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Published in IET Electric Power Applications

Received on 11th March 2009
Revised on 14th June 2009
doi: 10.1049/iet-epa.2009.0059

ISSN 1751-8660

Implementation of a new fast direct torque

control algorithm for induction motor drives
S.A. Zaid O.A. Mahgoub K.A. El-Metwally
Department of Electrical Power and Machines, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Giza 12211, Egypt
E-mail: sherifzaid@yahoo.com

Abstract: Induction motor (IM) drives based on direct torque control (DTC) allow high dynamic performance to be
obtained with very simple control schemes. The conventional DTC has two main drawbacks. The first one is the
variation of the switching frequency according to the amplitude of the hysteresis bands and the motor operating
speed, whereas the second is that the selection of voltage vectors is not optimised inside the flux hysteresis band
to give fast torque response, because of the nature of the hysteresis controllers. This study proposes a new DTC
method for IM, which enables fast torque response and constant switching frequency. This is achieved by
optimising the selection of the voltage vectors to give maximum rate of torque increase. Simulation and hardware
implementation results show that both the torque and speed responses are faster than the old method. In
addition, the effect of variation of the IM parameters on the system performance is taken into consideration.

1 Introduction The variable switching technique is the conventional

The vector control can make AC drives as good as DC drives,
but the high performances in a vector controlled AC drive
system are entirely based on the exact field orientation. If the
field orientation is incorrect, all the performances including
steady state and dynamic will deteriorate. Correct field
orientation depends on the precise estimation of the motor
parameters. However, these parameters are liable to change
with the motor operating conditions. The motor parameters
should therefore be corrected or identified instantaneously in
good vector control systems. This increases the complexity of
the vector control systems. In addition, field orientation
requires coordinate transformation, which is a complex
building block in the system. So, the whole vector control
system is comparatively complex.
Direct torque control (DTC) is a well-known control
scheme of induction motor (IM) drives [1 – 6] that provides
fast and robust control of the IM. DTC has attached
considerable attention as a result of its use as the main
platform for ABB inverter technology [7]. The original
DTC concept seems to have originated simultaneously in
Japan [8] and Germany [9] around the mid-eighties. The
DTC has been implemented using either variable switching
frequency or constant sampling techniques.
technique for DTC [7, 10, 11]. It was introduced for the
first time by Takahashi and Noguchi [8]. Although it is
simple and gives large benefits, the main drawback of this
method is the wide band of the switching frequency of the
inverter even when the flux and torque references are kept
constant. This causes an in-predictable current harmonic
spectrum with large values. In case of constant sampling
frequency, several authors have proposed various additions
and variations of the DTC concept [12]. Habetler et al. [13]
have proposed a method having the advantage of reduced
line current harmonics but it requires intensive computations
and does not operate well at low speeds. Rashid and co-
workers [14] have introduced another method that presents
a simple system and fast torque response but it is best suited
for steady state and has high current harmonics. Flash et al.
[15] have introduced a method that has the advantage of low
current harmonics, but it is based on the steady-state
operation and requires much computations.
In this paper, a new method which modifies the variable
frequency method to a constant sampling method with an
average switching frequency less than the sampling
frequency and makes optimisation for fast torque response
is presented. Therefore it combines the benefits of the two
general techniques. In the beginning, an equation for the

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torque rate equation in terms of the applied voltage vector is

derived and used to optimise the selection of voltage vectors.
A new control algorithm is developed to provide fast torque
response. A mathematical and Matlab simulation analyses
have been carried for the drive system performance
including the effect of motor parameter variations on the
optimisation process. A hardware implementation for the
system has been developed to verify the theoretical work.

2 New fast DTC technique

In the conventional DTC, hysteresis controllers control both
the stator flux and motor torque. Therefore the stator flux
vector trajectory will be within a hysteresis band, as shown
in Fig. 1. Owing to the nature of the hysteresis controllers
in the variable frequency control technique, there is no
optimisation in selecting the voltage vectors inside the flux
hysteresis band. For example, as shown in Fig. 1, if the flux
vector is at point 2 and the toque is to be increased, the
controller will select the same voltage vector as at point 1
(i.e. if the previous selected voltage vector was V 4 , then the
controller will select V 4 also). However, this selection may
not be optimum (i.e. may not give fast torque response).
To achieve fast torque response the selection of the voltage
vector is adjusted to give maximum rate of torque increase.
Figure 2 Stator and rotor flux vectors
assumption comes from the fact that the rotor time
constant for the standard IM is typically larger than
100 ms, thus the rotor flux is stable and it changes slowly
compared to the stator flux [4]. The rotor flux vector can
be written as
l r ¼ lr ej(vtþuro ) (1)
where (v) is the angular velocity of the rotor flux. Also
assume that the initial value of the stator flux vector (l o ), at
the beginning of applying the voltage vector, is

In this method, an equation for torque rate in terms of the l s jt¼0 ¼ l o ¼ lo /uo
applied voltage vector is derived and used to compare
between the two possible voltage vectors. The basic equation of the stator flux vector in terms of the
stator voltage vector can be derived as follows: neglecting
2.1 Optimisation of the voltage vectors the stator resistance we have
selections for maximum torque rate
dl s
Consider the stator and rotor flux vectors of the IM, as shown Vk ¼
dt
in Fig. 2, and assuming that the selected inverter voltage
vector, Fig. 1, is Then by integration we obtain the instantaneous stator flux
vector
V k ¼ V /u k
l s ¼ V k t þ l o (2)
where (V ) is the inverter DC voltage and (k) is the order of
the voltage vector. The rotor flux vector is assumed to Then the stator flux vector trajectory will move parallel to the
rotate with a stable angular speed and amplitude during the voltage vector selected, as shown in Fig. 1. The motor torque
operating period of the stator voltage vector. This is given by

T ¼ C Im{l s l r }

where C is a constant, then differentiate w.r.t. time

( 
)
dT d l s    dl r
¼ C Im l þ ls (3)
dt dt r dt

But from (1) and (2)

8 
>
> dl 
< r ¼ jvl r
dt (4)
> 
Figure 1 Possible stator flux vector trajectories inside the : d ls ¼ V
>
k
hysteresis band with DTC dt

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Therefore substituting (4) into (3) Substitute from (6) into (8)

dT   m ¼ sin(ukþ1  uro )  sin(uk  uro )

¼ C Im{V k l r þ l s (jvl r )} (5)
dt
Then
Substituting (2) into (5)    
uk þ ukþ1  2uro ukþ1  uk
m ¼ 2cos sin
dT  2 2
¼ C Im{(V k  jv(V k t þ l o ))l r }
dt
But
Let t ¼ 0 (the instant of applying the voltage vector), and p
take the imaginary part then ukþ1  uk ¼
3
dT Therefore
¼ C lr [V sin(uk  uro )  v lo cos(uo  uro )]
dt  
uk þ ukþ1
m ¼ cos  uro (9)
Note that the second term in the above equation is 2
independent of the selected voltage vector. Then to
compare between two different voltage vectors we can use Equation (9) indicates that if ‘m ’ is near or equal zero then,
the following reduced relation the error in uro may change the sign of ‘m’, which produces
an optimisation error around those points
 n
dT  
¼ sin(uk  uro ) (6) ukþ1 þ uk 2n þ 1
dt  uro ¼ p
2 2
This leads to the following maximisation problem
where n is an integer.
fn ¼ max{sin(uk  uro )} (7) These points depend on uk , ukþ1 and uro . So, it randomly
k
occurs and m 5 0 at these points, that is
The index k that maximises function fn, determines the  n  n
selected voltage vector Vk . dT dT
¼
dt kþ1 dt k
Equation (6) cannot be calculated off line as it depends on
the rotor position; also the sine angle cannot be used for This means that any of the two vectors, k or k þ 1, can be
comparison. The problem in using this equation is the selected. A typical error in the estimated rotor angle can be
computation of the rotor angle, uro . Hence, an observer for (0.1 rad .Duro . 20.3 rad) [16]. This error represents a
the rotor flux angle must be used. The rotor flux observer change of (0.1 . Dm . 20.3), which can be neglected, as
will use more motor parameters, especially the rotor time the difference between the two torque rates is small (say
constant. However, the derived torque rate equation is less 20.3 , m , 0.3). Note that the optimisation is valuable
sensitive to the variation of these parameters as will be for large absolute values of m (say greater than 0.5).
described in the next paragraph. The observer used may
therefore not be of high precision and the variation of 2.3 Control algorithm
parameters may be accepted.
Fig. 3 shows a block diagram for the proposed control
method. Constant sampling time is used and the optimum
2.2 Effect of parameters variations on the inverter switching state that gives fast torque response is
torque rate equation determined. During the switching time, the controller
measures the phase currents then estimates the stator flux
To study the effect of the parameters variations, such as uro ,
vector (l s ), the motor torque (T ) and the rotor flux vector
on the optimisation determined by (7), the term ‘m’ is
angle (uro). If the torque error is greater or equal to zero
defined as
(DT  0), the controller selects a zero voltage vector.
 n  n However, if the torque error is less than zero, then it selects
dT dT an active voltage vector according to the flux error (Dl ). If
m¼  (8)
dt kþ1 dt k it is out of the specified hysteresis band, the controller gives
the same voltage vector as the conventional DTC.
The sign of ‘m’ indicates which voltage vector kth or However, if the flux error is inside the band, then an
(k þ 1)th, gives greater torque rate. The aim is to show optimisation process is carried out, according to (7), to
how the sign of ‘m ’ is affected by the variations of uro . select the vector that gives maximum torque rate.

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Figure 5 Step speed response

flux controllers are hysteresis controllers of bands 8% and

5%, respectively.
Figure 3 General block diagram of the new DTC method

The step torque response of an IM drive using variable

Table 1 10-kW, 6-pole, 220 V, 60 Hz frequency DTC (conventional method) and the proposed
DTC techniques are simulated at no load and rated torque
Rs 0.294 V Ls 0.0424 H step are shown in Fig. 4. Comparing the two-step responses,
the new method is faster than the conventional one by (1 ms)
Rr 0.156 V J 0.4 kg m2
12%. However, on the expenses of improving the torque
Lm 0.041 H ls 0.454 Wb response, there is a slight undershoot in the torque response.
Lr 0.0417 H
A speed-controlled IM system is simulated with the two
techniques. The step speed responses of the two
techniques, with 300 rpm step at full load torque, are
shown in Fig. 5. The speed response of the proposed
method is faster than the conventional one by (60 ms) 12%.

It is to be noted that the average switching frequency of the

new method is 1770 Hz, whereas in the conventional method
is 3400 Hz. This indicates that the switching losses of the
voltage source inverter (VSI) in the conventional method
double that of the new method. The switching frequency,
of the new method, is highly affected by the sampling
frequency and the operating speed as shown in Fig. 6.

Figure 4 Step torque response

3 Simulation results
The proposed DTC system, shown in Fig. 3, is simulated
using Matlab. A PI controller was used for the speed
control loop.

The motor data and parameters are given in Table 1. The

PI controller generates the reference value of the torque (Tref )
for the DTC system. The reference value of the stator flux
equals to the flux value at the rated conditions and is given Figure 6 Effect of the sampling frequency on the inverter
in the table. For the conventional DTC, the torque and switching frequency

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Figure 7 Stator flux locus of the new method (left) and conventional method (right)
For a given speed, as the sampling frequency increases, the
switching frequency increases. Also, for a given sampling
frequency, the switching frequency increases, as the speed
decreases. The locus of the stator flux vector for the two
methods is shown in Fig. 7. The new method locus
resembles a circle better than the conventional one. The
standard deviation of the flux error has been calculated for
the two methods, for the same data length. Its value for the
conventional method was 0.3619; however, the
corresponding value for the new method was 0.33. This
Figure 8 Steady-state torque error of the new method
(upper) and the conventional method (lower)
IET Electr. Power Appl., 2010, Vol. 4, Iss. 5, pp. 305– 313
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indicates that the new method resembles a circle better
than the conventional does.
The steady-state torque errors for the two methods are
shown in Fig. 8. It is noted that the peak torque error of
the conventional method is constant 8%, because of the use
of hysteresis torque controller. However, the torque error of
the proposed method is not constant and slightly larger
than that of the conventional. Fig. 9 shows that the torque
error decreases as the sampling frequency increases.
Although these torque oscillations are of high frequency
(i.e. switching frequency), they are absorbed by the system
inertia and do not affect the speed response. Also, it has
been found from simulation results that the operating speed
does not affect the torque error.
The effects of variation of the motor parameters on the
new system response will be studied here. In DTC scheme
the knowledge of the stator resistance is one of the most
important factors that determine the performance of the
drive. It has been reported [17] that the effects of the stator
resistance errors depends on its sign. The simulation work
(Fig. 10) shows that an underestimation of the R1 reduces
Figure 9 Effect of the sampling frequency on the torque
error
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Figure 10 Torque step response with over- and under-estimation of R1 (upper) rated torque and (lower) 150% of the rated
torque

the actual torque, especially at higher torque values. This

reduction in the torque values will lengthen the system
speed – time response. On the other hand, the
overestimation of R1 , less than 1.4R1 , gives almost
the same torque response as that with actual R1 . Also, the
system speed response nearly is not affected by the stator
resistance changes in the range (0.7R1 – 1.4R1) as shown in
Fig. 11. However, an overestimation of R1 , greater than
1.4R1 , produces system instability. However, using the flux
closed-loop observer [18] reduces the sensitivity of the
control system to the stator resistance variations. It is noted
that also the variations of (R1) affect the performance of
the system, it does not affect the optimisation in the new
method, that is, it is still faster than the conventional.
Figure 12 Effect of rotor resistance R2 variations on the
speed step at full load
The simulation results also indicate that the estimation
error of the rotor resistance (from 0.9R2 – 1.4R2) does not
affect the speed response at all (Fig. 12), which verifies the
previous theoretical explanation.

4 Experimental results
A speed-controlled IM drive operating with the proposed
control method (Fig. 3) is implemented using a microcomputer.
The speed controller is a PI controller; its coefficients are

Figure 13 Experimental setup

introduced by trial and error. Since the overall system is

Figure 11 Effect of over- and under-estimation of R1 on
step speed response at full load
non-linear, usually there is no theoretical closed form to
obtain the PI controller parameters. The initial values of
the trial and error parameters were inspired from Ziegler
Nicolas open-loop step response method. The block
diagram of the implemented system is shown in Fig. 13.
The test motor is 3 2 w IM has the parameters listed in
Table 2.

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Table 2 0.3 kW, 380 V, 4-pole, 50 Hz The proposed DTC control algorithm is implemented
in the microcomputer using the Cþþ programming
Rs 34.5 V Ls 1.426 H language. The used sampling time (400 ms) is relatively
Rr 29.43 V J 0.006 Nm s2 large as the peripheral devices limit it.

Lm 1.346 H ls 0.55 Wb
A step speed response of the motor with the proposed
Lr 1.426 H method and the conventional method is shown in Fig. 14.
The speed reference is 1000 rpm with motor at no load the
new method is faster than the conventional by 10.5%; this
ensures the theoretical work and simulations. The stator
phase current is shown in Fig. 15. The harmonic spectrum

Figure 14 Experimental step speed response of the

conventional and new method

Figure 16 Current harmonic spectrum for the two methods

Figure 15 Experimental line current of the conventional Figure 17 Experimental steady-state torque of the
and new method conventional and new methods, with 0.1 Nm torque band

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Figure 18 Step speed response of the new method

a Experimental
b Simulation

Figure 19 Line current of the new method

a Experimental
b Simulation

using FFT is shown in Fig. 16, as a percentage of the 5 Conclusions

fundamental in the new method. The figure indicates that
the new method current harmonics are lower than the A new DTC method is introduced to improve the
conventional one. conventional DTC performance. It enables fast torque and
speed responses, and use of constant switching frequency.
The system speed and torque responses are highly
The hysteresis band of the torque and flux controllers acted
improved compared to the conventional method.
upon the shape of the motor current. As these bands become
narrower, the current becomes more smother and its
A theoretical work for the method and Matlab simulations
harmonic contents become smaller but the switching
are carried out confirming the superior performance. In
frequency of the transistors becomes higher; this will
addition, the effects of variation of the IM parameters on
generate higher switching losses. A trade-off between the
the system performance have been studied. Simulations
quality of the output current and the inverter switching
have been proved that variations of the motor parameters
losses is the key of the switching losses choice. Fig. 17
do not affect the optimisation in the new method. An
shows the steady-state controller command torque with the
experimental setup for the proposed DTC method has
calculated actual torque. The actual torque value
verified the fastness of the response w.r.t. the conventional
approximately equals the commanded value with some
DTC method.
ripples loaded on it. A Matlab simulation for the
implemented system is carried out and compared to the
experimental results.
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