This course is to provide fundamental concepts of electric motors and motor control techniques as well as introducing advanced technologies practically in use. This course also discusses control electronics hardware and AC/DC motor control algorithms, servo system feedback control, PID regulators and their tuning procedure.
The course starts with the magnetic and mechanical structure of the various motor types (including DC, PM, IPM, Induction and SR motors) to understand torque production mechanism and required commutation strategies. Discussion is followed by control of power semiconductor switches, PWM techniques, motor drive topologies, drive hardware, control algorithms, and software implementation, as well as current and speed control. The content also explains pros and cons of drive technologies such as 6-step vs. sinusoidal, voltage drive vs. current drive, phase current regulator vs synchronous regulator, PID vs other controllers. Aldo included are sensorless control and flux weakening controls. From the author’s long experience in research and development of many different types of drives, practical and useful procedures in selecting control method, rule-of-thumb design rules, control system structure and tuning, performance vs. cost tradeoff, etc will be discussed. Course contents include
1. Basics Principles of DC and AC Motor Control
• Structure and Operation of DC motors
• General Mechanism of Electromagnetic Torque Production
• Various AC motors
• 6-Step Commutation and Switching Schemes
• Power Electronics and Drive Hardware
• Reference Frame Transformation and Synchronous d-q Control
• Control of Induction Motors and Reluctance Motors
2. Servo System Analysis and Control Structure
• Motor Model and Control Structure
• PI(D) controller and Gains
• Nested Loop – Current, Velocity and Position Control
3. Advanced Topics in AC Motor Control
• Space Vector Modulation
• Advanced Digital Current Control Techniques
• Direct Torque Control (DTC) and High Speed Motors
• Sensorless Control of AC Motors
• Special Topics from Audience Input
Dr. Ohm is the president of Drivetech, Inc., a technical consulting firm specializing in motor control, drives and renewable energy converter systems. He has more than 25 years of industrial and academic experience in research and product development in the fields of motor drives, servo systems, and power converters. His major area of interest includes motion control, digital contro, high power AC and DC motor drives (Senosred and Sensorless) and power electronics. He has more than 50 published articles and conference presentations in the above area. Prior to consulting, he was Technical Director at Kollmorgen Motion Technologies Group. He was also with Baldor Electric Company and Electrocraft, Inc. He taught engineering courses (Electric Machines, Robotics, Digital Control) at San Jose State University, NPU, and Cogswell Polytechnical College as Adjunct Professor for many years. He received Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University. He is a member of IEEE, SAE and MCMA.
