Learning objectives
Knowledge and understanding:
At the end of this course the students should master the principles of operation, design and control of DC, brushless, asynchronous and stepping motor drives. Moreover, they should gain a basic comprehension of electronic power converters control based on fixed point digital controllers.
At the end of the laboratory activities the students should know how to use integrated development environments to write and test embedded code for power electronics control-oriented microcontrollers or DSPs. Moreover, they should have acquired programming techniques for real-time control of electronic power converters and for optimal use of fixed-point processing units.
Applying Knowledge and understanding:
At the end of the course the students should be able to decide the best type of motor and control based on application specifications, and to design the controller exploiting the capabilities of fixed point processing units.
At the end of the laboratory activities the students should master an integrated development environment for a fixed-point power converter control-oriented microcontroller or DSP. They should also be able to apply the good real-time programming practices for controlling electronic power converters through fixed-point processing units.
Prerequisites
Automatic control, fundamentals of power electronics, fundamentals of embedded programming.
Course unit content
Electromechanical energy conversion; Design and control of DC, AC (brushless, induction), stepping motor drives; digital control.
Laboratory activity aimed at designing and implementing a digital control for electric drive based on a fixed-point DSP or microcontroller.
Full programme
Electromechanical energy conversion. Electric Drives classification and characteristics.
The main components of electric drives: analog and digital PID regulators, design of analog PID using Operational amplifiers. Speed and position transducers: brushless tachometer, resolver, incremental and absolute encoders, hall effect current transducers.
Design of Electric Drives based on DC motors. Operation and control of DC motors.
Design of Electric Drives based on Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (PMSM). Dynamic behaviour of PMSM. Design of motor control (torque control) and drive control (speed and position control).
Design of Electric Drives based on induction motors. Dynamic behaviour of induction motors. Flux observers and flux control. Design of motor control (torque control) and drive control (speed and position control). Field Oriented Control of induction motors.
Stepping motor drives.
Digital fixed point control of electronic power converters.
Illustration of the integrated development environment to be used for the projects. Features of the microcontroller or DSP to use.
Good programming practices for real-time control of power electronic converters.
Development and tuning of the control firmware for an electric motor drive.
Bibliography
Lecture notes online on LEA.
Teaching methods
The first part of the course will mainly consist of traditional lectures, with a limited amount of computer simulation.
The second part consists of laboratory activity focused on the design and implementation of a digital control for electric motor drives.
The students, split in groups, will have access to development kits including control boards and electric motors and will have to write the control firmware using integrated development environments on PCs.
Assessment methods and criteria
The examination will be held in oral form. During the exam the student should prove the knowledge of the operating principles and control strategies of the main types of electrical machines, particularly using fixed point processors.
During the examination, besides exposing the acquired knowledge, the student could be asked to solve simple exercises on design and control of electric motor drives.
Moreover, at the end of the laboratory activities every group will have to write a report about the work done. The report will be discussed and evaluated with the students.
Other information
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