IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ADVANCES IN E LECTRICAL T ECHNOLOGY F OR GREEN E NERGY 2017 (ICAETGT’ 2 K 17)
Low Cost Fuzzy Logic Based Speed Control of
BLDC Motor Drives
K.S.Krishna Veni Dr.N.Senthil Kumar
Asst. Professor, EEE Department, Professor, EEE Department,
Mepco Schlenk Engg. College, Mepco Schlenk Engg. College,
Sivakasi, India. Sivakasi, India.
Abstract— In this article, an embedded system approach
for closed-loop speed control of BLDC motor drive is
implemented and its performance with Proportional
Integral control (PI) and fuzzy controllers are
investigated. The PI controller is well designed and its
parameters are well tuned by using Ziegler Nichols
method. The fuzzy controller is also designed and
considered for comparison. The performance of the
system is studied under various operating conditions,
such as sudden change in the reference speed and load
torque. For validating the results, steady-state error and
rise time are taken in account for comparison. It is
observed that fuzzy controller provide a superior speed
response compared to PI and better speed tracking make
this to fit in adjustable speed drives. The simulation is
carried out in MATLAB software and implemented the
same in hardware.
Keywords— BLDC motor; fuzzy control; proportional
integral control; steady-state error
I.INTRODUCTION
In the current era, new technologies are emerging time to
time. The availability of permanent magnets with high
energy density led to the development of Brushless DC
motors. Unlike the electromagnets, permanent magnets do
not require an external energy source this makes BLDC
motors more compact. BLDC motors are electronically
commutated motor which is powered by DC source with
inverter arrangement. As the motor is electronically
commutated it doesn’t require brushes for commutation.
Eliminating the brushes has introduced a lot advantages
like no sparking and the motors can be used in extended
platforms. Further these motors have better speed versus
torque characteristics compared to conventional DC
motors and are more efficient in number of ways [1-6].
These advantages make it suitable for adjustable speed
drives.
Automatic control system is one such technology that is
gaining importance for specific applications. The dynamic
model for a non-linear system is more difficult to derive
and even if derived, they tend to vary in an unpredictable
manner. Also, proportional Integral Derivative (PID)
controller has been widely used for applications because
978-1-5386-2138-7/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE
J.Gnanavadivel
Asso.Professor, EEE Department,
Mepco Schlenk Engg. College,
Sivakasi, India.
of their simplicity and effectiveness for linear systems.
However, PID controllers usually fail when it comes to
higher order non-linear systems. Fuzzy logic is a powerful
method of reasoning when the input data available are
imprecise and not having enough mathematical models.
This work addresses design of a Fuzzy logic controller
that uses Mamdani Fuzzy Inference System for speed
control of a Permanent Magnet Brushless DC (PMBLDC)
motor which operates based on rotor position sensing by
hall sensors.
Applying Fuzzy logic for the advance of sophisticated
control systems has become a booming technology. It
resembles human decision making and give precise
output. It bridge the gap left by pure mathematical
approach and pure logical approach. Fuzzy design can
wrap up the uncertainties of real world behavior [9]. It
relates input to output in terms of linguistic variables that
can be easily understood [10]. It allows easy
implementation because the designer need not know
everything about the system before starting. This makes it
cheaper and more reliable. Through proper design it is
possible to achieve less overshoot and oscillations. It is
used to reduce rise time and to achieve steady state in a
short time period.
Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) provides a fast response and
reliable operation. As far as implementation is considered
it is more or less the same for all control applications i.e.
controller designed for one application can be used for a
different application just by changing the rule base and the
fuzzy sets. By designing unique FLC, with less number of
rules and simple hardware, industrial needs can be meet
easily. It can be used to solve system control problem with
unknown dynamics[9]-[11].
II.BLDC MOTOR
The electronic commutation of BLDC motor executed
with power electronic semiconductor device is called as
inverters or commutation circuit. It supplies power to the
stator coils. Process of switching ON and switching OFF
the switches in the inverter arms is based on the
predefined pattern or sequence of the rotor position
information interpreted from back EMF waveform. BLDC
motor has three sets of stator coils and at any instant
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 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ADVANCES IN E LECTRICAL T ECHNOLOGY F OR GREEN E NERGY 2017 (ICAETGT’ 2 K 17)
current passes through any two coils out of three stators
coils. The switching sequence with the Hall position
values are given in the Fig. 1. According to Faraday’s
Electromagnetic law, the magnetic field of the rotor
magnet interacts with induced electro-magnetic field
produced by current carrying stator phase coil and as a
result of interaction, torque is developed. The developed
torque will turn the rotor poles to a new direction. When
the rotor pole reaches new position, the inverter switching
pattern gets updated. Then current will pass through the
stator coil. Therefore the magnetic rotor interacts with the
induced electro-magnetic field and develops torque in the
same direction. As a result, the rotor pole advances to a
new position. This process continues as per the rotor
position. The switch conducts for only 120° so the switch
utilization factor is very less[1-5].
Fig. 1. Switching sequence
III.MATHEMATICAL MODELING
The modeling is based on the following assumptions that
equal stator winding resistances in all phases, core losses
are negligible, saturation of core is neglected and power
semiconductor switches used are identical. No complex
transformations between the reference frames are
necessary in BLDC motor as compared with other AC
motors. TABLE I lists the parameters extracted from the
datasheet of available BLDC motor and its transfer
function is given below
Where Ȧm is the speed of the motor, IJm is mechanical
time constant, IJe is electrical time constant and Ke is back
EMF co-efficient.
The converter transfer function is given in equation (2).
The gain value Kc is determined by using the difference
between the ramp signal values and input voltage. Where
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Kc = Vi/(Vramp,max) - (Vramp,min) and IJc = 1/( 2fc)
TABLE I. Motor Parameters
Motor Characteristics Values(Units)
Terminal resistance 0.323 ȍ
Terminal inductance 0.389 mH
No load speed 3434 rpm
Rated voltage 24 V
No load current 1.24 A
Rated Power 123 W
Pole pairs 4
IV.DESIGN OF PI
PI controller is employed in most of the industrial
applications because of its simple structure. A proportional
control gain has the effect to reduce rise time and an
integral control gain has the effect of eliminating the
steady-state error. The performance of PI controller is
evaluated by determining both time and frequency domain
parameters. Ziegler Nichols tuning methodology is
adopted to tune the controller. The proportional and
integral gain values obtained are 0.450962 and 73.95104
respectively.
V.DESIGN OF FUZZY
To design a fuzzy logic controller, exact model of complex
system is not mandatory and it is sufficient to have idea
about the general behaviour of the system. Fuzzy logic
controller facilitates to express the system performance in
terms of linguistic variables. The fuzzy logic controller
paves the way to design a robust nonlinear and high degree
of automated system. Fuzzification, inference mechanism
and defuzzification are the three main steps involved in
design of fuzzy logic controller [8-11]. In this paper, error
is normalized to a per-unit with respect to the reference
speed. This helps the fuzzy controller to track any
reference speed. By changing the duty cycle, controller
will try to reduce the error to zero. The Fuzzy controller
has error ‘e’, and change in error ‘ce’ as input variables
and control signal ‘ctrl’ as output. The various
membership functions are shown in Fig. 2. Fuzzy rules are
shown in Table II. Based on the rule base output fuzzy set
is found and the membership degree is given by,
μctrl = min(μe, μce) (3)
The outputs obtained from rule evaluation are
combined to form a single distribution. This is done by
performing union operation on output fuzzy sets. Crisp
output is obtained by centroid method.
 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ADVANCES IN E LECTRICAL T ECHNOLOGY F OR GREEN E NERGY 2017 (ICAETGT’ 2 K 17)

depicts the speed response for motor driving a constant

load at different speeds.

Table IV compares PI and Fuzzy controller in terms of

steady state error and rise time. It is inferred that Fuzzy
controller performance is better than PI controller.

TABLE III. PERFORMANCE COMPARISON OF PI AND FUZZY

CONTROLLER

PI controller Fuzzy controller

Speed Load Steady Steady
(rpm) condition Rise Rise
state state
time time
error error
(ms) (ms)
(%) (%)
25% 0.05824 35.587 0.05824 34.15
50% 0.11648 39.507 0.08736 37.09
3434
75% 0.17472 44.822 0.02912 42.6
100% 0.55329 52.663 0.17472 50.15
25% 0.05824 18.176 0.01941 17.17
50% 0.21355 19.379 0.05824 18.16
2575.5
75% 0.25238 20.756 0.05824 19.61
100% 0.29120 21.964 0.01941 20.94
25% 0.11648 8.973 0.05824 8.79
Fig. 2. Fuzzy sets for input and output variables 50% 0.23296 9.473 0.05824 9.25
1717
TABLE II. FUZZY RULE BASE 75% 0.17472 9.848 0.11648 9.58

e\ce NH NM NL ZE PL PM PH 100% 0.40768 10.19 0.17472 9.441

25% 0.73383 3.91 0.03494 3.85
NH NH NH NM NM NL NL ZE
50% 0.57076 4.052 0.03494 3.96
858.5
NL NH NM NM NL NL ZE PL 75% 0.12813 4.151 0.17472 4.01
100% 0.12813 4.343 0.17472 4.13
NM NM NM NL NL ZE PL PL

ZE NM NL NL ZE PL PL PM

PL NL NL ZE PL PL PM PM

PM NL ZE PL PL PM PM PH

PH ZE PL PL PM PM PH PH

VI.SIMULATION RESULTS
Fig. 3 depicts the basic block representation of the
proposed system. The current through the three stator
phases and the back EMF between the phases are
described in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 respectively. The speed
response for motor operating at constant speed but Fig. 3. Schematic representation of BLDC motor drive
subjected to load variations is shown in Fig. 6. Fig. 7

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 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ADVANCES IN E LECTRICAL T ECHNOLOGY F OR GREEN E NERGY 2017 (ICAETGT’ 2 K 17)

Fig. 4. Stator current waveforms

Fig. 5. Back EMF waveforms

Fig. 6. Speed variation with PI and Fuzzy controller for rated load and machine parameters

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 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ADVANCES IN E LECTRICAL T ECHNOLOGY F OR GREEN E NERGY 2017 (ICAETGT’ 2 K 17)

Fig. 7. Speed response of BLDC motor with Fuzzy logic controller for different loadings

V. HARDWARE RESULTS
The hardware setup of closed loop speed control of BLDC
motor drive is shown in Fig.8. The waveforms are
obtained when the motor was programmed to run at rated
speed.

Fig. 8. Hardware arrangement

Fig. 9. Back EMF waveforms

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 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ADVANCES IN E LECTRICAL T ECHNOLOGY F OR GREEN E NERGY 2017 (ICAETGT’ 2 K 17)

low cost, highly efficient speed controller.

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speed variations from the set reference speed are
examined through simple hardware arrangement. This
microcontroller based system result in the development of

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