
overlap, are applied for each input and output of the fuzzy
3 inference system. The membership functions are symmetrically
Ω ( ) 2
∗ ≈ distributed along the corresponding universe of discourse,
( ) + which is stablished according to the process operating ranges.
The same universe of discourse is applied for the error and the
error variation, and a normalized universe of discourse is used
Applying the pole-placement design technique, the PI for the outputs.
controller parameters for the speed loop are calculated as The names for the input membership functions are defined
follows as follows:
2 − NB = Negative Big
= N = Negative
3 Z = Zero
2
P = Positive
2 − PB = Positive Big
= The membership functions for the inputs are shown in figure 4

C. Proportional Position Controller

The position controller consists of a simple proportional
controller plus a feedforward speed signal calculated as the
derivative of the reference angular position. The control action
of the proportional controller, which is the speed reference
signal, is calculated with the following equation
∗ ( ∗ )+ ∗
= −

where
∗
∗
= Figure 4. Input membership functions for the fuzzy-tuned PI speed
controller

D. Fuzzy Tuned PI Speed Controller The names for the output membership functions are defined
The use of a fuzzy inference system can be adopted to as follows
determine the values of the PI speed controller parameters VS = Very Small
during the transient response in order to decrease the rise time S = Small
and reduce the overshoot [13]. M = Medium
A schematic diagram of the proposed fuzzy-tuned PI speed L = Large
controller is presented in figure 3 VL = Very Large
 The output values will be the proportional and integral
parameters of the PI speed controller, designated as and Δ
respectively. Figure 5 shows the output membership functions NB N Z P PB
→S →S → VS → VL → VL
NB
→M →M → VL → VS → VS
→S → VS →M →L → VL
N
→M →S →M →S → VS
→L →M → VS →M →L
Z
→S →M → VS →M →S
→ VL →L →M → VS →S
P
→ VS →S →M →S →M
→ VL → VL → VS →S →S
PB
→ VS → VS → VL →M →M
Figure 5. Output membership functions for the fuzzy-tuned PI Table 1. Rule-base for the fuzzy-tuned PI speed controller
speed controller

A Mamdani-type fuzzy inference system is applied. The E. Fuzzy-Logic Position Controller

minimum operation is used as the ‘AND’ method for fuzzy Considering a PMSM position controller with the
implication, and the maximum operation is applied for the intermediate speed controller, the inputs for the position
union of all outputs. controller are selected to be the error and the variation of the
The rule base is stablished based on the knowledge acquired error, and the output will be the reference angular speed. A
from the performed computer simulations for the standard PI scaling factor is applied for each signal. Figure 6 presents a
speed controller, where the following facts were identified schematic diagram of the proposed direct fuzzy-logic
An increment in : controller.
- Increase the rise time
- Reduce overshoot
- Increase ripple in steady state
- Reduce the amplitude of torque disturbances
An increment in = Δ :
- Reduce the rise time Figure 6. Direct fuzzy-logic position controller
- Increase overshoot
- Increase ripple in steady state Seven triangular-shaped membership functions with 50%
- Reduce the area of torque disturbances overlap, are applied for each input and output of the fuzzy
The behavior of the speed response according to the signs of the controller. The membership functions are symmetrically
error and the error variation is described as follows distributed along the corresponding universe of discourse,
- When is positive and Δ is positive, then which is stablished according to the process operating ranges.
the speed gets closer to the reference signal The same universe of discourse is applied for the error and the
- When is positive and Δ is negative, then variation of the error, and a normalized universe of discourse is
the speed moves away from the reference signal used for the output. The names for the membership functions
- When is negative and Δ is positive, then are defined as follows
the speed moves away from the reference signal NB = negative big
- When is negative and Δ is negative, then NM = negative medium
the speed gets closer to the reference signal NS = negative small
In short, when error and error variation have the same sign, the Z = zero
speed gets closer to the reference signal and vice versa. PS = positive small
Based on the above information, the rule base for the fuzzy- PM = positive medium
tuned PI speed controller is defined as described in Table 1. PB = positive big
The weighted average defuzzification method is applied to The membership functions for the inputs are shown in figure 7.
find the crisp output value. Mathematically, this method is
defined as
∑ [ ] [ ]
=
∑ [ ]

where [ ] is the center value of the individual k-output

membership function, and [ ] is the corresponding
membership value.
Figure 7. Input membership functions of the fuzzy-logic position
controller
The membership functions for the output, with a normalized The output scaling factor and the proportional constant have
universe of discourse, is presented in figure 8 to be properly parametrized in order to maintain the effect of
the fuzzy-logic controller output in the final control action. In
general terms, the output scaling factor of the fuzzy controller
has to be selected much bigger that the proportional constant.
V. PARAMETERS VARIATION
Machine parameters will vary during normal operation,
principally due to temperature variations. Stator resistance and
permanent magnet flux are the most affected parameters. In
Figure 8. Output membership functions of the fuzzy-logic position
controller
order to observe the effects of these parameter variations,
resistance and flux step changes are added in the Proteus
PMSM model.
A Mamdani-type fuzzy inference system is applied. The
minimum operation is used as the ‘AND’ method for fuzzy A. Stator Resistance Variation
implication, and the maximum operation is applied for the Since the stator resistance sensitivity is overcome in the
union of all outputs. current control loop, a considerable step variation is required to
The rule-base of the fuzzy controller relates the error and observe the effects of resistance variation. Using a voltage
the error variation to obtain a consequent output. The linguistic controlled switch in Proteus, a resistor with approximately
fuzzy rules are based on the Macvicar-Whelan matrix described 200% of the nominal stator resistance value is placed in series
in Table 2. with the nominal resistance of the machine. Figure 10 shows
The weighted average defuzzification method is applied to this implementation in the − model of the PMSM.
find the crisp output value.
1.0*I(A,B)

∆ ID*W

IQ
NB NM NS Z PS PM PB
Vqr
RQ_STEP RS LQ
NB NB NB NB NB NM NS Z V_Q
6 2.98
7mH

Zp*Ld*V(A,B)
NM NB NB NB NM NS Z PS
NS NB NB NM NS Z PS PM W
VA*VB Zp*V(A)*V(B)
R_STEP PHI_MG
VSWITCH
Z NB NM NS Z PS PM PB
PS NM NS Z PS PM PB PB
1.0*I(A,B)

PM NS Z PS PM PB PB PB ID

PB Z PS PM PB PB PB PB RD_STEP R6 LD
V_D
7mH
Table 2. Rule-base for the fuzzy-logic position controller Vdr
6 2.98

Zp*Lq*V(A,B)
IQ*W
In order to improve the position controller response at
steady-state, an error proportional factor is applied to the output R_STEP

of the controller. With this scheme, the control action strength

Figure 10. Stator resistance step variation model
is reduced as the position gets closer to its reference value and
thus, the oscillations at steady-state are reduced. The block According to figure 10, ‘R_STEP’ added in series with the
diagram of the proposed controller is presented in figure 9. stator resistance is controlled by the voltage controlled switch.
The switch is initially closed, thus, only the nominal resistance
value is effectively placed in the model. When the switch is
open, a stator resistance increase is produced. In this way, a step
resistance variation is simulated.

B. Permanent Magnet Flux Variation

The effect due to the loss of magnetism with temperature
variations is predominant compared to the effect of stator
Figure 9. Fuzzy-logic position controller with proportional action resistance variation on the performance of the drive system. The
sensitivity of residual flux density in magnets for 100ºC rise in
The output of this controller will be temperature in ferrite, neodymium and samarium cobalt magnet
∗
= are -19%, -12% and -3%, respectively, from their nominal
values [14].
 A ferrite magnet is considered, so a -19% step flux variation
will be used in the simulation. For the Proteus implementation,
the nominal value of the permanent magnet flux linkage is
passed through a voltage multiplier. The first factor of the
multiplier will be the nominal flux linkage value. The second
factor of the multiplier is connected to a switch for enabling or
disabling the flux step variation. The implementation is
presented in figure 11.
When the switch is in the ‘off’ position, the multiplier factor
is 1 and thus, the nominal value of the permanent magnet flux
linkage is taken. When the switch is placed in the ‘on’ position,
a step signal with amplitude equal to 0.81 (corresponding to a -
19% variation) is selected as the multiplier factor.

+0.125V
Phi_mg nominal
PHI_MG Figure 12. PI current controller test

PHI_MG
OFF
VA*VB V(A)*V(B)
+1V

PHI_MG STEP VARIATION

ON

Figure 11. Permanent magnet flux step variation model

VI. CONTROLLERS TEST

All the controller parameters are further tuned via simulation
in order to achieve approximately the characteristics presented
in table 3.
Figure 13. PI speed controller test
Control Loop Bandwidth Control Sampling
Frequency C. Fuzzy-Tuned PI Speed Controller
Current 900Hz 16kHz
Velocity 50Hz 4kHz The fuzzy-tuned PI controller is tested with the same graph
Position 10Hz 1kHz configurations as for the standard PI controller. The simulation
Table 3. Bandwidths and frequencies of the PMSM control loops result is presented in figure 14.

The bandwidth is estimated using the rise time with the

following formula
0.35
=
The control sampling frequency is configured upon the base of
the PWM frequency using the PWM interrupt period of the
dsPIC33FJ32MC204. Counter variables that divide the PWM
interrupt period are used to obtain the corresponding sampling
frequency for velocity and position.

A. Current Control Loop

The PI current controller is implemented and tested in
Proteus. Setting the q-axis reference current at 1A and the d- Figure 14. Fuzzy-tuned PI speed controller test
axis reference current at 0A. The simulation result is presented
in figure 12. As can be seen, the fuzzy-tuned PI speed controller has less
B. PI Speed Controller ripple in the steady-state response compared with the
conventional PI controller.
The PI speed controller is tested setting a reference of 100
rad/s. The simulation result is presented in figure 13. The y-axis
is configured to display the speed response starting from 95
rad/s.
D. Proportional Position Controller • Integral absolute error
The proportional position controller is tested configuring = | |
the y-axis graph to display starting from 5.9 radians, for a
command reference signal of 6 radians. The position response • Root mean square error
is presented in figure 15. 1
=
−
The comparison is carried out for speed control and for position
control. In order to test the performance of the controllers, four
different conditions are considered for simulation, which are:
a) No disturbance or perturbation
b) Periodical torque disturbance with 100ms period
c) 200% stator resistance variation step
d) -19% permanent magnet flux variation step
A. Speed Controllers Comparison
The standard PI speed controller, and the fuzzy tuned PI
speed controller are simulated according to the conditions
Figure 15. Response of proportional position controller described previously. To facilitate comparison, the resulting
data are plotted as bar charts, and presented in figure 17.
E. Fuzzy-Logic Position Controller with Proportional Action
The fuzzy-logic position controller with proportional action
is tested under the same graph configurations as for the standard
proportional controller. Figure 15 shows the position response
for this controller. By comparing the responses of figures 14
and 15, an improve in the steady state response can be observed
for the fuzzy-logic controller with proportional action. In terms
of rise time, both controllers have similar performances.

Figure 16. Response of fuzzy-logic position controller

with proportional action

VII. CONTROLLERS COMPARISON

The standard PID-based and the fuzzy-logic-based
controllers are compared by means of error indicators namely
integral square error, integral absolute error and root mean
squared error. These error measurements are described by the
following equations

• Integral square error

=
Figure 17. Comparison of speed controllers
using bar charts
 A general view of the above data shows that the fuzzy-logic- CONCLUSIONS
based speed controller has better performance compared with Fuzzy-logic systems have many advantages over the
the standard PID-based speed controller. Although for a conventional controllers. For instance, fuzzy-logic controllers
periodic torque disturbance the standard PI speed controller can handle non-linearities, do not require precise mathematical
outperforms the fuzzy-tuned PI controller. models, and work based on the intuition and experience of the
B. Position Controlles Comparison human operator. Therefore, fuzzy inference systems can be
applied to improve the performance of standard PID controllers,
As for the speed controllers, the standard proportional
either modifying and dynamically tuning the PID-gain
position controller, and the fuzzy-logic position controller, are
parameters, or directly implementing a fuzzy-logic controller.
simulated taking into account all the simulation conditions
described previously. The resulting data are plotted as bar A fuzzy-tuned PI speed controller was implemented in this
charts, and presented in figure 18. work, presenting an improved performance in torque-ripple
reduction and when coping with parameter variations, when
compared with the standard PI controller. Similar results were
obtained for the implemented fuzzy-logic position controller.
Nevertheless, a simulation with an applied periodical torque
disturbance of considerable amplitude (about 70% of the
machine rated torque) showed a superior performance of the
standard controllers over the fuzzy-logic ones.
Computer simulations of control systems can reduce
development time when the transition between the simulation
stage to the actual implementation is straightforward. Proteus
VSM software was used to simulate a PMSM control system,
directly implementing the control algorithms in a
microcontroller, therefore, helping to reduce the time required
for a real-world implementation.
The practical validation of the proposed controllers is
currently being implemented. The speed controllers were
already tested physically, although for a brushless DC motor,
and the obtained results are consistent with the simulations.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was partially supported by the Portuguese
Foundation for Science and Technology under grant Pest-
OE/EEI/UI308/2014

The first author would like to thank SENESCYT and

Polytechnic Institute of Leiria for the given opportunity to
obtain his master’s degree.
REFERENCES
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Figure 18. Comparison of position controllers using Synchronous Motor to Driving Railway Vehicles.”
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