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INTRODUCTION CRUISE CONTROL MOTOR SPEED

SYSTEM

MODELING DC Motor Position:

ANALYSIS Simulink Modeling

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Contents

Physical setup

Building the model with Simulink

Building the model with Simscape

Building the model through its LTI representation

Physical setup
A common actuator in control systems is the DC motor. It directly provides
rotary motion and, coupled with wheels or drums and cables, can provide
translational motion. The electric circuit of the armature and the free-body

diagram of the rotor are shown in the following figure:

The input to the system is the voltage applied to the motor's armature ( ),
while the output is the angular position of the shaft ( ).

The physical parameters for our example are:

(J) moment of inertia of the rotor 3.2284E-6 kg.m^2

(b) motor viscous friction constant 3.5077E-6 Nms

(Ke) electromotive force constant 0.0274 V/rad/sec

(Kt) motor torque constant 0.0274 Nm/Amp

(R) electric resistance 4 ohm

(L) electric inductance 2.75E-6H

The motor torque is proportional to the armature current by a constant

factor as shown in the relation below.

(1)

The back emf, , is proportional to the angular velocity of the shaft by a

constant factor .

(2)

In SI units, the motor torque and back emf constants are equal, that is,
.
Building the model with Simulink

This system will be modeled by summing the torques acting on the rotor
inertia and integrating the rotor's angular acceleration to give the velocity,
and integrating the velocity to get position. Also, Kirchoff's laws will be
applied to the armature circuit. First, we will model the integrals of the rotor

acceleration and of the rate of change of armature current shown below.

(3)

(4)

To build the simulation model, open Simulink and open a new model

window. Then follow the steps listed below.

Insert an Integrator block from the Simulink/Continous library and draw

lines to and from its input and output terminals.

Label the input line "d2/dt2(theta)" and the output line "d/dt(theta)" as
shown below. To add such a label, double-click in the empty space just
above the line.

Insert another Integrator block attached to the output of the previous

one and draw a line from its output terminal.

Label the output line "theta".

Insert a third Integrator block above the first one and draw lines to and
from its input and output terminals.

Label the input line "d/dt(i)" and the output line "i".

Next, we will apply Newton's law and Kirchoff's law to the motor system to
generate the following equations.

(5)
 (6)

The angular acceleration is equal to multiplied by the sum of two terms

(one positive, one negative). Similarly, the derivative of current is equal to

multiplied by the sum of three terms (one positive, two negative).

Continuing to model these equations in Simulink, follow the steps given

below.

Insert two Gain blocks from the Simulink/Math Operations library, one
attached to each of the leftmost integrators.

Edit the Gain block corresponding to angular acceleration by double-

clicking on it and changing its value to "1/J".

Change the label of this Gain block to "Inertia" by clicking on the word

"Gain" underneath the block.

Similarly, edit the other Gain's value to "1/L" and it's label to

"Inductance".

Insert two Add blocks from the Simulink/Math Operations library, one

attached by a line to each of the Gain blocks.

Edit the signs of the Add block corresponding to rotation to "+-" since

one term is positive and one is negative.

Edit the signs of the other Add block to "-+-" to represent the signs of
the terms in Kirchoff's equation.

Now, we will add in the torques which are represented in Newton's equation.
First, we will add in the damping torque.

Insert a Gain block below the "Inertia" block, then select it by single-

clicking on it. Next select Flip Block from the Rotate & Flip menu
(reached by right-clicking) to flip the block from left to right. You can

also flip the selected block by holding Ctrl-I.

Set the Gain value to "b" and rename the block "damping".
 Tap a line (hold Ctrl while drawing or right-click) off the first rotational
Integrator's output (d/dt(theta)) and connect it to the input of the

damping Gain block.

Draw a line from the damping Gain output to the negative input of the

rotational Add block.

Next, we will add in the torque from the armature.

Insert a Gain block attached to the positive input of the rotational Add

block with a line.

Edit it's value to "K" to represent the motor constant and label it "Kt".

Continue drawing the line leading from the current Integrator and

connect it to the Kt Gain block.

Now, we will add in the voltage terms which are represented in Kirchoff's

equation. First, we will add in the voltage drop across the armature
resistance.

Insert a Gain block above the Inductance block and flip it left to right.

Set the Gain value to "R" and rename this block "Resistance".

Tap a line off the current Integrator's output and connect it to the input

of the Resistance Gain block.

Draw a line from the Resistance Gain output to the upper negative input

of the current equation Add block.

Next, we will add in the back emf from the motor.

Insert a Gain block and attach it to the other negative input of the
current Add block with a line.

Edit it's value to "K" to represent the motor back emf constant and label

it "Ke".

Tap a line off the first rotational Integrator's output (d/dt(theta)) and

connect it to the Ke Gain block.

Now the model is built and we just need to add the voltage input and
monitor the position output. We will insert In1 and Out1 ports from the
Simulink/Ports & Subsystems library as shown in the following figure so that

we may save the motor model as a subsystem.

In order to save all of these components as a single subsystem block, first

select all of the blocks, then select Create Subsystem from Selection after
right-clicking on the selected portion. Name the subsystem "Motor_pos" and
then save the model. Your model should appear as follows. You can also

download the file for this system by right-clicking here and selecting save
link as. We use this model in the DC Motor Position: Simulink Controller
Design page
Building the model with Simscape

In this section, we alternatively show how to build the DC Motor model using
the physical modeling blocks of the Simscape extension to Simulink. The

blocks in the Simscape library represent actual physical components;

therefore, complex multi-domain models can be built without the need to
build mathematical equations from physical principles as was done above
by applying Newton's laws and Kirchoff's laws.

Open a new Simulink model and insert the following list of blocks.

DC Motor block from the Simscape/Electronics/Actuators &

Drivers/Rotational Actuators library

Current Sensor block from the Simscape/Foundation

Library/Electrical/Electrical Sensors library

Controlled Voltage Source block from the Simscape/Foundation

Library/Electrical/Electrical Sources library

Three PS-Simulink Converter blocks, one Simulink-PS Converter, and a

Solver Configuration block from the Simscape/Utilities library

Electrical Reference block from the Simscape/Foundation

Library/Electrical/Electrical Elements library

Ideal Rotational Motion Sensor block from the Simscape/Foundation

Library/Mechanical/Mechanical Sensors library

Mechanical Rotational Reference block from the Simscape/Foundation

Library/Mechanical/Rotational Elements library

Three Out1 blocks and one In1 block from the Simulink/Ports &
Subsystems library

The DC Motor block models both the electrical and mechanical

characteristics of the motor. Double-click on the block in order to assign
numerical values to the motor's physical parameters. We will specifically
define the motor By equivalent circuit parameters as chosen from
the Motor Parameterization drop-down menu. Assign the various

parameters the following variables and units. We will eventually define these
variables at the command line of the MATLAB workspace. Note that since
the motor torque constant and the back emf constant are equal if the units
are consistent, we only need to define one of the two.

Armature resistance = R [Ohm]

Armature inductance = L [H]

Back emf constant = K [V/(rad/s)]

Rotor inertia = J [kg*m^2]

Rotor damping = b [N*m/(rad/s)]

The Ideal Rotational Motion Sensor block represents a device that

measures the difference in angular position and angular velocity between

two nodes. In this case, we employ the block to measure the position and
velocity of the motor shaft as compared to a fixed reference represented by
the Mechanical Rotational Reference block.

The Current Sensor block represents another sensor, specifically it

measures the current drawn by the motor.

The PS-Simulink blocks convert physical signals to Simulink output signals,

while the Simulink-PS block conversely converts a Simulink input signal to a

physical signal. These blocks can be employed to convert the Simscape

signals, which represent physical quantities with units, to Simulink signals,
which don't explicitly have units attached to them. These blocks, in essence,

can perform a units conversion between the physical signals and the
Simulink signals. In our case, we can leave the units undefined since the
input and output of each of the conversion blocks have the same units. In
general, the Simscape blockset is employed to model the physical plant,

while the Simulink blockset is employed to model the controller.

The Solver Configuration block is employed for defining the details of the
numerical solver employed in running the Simscape simulation. We will use
the default settings for this block.

Next, connect and label the components so that they appear as in the figure
below. Double-click on the lines which are connected to the Out1 blocks and

label them "Current", "Position", and "Speed". Also click on the In1 block
and label it "Voltage".
We now need to define the parameters used in our simulation. Type the
following commands at the prompt of the MATLAB command window.

R = 4;
L = 2.75E-6;
K = 0.0274;

J = 3.2284E-6;
b = 3.5077E-6;

You can save these components in a single subsystem with one input and

three outputs. Select all of the blocks and then select Create Subsystem
from Selection after right-clicking on the selected portion. Also label the
subsystem and signals as shown in the following figure.

You can download the complete model file by right-clicking here and then
selecting Save link as but note that you will need the Simscape addition to

Simulink in order to run the file.

Building the model through its LTI representation

You can also build the DC motor model in Simulink by importing one of the
models we created in MATLAB in the DC Motor Position: System Modeling
page. In this page we specifically created a transfer function model and a
state-space model, both of which may be imported. A zero-pole-gain format

model can also be imported. Recall the following commands used to build a
state-space model of the DC motor in MATLAB.

A = [0 1 0
0 -b/J K/J
0 -K/L -R/L];

B = [0 ; 0 ; 1/L];
C = [1 0 0];
D = 0;

This model can then be imported using the LTI System block from the
Control System Toolbox library as shown below. This figure demonstrates
how the model is defined by entering "ss(A,B,C,D)" into the LTI system
variable cell, though the tf and zpk commands could also be employed.

Adding In1 and Out1 ports from the Ports & Subsystems library then creates

the model shown below.

 Note that all three of the models generated above will behave equivalently
as long as they are built using the same parameter values. The difference
between them is then only the ease with which they are built and interfaced
with, and how transparent they are in presenting information to the user.

Published with MATLAB® 9.2

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