Closed Loop Control of PMSM Motor : Field Oriented Control Using Hall Sensors

Abstract: Fossil-fuel vehicles are one of the main causes of CO2 emissions nowadays. As we are moving toward cleaner environment electrification of vehicles are becoming more and more popular. With the environment in mind, the recent improvement in battery technology and electronics has drawn a lot of attention to Brushless DC or BLDC  motors. Due to their high torque output and robust design, BLDC motors are a popular choice as the main propulsion unit in electric vehicles.  Permanent magnet synchronous motor, PMSM, is also a brushless dc motor with minor changes in design. So the word BLDC and PMSM is used interchangeably. In this thesis, two motor control algorithms were investigated. 6-Step control and Field oriented control or FOC. A three-phase inverter allows these motors to be driven by a battery. But when battery voltage goes down the speed of the motor also goes down. This thesis investigates a method to maintain the same speed at lower dc voltage. Also running of other motors than the control system was designed for. The control system performs well in simulation for two of the motor tested with the FOC algorithm. Simulation results show that the control system can track speed and current references with minimum error. Speed controller and current controllers control each parameter independently to control the motor. Low battery simulations provide useful data that shows how the field weakening technique makes it possible to achieve higher speed at low dc voltages.