1.

Closed Loop Control of Drives

In closed loop system, the output of the system is feedback to the input. The closed loop system controls
the electrical drive, and the system is self-adjusted. Feedback loops in an electrical drive may be
provided to satisfy the following requirements.

1. Enhancement of speed of torque

2. To improve steady-state accuracy.
3. Protection

The main parts of the closed-loop system are the controller, converter, current limiter, current sensor,
etc. The converter converts the variable frequency into fixed frequency and vice-versa. The current
limiter limits the current to rise above the maximum set value. The different types of closed loop
configuration are explained below.

Current Limit Control

This scheme is used to limit the converter and motor current below a safe limit during the transient
operation. The system has a current feedback loop with a threshold logic circuit.

The logic circuit

protects the system from a maximum current. If the current is raised above maximum set value due to
a transient operation, the feedback circuit becomes active and force the current to remains below the
maximum value. When the current become normal, the feedback loop remains inactive.

Closed-Loop Torque Control

Such types of loop are used in battery powered vehicles, rails, and electric trains. The reference torque
T* is set through the accelerator, and this T* follows by the loop controller and the motor. The speed
of the drive is controlled by putting pressure on the accelerator.

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Closed-Loop Speed Control
The block diagram of the closed loop speed control system is shown in the figure below. This system
used an inner control loop within an outer speed loop. The inner control loop controls the motor current
and motor torque below a safe limit.

through a speed controller and applied to a current limiter which is overloaded even for a small speed
error. The current limiter set current for the inner current control loop. Then, the drive accelerates, and
when the speed of the drive is equal to the desired speed, then the motor torque is equal to the load
torque. This, decrease the reference speed and produces a negative speed error.

When the current limiter saturates, then the drive becomes de-accelerate in a braking mode. When the
current limiter becomes desaturated, then the drive is transferred from braking to motoring.

Closed-Loop Speed Control of Multi Motor Drives

In such type of drive, the load is shared between the several motors. In this system, each section has its
own motor which carries most of its load. The rating of the motor is different for the different type of
load, but all the motor run at the same speed. If the torque requirement of each motor is fulfilled by its
own driving motor, then the driving shaft has to carry only small synchronising torque.

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In a locomotive, because of different amount of wear and tear the wheel of the locomotive revolve at
the different speed. Thus, the driving speed of the vehicle also vary. Along with speed, it is also essential
that the torques are shared equally between the various motor; otherwise, the one motor is fully loaded
and another, is under loaded. Thus, the rated locomotive torque will be less than the sum of the
individual motor torque rating.

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Dynamic model of DC Motor – Dynamic equations, Transfer function

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Modelling of chopper as gain with switching delay

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Speed controller specification and design

From the main problem, the dynamic equations in the Laplace domain and the open-loop transfer
function of the DC Motor are the following.

(1)
(2)

(3)
The structure of the control system has the form shown in the figure below.

For the original problem setup and the derivation of the above equations, please refer to the DC Motor
Speed: System Modeling page.
For a 1-rad/sec step reference, the design criteria are the following.
Settling time less than 2 seconds
Overshoot less than 5%
Steady-state error less than 1%
Now let's design a controller using the methods introduced in the Introduction: PID Controller
Design page. Create a new m-file and type in the following commands.

J = 0.01;

b = 0.1;

K = 0.01;

R = 1;

L = 0.5;

s = tf('s');
P_motor = K/((J*s+b)*(L*s+R)+K^2);
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Recall that the transfer function for a PID controller is:

(4)
Proportional control
Let's first try employing a proportional controller with a gain of 100, that is, C(s) = 100. To determine
the closed-loop transfer function, we use the feedback command. Add the following code to the end of
your m-file.

Kp = 100;

C = pid(Kp);

sys_cl = feedback(C*P_motor,1);

Now let's examine the closed-loop step response. Add the following commands to the end of your m-
file and run it in the command window. You should generate the plot shown below. You can view some
of the system's characteristics by right-clicking on the figure and choosing Characteristics from the
resulting menu. In the figure below, annotations have specifically been added for Settling Time, Peak
Response, and Steady State.

t = 0:0.01:5;

step(sys_cl,t)

grid

title('Step Response with Proportional Control')

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From the plot above we see that both the steady-state error and the overshoot are too large. Recall from
the Introduction: PID Controller Design page that increasing the proportional gain will reduce the
steady-state error. However, also recall that increasing often results in increased overshoot,
therefore, it appears that not all of the design requirements can be met with a simple proportional
controller.
This fact can be verified by experimenting with different values of . Specifically, you can employ
the Control System Designer by entering the command controlSystemDesigner(P_motor) or by going
to the APPS tab and clicking on the app icon under Control System Design and Analysis and then
opening a closed-loop step response plot from the New Plot tab of the Control System
Designer window as shown below.

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After that you can right-click on the plot and select Edit Compensator. You can then vary the control
gain in the Compensator Editor window and see the resulting effect on the closed-loop step response
as shown below.

A little experimentation verifies what we anticipated, a proportional controller is insufficient for

meeting the given design requirements; derivative and/or integral terms must be added to the controller.
PID control
Recall from the Introduction: PID Controller Design page, adding an integral term will eliminate the
steady-state error to a step reference and a derivative term will often reduce the overshoot. Let's try a
PID controller with small and . Modify your m-file so that the lines defining your control are as
follows. Running this new m-file gives you the plot shown below.
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Kp = 75;

Ki = 1;

Kd = 1;

C = pid(Kp,Ki,Kd);

sys_cl = feedback(C*P_motor,1);

step(sys_cl,[0:1:200])

title('PID Control with Small Ki and Small Kd')

Inspection of the above indicates that the steady-state error does indeed go to zero for a step input.
However, the time it takes to reach steady-state is far larger than the required settling time of 2 seconds.
Tuning the gains
In this case, the long tail on the step response graph is due to the fact that the integral gain is small and,
therefore, it takes a long time for the integral action to build up and eliminate the steady-state error.
This process can be sped up by increasing the value of . Go back to your m-file and change to 200
as in the following. Rerun the file and you should get the plot shown below. Again the annotations are
added by right-clicking on the figure and choosing Characteristics from the resulting menu.

Kp = 100;
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 Ki = 200;

Kd = 1;

C = pid(Kp,Ki,Kd);

sys_cl = feedback(C*P_motor,1);

step(sys_cl, 0:0.01:4)

grid

title('PID Control with Large Ki and Small Kd')

As expected, the steady-state error is now eliminated much more quickly than before. However, the
large has greatly increased the overshoot. Let's increase in an attempt to reduce the overshoot.
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Go back to the m-file and change to 10 as shown in the following. Rerun your m-file and the plot
shown below should be generated.

Kp = 100;

Ki = 200;

Kd = 10;

C = pid(Kp,Ki,Kd);

sys_cl = feedback(C*P_motor,1);

step(sys_cl, 0:0.01:4)

grid

title('PID Control with Large Ki and Large Kd')

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As we had hoped, the increased reduced the resulting overshoot. Now we know that if we use a PID
controller with = 100, = 200, and = 10, all of our design requirements will be satisfied.

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