A Sliding Mode Controller for Switched-

Reluctance Motor with Iterative Learning Com-

pensation

Milad Falahi Farzad R. Salmasi


Student Member, IEEE Member, IEEE

Control & Intelligent Processing Center of Excellence
Electrical Engineering Department,
University of Tehran,
P.O.Box 14395-515
Tehran, Iran
EML: m.falahi@ece.ut.ac.ir

Abstract In this paper, a direct torque sliding mode controller
(SMC) is applied to the switched reluctance motor. This control-
ler is robust to load torque and parameter changes. The major
problem of sliding mode controller is the chattering in the out-
put which will result in an increase in torque ripples. An itera-
tive learning compensator is proposed to reduce the torque rip-
ple. The iterative learning rule is updated in each iteration. This
compensator enhances the performance of the controller to a
great extent. The load torque is estimated using a linear Luen-
berger filter. The simplicity and high performance of the pro-
posed scheme makes it desirable for implementations. The drive
achieves satisfactory torque, speed tracking. The functionality of
the proposed controller has been tested and verified using simu-
lations.

I INTRODUCTION

Among all different types of electrical motors, Switched Re-
luctance Motors have found many applications because of
their special advantages such as their hazard-free operation,
simple and rugged construction, and their low cost "Fig. 1".
SR motors work in a wide range of speed without a consider-
able reduction of efficiency [1]. In contrast with other types
of conventional motors when SR motors are designed with
many stator poles they are also suitable for direct drive appli-
cations because of their ability to produce high torques at low
speed. In addition SR motors are designed to operate in deep
saturation to increase the output power density [2]. Because
of saturation effect and variation of magnetic reluctance, all
of significant characteristics of the SR motors like flux link-
age, inductance, back EMF and phase torque, are highly
nonlinear function of both rotor position () and phase current
(i). Therefore, in spite of the simple mechanical construction,
they need complex algorithms for commutation and control.
In this paper, a direct sliding mode torque controller is de-
signed similar to the proposed controller in [3]. Furthermore,
an iterative learning based compensator has been added to
improve the performance of the controller. Simulation results
verify the functionality of the proposed controller with the
aforementioned compensator.
The sliding mode controller is robust enough to the
changes in motor parameters and load torque. However, the
switching behavior of this controller leads to an increase in
the torque ripple. This characteristic makes the sliding mode
control less attractive and almost undesirable for Switched
reluctance motors.
An Iterative Learning Compensator (ILC) can be used to
enhance the performance of the motor. In this paper an itera-
tive learning based compensator is used to compensate the
output. Iterative learning control has been used for periodic
operations which start from the same initial states like robot
arms [4]. ILC reduces the tracking error by learning the de-
sired control input iteratively. ILC is classified among the
intelligent controllers and it does not require a detailed model
of the system. However, if not designed well, it might lead to
instability.
One advantage of this type of controller is the simplicity
of the control rule which is based on the torque error. Both of
the sliding mode controller and the ILC compensator get the
torque error as the input and give the phase voltage directly as
the output. Another advantage of this controller is that it is
not model based so it is robust to the modeling error which
makes it more desirable because accurate modeling of the
SRM is not always possible. ILC has proved to be a useful
method for solving tracking control problems in nonlinear
repetitive systems with limited plant knowledge. In [5] ILC
has been applied to a PMSM motor.
The SR motor controller excites the phases sequentially.
In order to improve the developed electro magnetic torque,
the over lap in conducting phases are unavoidable. In order to
apply ILC for torque ripple reduction, the motor should oper-
ate in steady state condition, i.e. constant speed.
In this paper, a novel iterative learning-based compensa-
tor is augmented with the sliding mode controller to not only
track the reference speed and torque, but also to reduce the
torque ripple. An inclusive model of a switched reluctance
motor is implemented in MATLAB/SIMULINK. Simulation
Proceeding of International Conference on Electrical Machines and Systems 2007, Oct. 8~11, Seoul, Korea
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Fig. 1. A typical 6/4 Switched reluctance motor (SRM) and a three phase
Switched reluctance motor drive (SRD)

results based on this model, verifies the effectiveness of the
proposed method.

II MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF SWITCHED RELUCTANCE
MOTOR

For simplicity, a widely accepted assumption that the
phases are decoupled magnetically, is employed. The mutual
inductance seems to be very small in the experimental tests of
the SRM, so this assumption does not make a great difference
between the simulation model and the real setup. The general
phase voltage and torque equations for a 3-phase SRM are as
follows:
j
j j
d
r i u
dt

+ = (1)
( , ) ( )
j j j
i L i = (2)
2
1 2 3 2
( , , , )
e L
d
J T i i i T
dt

= (3)
Where stands for the flux linkage, r is the stator wind-
ing resistance, u represents the voltage applied to the stator
terminal, i is the stator current, and j indicates the phase num-
ber. J is the total rotor and load inertia of the motor and is
the position of the rotor in radians. The friction is neglected in
(2). Te is the total mechanical torque which is the sum of the
torques of each phase, i.e.,
1
( , )
N
ph
e j j
j
T T i
=
=

(4)
An analytical model, which represents the functional relation-
ships between the phase self-inductance, phase current, and
rotor position, is presented in [6]. In this analytical model, the
variation of the phase self-inductance versus the rotor position
is represented using the Fourier series. Neglecting the satura-
tion in the low currents, the inductance can be modeled based
on the first three terms of the Fourier series of a periodic in-
ductance profile, as following
0
0 1 2
( )
2 2
cos( ( 1) ) cos(2 ( 1) )
3 3
j
j
i
j
r r
L
i
L L N j L N j

| |

= =
|
|

\ .
+ +
(5)
In (6) the incremental inductance
i
l is replaced with the con-
stant
i
L neglecting the saturation.
i
L could be computed in
the experimental work using:
0
1 1
( )
2 2
a u m
L L L L
(
= + +
(

(6)
1
1
( )
2
a u
L L L = (7)
2
1 1
( )
2 2
a u m
L L L L
(
= +
(

(8)
where L
a
, L
m
, and L
u
represent the inductance at aligned,
midway and unaligned positions. The accuracy of the above
model has been verified by finite element analysis and ex-
perimental work [6].
The phase inductance variation, K
j
, is obtained as following:
1
2
2
( ( 1) )
3
2
2 (2 ( 1) )
3
j
j r r
r r
L
K L N Sin N j
L N Sin N j

= = +

+
(9)
The general form of the mechanical torque is of low practical
desire because of its complexity. A simplified representation
of the mechanical torque is given by:
2
1 1
1
( )
2
PH PH
N N
e e j j
j j
T T K i
= =
= = =

(10)

2
1
1
1 2
[ ( ( 1) )
2 3
PH
N
r r j
j
L N Sin N j i

=
= +

2
2
2
(2 ( 1) ) ]
3
r r j
L N Sin N j i

+
Where
PH
N is the number of phases.
Based on the above model and neglecting the saturation ef-
fect, the phase voltage equation can be rewritten as follows:
( ) ( )
j
j j j j j
di
u r i L K i
dt
= + +
(11)
Equation (11) is the most commonly used simplified elec-
trical relationship for SRM. The simplification in this case
does not lead to poor results in compared to experimental
works.

III DESIRED BEHAVIOUR

The most important part of controller design is to choose the
appropriate desired torque (T
d
). It is highly related to the de-
signers experience and knowledge of the machine. It should
be noted that to control the speed, the desired torque must
have a term related to the speed error
d
e

= and for a
better accuracy the speed error is filtered. Given by:

( )
d L
d
T z J z T
dt

= + (12)
where

L
T the estimated load torque and is the speed of the
motor. For accurate speed tracking and fast asymptotic speed
convergence z is given by:
1 2 1 2
, 0
i i
a z a z b e b e a b

= + + > (13)
The load torque is estimated using a linear Luenberger filter
while ,
i i
a b are design parameters.
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The torque equation shows that the SRM must be elec-
tronically commutated i.e., stator windings must be sequen-
tially excited in order to develop some requested torque. So,
as the motor switches from one phase to another the resulting
torque might have vibration. This vibration makes acoustic
noise and it is thus undesirable. It is clearly desirable to have
a smoother transition between the phases, and to get a
smoother output torque. So the control method should blend
the currents in such a way that it produces less vibration. This
is the basic idea behind the sharing function and many other
methods. In this paper the sigmoid sharing functions have
been used to share the desired torque between the phases [3].

IV LOAD TORQUE ESTMATION

For load torque estimation a two state system has been as-
sumed and the Luenberger filter has been used to estimate the
one of the states. Supposing
u
x as the unknown state, the
state space will be of the following form:
[ 0]
mm mu m m m
e
u u u um uu
m
u
A A x x B
x T
x x B A A
x
y I
x
( ( ( (
= = +
( ( ( (

(
=
(

(14)
And the estimate of
u
x is:
( )
uu u um m u mu u mu u
x A x A x B u G A x A x = + + +

( )
uu u um m u
m mm m m mu u
x A x A x B u
G x A x B u A x
= + +
+

(15)
With a variable change we have:

u m u m
x Gx x Gx = = +
And it leads to:
( )
( ) ( )
uu mu
uu um mm mu m u m
A GA
A G A GA GA G x B GB u
=
+ +

(16)
In our case study, the state space realization is as follows:
1 1
0
0 0 0
[1 0]
m
e
L L
L
T J J
T T
y
T

( (
( (
( (
= +
( (
( (

( (

(
=
(

(17)
So in this case, the parameters of (14) are obtained as follow-
ing
1
0 , 0, , 0
1
, 0
mm um mu uu
m u
A A A A
J
B B
J

= = = =
= =

By fixing the eigenvalue of the desired observer at -100, the
gain matrix which is a scalar in the load torque is determined
as following
1
0 ( ) 100 100
uu mu
A GA g g J
J

= = =
Using (17) we conclude that the estimator is of the following
form:
100 10000 10

100
e
L
J T
T J


= + +

(18)
The above state space realization gives the estimate of the
load torque.

V SLIDING MODE CONTROLLER FOR SRM

A controller designed with this approach has enhanced ro-
bustness and due to the fact that cancellation of systems
nonlinearities is avoided the controller design would not lead
in singularities. The aim in this paper is to keep the shaft
torque at a constant reference value. To set the phase torque at
the reference value, we need to develop a control signal to
minimize the torque error. Torque error is the difference be-
tween the total shaft torque which is easily calculated using
the phase currents and the torque reference. This error is con-
sidered as a switching function. So the switching function is
defined as follows
e d
T T = (19)
The sliding regime exists if the following equation holds
2
1
( ( , ) ) 0
2
e d
d
T i T
dt
< (20)
This is satisfied if a negative value equal to the left hand side
of (16) could be found.

2
( ( , ) ) 0
1
( ( , ) ) ( ( , ) ) ,
2
e d
e d e d
f T i T
d
T i T f T i T
dt

>
=

( ( , ) ) ( ( , ) ) ( ( , ) )
e d e d e d
d
T i T T i T f T i T
dt

| |
=
|
\ .
(21)
Assuming that d(T
d
)/dt=0, we have:
( , ) ( ( , ) ) ( ( , ) )
e e d e d
d
T i T i T f T i T
dt

| |
=
|
\ .
(22)
And consequently
( , ) ( , )
( , )
e e
e
T i T i d d di
T i
dt dt i dt

= +

(23)
Substituting (1) and (22) in (23) leads to the following equa-
tion:
( , )
( ( , ) )
( , ) 1 ( , )
( ( , ) )
( , )
e
e d
e
j j e d
i
dT i
T i T
d
T i i
u ri f T i T
i l i

| |
+
|
\ .
| |
=
|

\ .
(24)
By choosing sgn( ) , 0 = > and after some simple
manipulations, we have the following:
( , ) 1
sgn( ) . ( , )
( , )
( , )
e
j i
e
j
j
j
T i
u l i
T i
i
i
r i

| |
=
|

\ .

+ +

(25)
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Fig. 2. Structure of the proposed controller

The equivalent voltage compensates for resistive drop, back
EMF. Equation (25) is too complicated to be applied to the
motor and it needs to be simplified. is an arbitrary positive
constant. If is chosen large enough some terms in (25)
including the equivalent voltage terms could be neglected.
( )
1
sgn( ) . ( , )
( , )
j i
e
u l i
T i
i

(26)
Since there are limitations on the phase voltage, a large
results in the saturation of the phase voltage. Once the voltage
is saturated only the sign of the incremental inductance and
the derivative of the shaft torque are important, and the sign
of both of them remain positive in motoring mode. So we can
assume:
sgn( )
j
u = (27)
Assuming the voltage of the DC link as
DC
V leads to:
( , ) 0
( , ) 0
DC
j
DC
V i
u
V i


+ <
=

>

(28)
The switching characteristic of this controller in the ideal
form, results in too much chattering. So a sigmoid function is
used instead of the sign function.

VI ITERATIVE LEARNING COMPENSATOR

It is generally believed that adding a well designed feed-
forward loop improves the performance of the controller. If
an exact and accurate model of a minimum phase system is
available, perfect tracking could be achieved using the inverse
of the model in the feed-forward loop. However, an accurate
model of a physical system is not available so model based
designs are less attractive. An intelligent feed-forward con-
troller can be used to solve this problem as shown in Fig. 2.
The applied phase voltage is modified as follows:

ilc SM
u u u = + (29)
The ILC learns the compensation voltage as a function of
rotor position, i.e., the compensation voltage is saved in each
step with the corresponding position. Then in the next period
the compensated voltage is added in the same position. So in
each period the compensated voltage is updated and stored in
memory as in the next Eq:
( , ) ( 1, ) ( 1, )
ilc k ilc k err k
u z u z L T z = + (30)
Where
k
is the kth position and z is the iteration number and
T
err
is the error between the generated and the desired torque.
In each iteration, the actual value of u
ilc
is added to the output
voltage of the sliding mode controller based on (29). Then the
u
ilc
is updated using (30) and it is saved in the same memory
location to be used in the next iteration. The discrete ILC is
implemented with a step size of 0.1 in this paper. This means
that
k
is incremented by 0.1 in each step. So, (30) is used
3600 times in each iteration.

VII SIMULATION RESULTS

The proposed controller was verified on an inclusive SR
model in MATLAB/SIMULINK. The studied motor in this paper
is a 6/4 SRM. The motor parameters are as follows: 5 r = ,
3 2
10 J kg m

= , 4
r
N = ,
0 1 2
, 30 20 , 10 l mh l mh l mh = = = ,
and the motor was supposed to be initially at standstill.
Figs 3-4 show the reference and output speed. While tracking
the set point value at 500 rpm, it is clear that the ripple is re-
duced after applying ILC to the motor drive. Fig. 5 demon-
strates the developed EM torque before and after applying
ILC. Phase current and estimated load torque are shown in
Figs. 6 and 7, respectively.


0 0.5 1 1.5
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Time
M
o
t
o
r

S
p
e
e
d



Actual motor speed
Speed Setpoint
before ILC is
activated
after ILC is
activated

Fig. 3. Speed tracking T
L
=5Nm



0 0.5 1 1.5
48
48.5
49
49.5
50
50.5
51
Time
M
o
t
o
r

S
p
e
e
d



Actual motor speed
Speed Setpoint
before ILC is
activated
after ILC is
activated

Fig. 4. Speed tracking with ILC
- 634 -


Fig. 5. Generated Torque (T
L
= 5Nm)


0.75 0.8 0.85 0.9 0.95 1
0
10
20
30
P
h
a
s
e

A
Stator Currents
0.75 0.8 0.85 0.9 0.95 1
0
10
20
30
P
h
a
s
e

B
0.75 0.8 0.85 0.9 0.95 1
0
10
20
30
Time
P
h
a
s
e

C

Fig. 6. Stator current behavior


0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
EstimatedLoadTorque


Actual LoadTorque
EstimatedLoadTorque

Figure 7
Load torque estimation










VIII CONCLUSION

In this paper, a sliding mode controller has been proposed for
an appropriate speed tracking of switched reluctance motor.
This control method is robust to changes of load torque and
motor parameters. Furthermore, to enhance the performance
of the controller, an iterative learning based compensator is
added to the scheme. The torque, speed tracking has been
achieved.


IX REFERENCES

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Prentice Hall, 2001.
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2004 pp. 1333 1338.
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1574
[7] G. Espinosa-Prez, P. M. Ortiz, M. velasco-Villa, H. Sira-Ramirez,
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