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Fuzzy Iterative Technique for Torque

Ripple Minimization in Switched
Reluctance Motors
a a b
R. Gobbi , K. Ramar & N. C. Sahoo
a
Faculty of Engineering, Multimedia University, Cyberjaya, Selangor,
Malaysia
b
Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of
Technology, Kharagpur, India
Version of record first published: 21 Aug 2009.

To cite this article: R. Gobbi , K. Ramar & N. C. Sahoo (2009): Fuzzy Iterative Technique for Torque
Ripple Minimization in Switched Reluctance Motors, Electric Power Components and Systems, 37:9,
982-1004

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15325000902918867

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 Electric Power Components and Systems, 37:982–1004, 2009
Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 1532-5008 print/1532-5016 online
DOI: 10.1080/15325000902918867

Fuzzy Iterative Technique for Torque Ripple

Minimization in Switched Reluctance Motors
R. GOBBI,1 K. RAMAR,1 and N. C. SAHOO2
1
Faculty of Engineering, Multimedia University, Cyberjaya, Selangor, Malaysia
2
Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology,
Kharagpur, India
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Abstract The switched reluctance motor has many benefits owing to its low cost,
simple and rugged construction, and comparatively high torque-to-mass ratio. The
main disadvantage of the motor is that it produces high torque ripples. Torque control
is a difficult task since the switched reluctance motor is intentionally operated in deep
magnetic saturation to increase the output power density. A new method, called the
fuzzy iterative technique, is introduced in this work to modulate the phase current
profile to minimize the torque ripples. The experimental results indicate that the torque
ripple is reduced to lie within 5% of the desired steady torque even in dynamic
operating conditions.

Keywords switched reluctance motor, torque ripple, current modulation, current

controller, fuzzy system

1. Introduction
Switched reluctance motors (SRMs) have many advantages over induction, synchronous,
and DC motors. They are robust in construction; also, as there is no winding or magnet
on the rotor, the motor has very low inertia, a high torque/mass ratio, and requires a
simple cooling mechanism. The motor is denoted as a doubly salient machine since both
rotor and stator have salient poles. The switching of current into stator windings with
a variation of reluctance produces torque and power. Hence, the torque is a function of
the rotor position and the phase current. In addition, the inductance of the winding also
depends on both the phase current and the rotor position. These dependencies, which are
responsible for producing high torque pulsation and acoustic noise, make torque control
a difficult task. At low speeds, if the current is not suitably modulated and switched at
the correct rotor position, these effects are more pronounced.
SRMs are being used in many applications, including domestic white goods, power
tools, business machines, spindle drives, accessories for the automotive field, and traction
drives [1]. In many aspects, the SRM exceeds the performance of widely used induction
motors. The SRM has a higher torque per active weight compared to an induction motor.
Hence, it has rapid acceleration [2]. The SRM can be used in hybrid electric vehicles. In
addition, it is found to be superior to permanent magnet and induction motors [3, 4], and
it also has high robustness due to its ability to operate with loss of one or more motor
phases; thus, it is well suited to operate in harsh industrial environments.

Received 29 July 2008; accepted 13 March 2009.

Address correspondence to Dr. Ramasamy Gobbi, Faculty of Engineering, Jalan Multimedia
63100, Cyberjaya, Selangor, Malaysia. E-mail: gobbi@mmu.edu.my

982
 Torque Ripple Minimization 983

The non-linear nature of the torque production of the SRM causes torque ripples, and
due to the choice of the switching angles, vibration and noise are produced [5]. The torque
ripple is the only significant drawback of the motor, which is a hurdle for the industry.
Hence, there is a great need for research to develop methods to minimize the torque
ripple. An extensive review of the origin of the torque ripple and the approaches adopted
over the past decade to minimize the torque ripple is given in [6]. It is interesting to
note that based on the study, the author concluded that torque ripple minimization of less
than 3% is possible at speeds of 300 rpm, while less than 10% is possible at speeds of
1000 rpm if the torque ripple issues are dealt with at the machine design phase.
A few approaches to minimize the torque ripples have been reported in the past
decades. These approaches can be summarized into two categories. The first category is
at the design level, where the mechanical design of the motor is altered to reduce the
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torque ripple. This is possible as the majority of the torque ripples occurs due to the torque
dip at the phase overlap region, where the torque-producing responsibility is commutated
from one phase to another. The extent of the design-dependent overlap sets the limit
on the electronic controller. The step angle of the motor can be reduced to decrease
the torque dip, but this will increase the number of overlaps between adjacent phases.
As a result, this will increase the frequency of control per rotation. Also, the pole arc
of the rotor or stator can be increased to minimize the torque dip since the reduction in
the flux between the two adjacent phases will not be significant. However, all these have
some mechanical limitations. For example, the space between the two phases required to
house the coil around the stator pole is considerably reduced. More information on this
mechanical design approach and its limitations can be obtained from [6]. However, once
the motor is built, this approach cannot be used to minimize the torque ripple.
The second category is to minimize the torque ripple by modulating the torque profile
or, indirectly, the current waveforms. Many methods have been reported in the literature
to modulate the current waveforms, aiming to minimize the torque ripple. Some of the
important methods are reviewed in Section 2.

2. Literature Review on Current Modulation Techniques

In a study by Rodrigues et al. [7], the turn-off angle of the current was controlled to
minimize the torque dip at the period where two adjacent phases are sharing the torque.
Here, a fuzzy control was employed using two inputs, namely, the speed of the motor
and the reference current. The fuzzy control outputs a turn-off angle signal to a bridge-
type power converter. The frequency spectrums of the torque at low and high speeds
were presented that highlight the performance of the turn-off control to minimize the
torque ripple. Although the spectrums have shown improvement in the reduction of
the torque ripple, it is the control of current to track the reference current precisely and
to turn off at the desired turn-off angle that determine the success of this technique. In
practice, this is not an easy task.
A new commutation strategy to reduce the torque ripple along with two reference
torque commutation strategies were presented, and their performances were studied for
various torque controllers [8]. A new cosinusoidal reference torque that produces smooth
variation was used by the authors, and the simulation results were presented. The authors
have assumed that the current produced by the torque controller is flowing exactly in the
phase winding without any change in shape. This assumption is not valid in practice,
as the reference current has to be tracked by a current controller. Similar approaches
to minimize the torque ripple have also been reported in the literature discussed in this
 984 R. Gobbi et al.

section. The technique employed in these works uses torque-sharing functions (TSFs).
The idea is to modulate the reference current at two adjacent phases to share the torque
at the position where the torque dip occurs. There are many methods used to modulate
the current for minimum/zero torque ripple. Most of them suggest using fuzzy logic
and/or neural network systems. Some of the ideas and their limitations are presented in
the subsequent paragraphs.
In [9], the authors used a flux linkage data to train an artificial neural network (ANN)
model. A torque error was back-propagated to update the two adjacent phase current
inputs at one rotor position. The other two phase currents, which produce negative torque,
were kept at zero. All four current values were fed to an SRM model to produce the actual
torque. The accuracy of this technique is very dependent on the accuracy of the ANN
model and the estimated torque model. Unfortunately, this technique could only be used
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for an off-line application since the on-line implementation is difficult due to the sampling
time restriction.
Fuzzy adaptive systems were used in [10]. The systems used two phase angles and
the desired torque as inputs and the two adjacent phase currents as outputs. Prior to
learning, the reference phase current profile was selected such that it increases linearly
during the first half of the period and decreases linearly at the second half. The peak
value of the reference current was set to produce the desired torque value. Two adjacent
phase currents were corrected based on the torque error. By simulation, it was shown
that the torque ripple was reduced using this technique under the assumption that the
winding phase current is exactly the same as the desired current computed by the fuzzy
adaptive systems.
In [11], the authors developed a fuzzy system with the speed error as input and the
reference current as output. The reference current was then modulated by subtracting
the output of the fuzzy system from the sum of four phase currents computed at the
previous sampling period. The modulated reference current is then fed into the phase
windings of the motor through a converter. This method maintains the speed constant by
controlling the current waveforms so that the torque ripple will inherently be reduced.
Only the simulated torque results were presented. In practice, this technique may not
work satisfactorily as both the torque and speed are independent mechanical variables
that require separate feedback control signals for a precise control.
An ANN-based torque control scheme of an SRM was proposed in [12], which
generates optimal reference current profiles to minimize the torque pulsation. The training
data for the ANN was obtained from the simulation of the dynamic model of the SRM,
which uses static magnetization data generated experimentally. Inputs to the ANN were
the desired torque, the rotor angle, and the speed. The proposed scheme controls the
torque on an instantaneous basis, thus allowing torque control even during dynamic
operation of the motor. The operation of the SRM from zero speed to the rated speed
was considered. The experimental result of the total torque was not presented due to the
unavailability of a wide bandwidth torque transducer. It is observed that the instantaneous
control of the torque does not reduce the torque ripple effectively. Besides, the accuracy
of the current controller in tracking the reference current, which is an important issue,
was not considered in the article.
Henriques et al. [13] suggested a new method for shaping the motor phase currents
to minimize the torque ripple—using a neuro-fuzzy compensator. In this method, a
compensating signal was added to the output of the proportional-integral (PI) controller
in the current regulated speed control loop. The compensating signal was derived from
four inputs: speed, torque, rotor position, and reference current. Numerical results were
 Torque Ripple Minimization 985

presented in this work, discussing the effects of changing the form of the membership
function of the neuro-fuzzy compensator on the torque ripple reduction. The method
may not be feasible for practical implementation in a real system, since varying dynamic
torque is very difficult to measure. To circumvent this problem, the authors proposed the
use of other variables, such as acceleration and speed ripple, as inputs, but they have not
presented any results using these two variables as inputs. Moreover, the use of the speed
ripple for neuro-fuzzy learning to minimize the torque ripple may not work in practice,
since the speed signal itself is a dynamic variable whose accuracy is dependent on the
resolution of the speed sensor.
An iterative learning control to minimize the torque ripple was proposed in [14]. This
technique produced a phase current waveform for the specified torque before producing
the phase voltage for faithful tracking of the modulated current waveform. Determination
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of both the current and voltage waveforms were based on a iterative learning method. The
voltage waveform was determined to track the modulated reference current without the
use of any practical current controller. Hence, the waveform was merely an instantaneous
voltage that, when applied to the phase winding, was expected to produce the modulated
reference current. In practice, the tracking of the modulated reference current cannot
be done using the proposed approach. Therefore, a suitable current controller has to be
employed to generate appropriate gate pulses to the converter to produce the required
phase voltage across the phase winding.
Cheok and Fukuda [15] proposed a new torque and flux control method. The direct
torque control (DTC) scheme that was successfully used in AC motor drives was studied
on SRM drives. The DTC scheme in AC motor drives works by controlling the stator flux
magnitude and the phase angle. The control scheme operates by keeping the magnitude
of the stator flux constant and controlling the torque by varying the relative phase
angle between the stator flux and the rotor flux. This type of torque control requires no
information about the motor except the winding resistance to calculate the flux linkage.
The DTC scheme applied to SRM drives used the concept of a short flux pattern that
links two adjacent poles of the stator. For this reason, the SRM needs a new type of
winding configuration that limits the length of two individual short flux loops that connect
adjacent stator poles. The DTC scheme produces a rotating magnetic field by continuously
adjusting the phase currents. This eventually produces a rotating magnetic field similar
to that seen in conventional AC motors. The major disadvantage of this DTC scheme
was that it required a new motor winding topology. The new DTC scheme controls the
torque directly through the magnitude of the flux linkage and the change in speed of the
stator flux vector. The authors claimed that their scheme can be implemented using a
simplified linear model instead of a non-linear model, which normally requires complex
computation. This simplification generally results in inaccurate control. It may also be
observed that the scheme used a lookup table that stores the experimentally measured
instantaneous torque data.
A fuzzy neural network (FNN) technique was studied in [16]. In this work, at each
control cycle, the torque command for the next control cycle was determined based on the
TSF and the desired torque. An FNN estimated the current signal to achieve the torque
command. The current signal was then added to the output of a constant gain controller
to generate current pulses to be sent to the inverter. At the end of each control cycle, a
training step was executed by the FNN. The state of the system during the previous cycle
was used as input to the FNN to derive the estimated current. The difference between
the estimated current and the actual current measured in the previous cycle was used to
compute weights used by the FNN to adjust the estimated current. The initial current
 986 R. Gobbi et al.

pulse was determined based on the output of the fixed gain controller alone, as the output
of the FNN is zero. Therefore, the initial current could be very high to achieve the desired
torque, and hence, the real-time training of the FNN may be a difficult process.
Most of the works explained so far assumed that the motor operates in a static
condition; that is, the motor speed is constant (hence, the equal number of sample points
in every cycle), and the wave shape of the phase current is exactly equal to the calculated
reference current waveform. It is well known that, in practical cases, the motor will be
operating in dynamic conditions where the speed will change and a current controller has
to be employed to track the reference current. Hence, the modulated reference current
has to be tracked closely by the current controller and the tracking has to take place even
at the dynamic operation. Although some of the works explained above claimed that
the control technique can be used under dynamic conditions, no convincing simulation
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results or proofs were given. For this reason, further research is required to develop
a suitable current controller to achieve zero torque ripples under dynamic operating
conditions.
Recently [17], an iterative current controller design to track the reference current
closely was proposed, where a feedforward control scheme together with a proportional
current controller were employed to improve the tracking performance. In addition, a
novel iterative learning controller (ILC), without using the complex non-linear model of
the SRM, was used in the feedforward loop. The ILC stores the control input and the
plant output error at each operation cycle, and the control input was updated according
to a learning law. The learning law ensures that the error is reduced from cycle to
cycle until the desired level of accuracy was achieved. In this approach, the current
correction has to be done exactly at the sampling point where it was saved in the previous
cycle. For this purpose, the speed has to be kept constant to ensure that the data are
updated at the sampling points stored in the memory. This restriction forces the proposed
ILC to work well only at the steady-state conditions where the speed remains constant.
Hence, this method is also not suitable for the dynamic operation of the motor. Moreover,
it is extremely difficult to keep the motor stable while the ILC improves the current
tracking.
In this work, a novel technique to modulate the current profile to minimize the
torque ripple taking into consideration the practical implementation issues is developed.
Since there is no alteration done at the mechanical design of the motor, the technique
proposed here is expected to reduce the torque ripple to less than 10% at speeds less than
500 rpm. To explain the proposed technique, this article is organized in the following
manner. Section 3 explains the mathematical model of the SRM, Section 4 elaborates on
the fuzzy iterative technique (FIT) for computation of the reference current waveforms,
Section 5 presents the experimental results with a brief (due to the scope of this article)
explanation on the current control techniques to minimize torque ripple, and Section 6
concludes this article.

3. Mathematical Model of SRM

An 8/6 SRM, i.e., one having eight stator poles and six rotor poles, is considered in
this work. The 8/6 motor has four phases. All four phases are assumed to be identical
and the inter-phase magnetic coupling is neglected. In the following, reference to a
generic phase j is reflected as a subscript in the variables. Because of double saliency
and magnetic saturation, the phase inductance, Lj (j D 1; : : : ; 4), varies with the rotor
position it  and the current ij . The electrical circuit of each phase is shown in Figure 1.
 Torque Ripple Minimization 987

Figure 1. Electrical circuit of a stator phase winding in SRM.

The dynamic equations of the SRM are

d'j
D vj Rij ; j D 1; : : : ; 4I (1)
dt
d
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D !I (2)
dt
4
d! T Tl B X
D !; T D Tj : (3)
dt J J
j D1

In the above equations,

R is the phase resistance,
' is the flux linkage,
! is the motor speed,
J is the moment of inertia,
B is the viscous friction coefficient,
Tj is the phase torque,
T is the total motor torque,
v is the instantaneous voltage,
i is the instantaneous current, and
Tl is the load torque.
As described earlier, the inductance of phase j , Lj (j D 1; : : : ; 4), is a function
of both rotor position  and current ij . Under the assumption of linear magnetics, the
inductance versus rotor position profile for phase 1 can be approximated over one rotor
pole pitch, as shown by the solid line in Figure 2. The dotted curve is the actual inductance
profile of the motor. The parameters in Figure 2 are defined as
ˇs is the stator pole arc,
ˇr is the rotor pole arc (ˇs < ˇr ),
˛r is the rotor pole pitch (ˇs C ˇr < ˛r /,
La is the aligned phase inductance, and
Lu is the unaligned phase inductance.
The inductance of phase j is given by
h ˛r i
Lj ./ D L1  .j 1/ : (4)
4
When one phase of the SRM is energized, the torque developed, Tj , is given by

@
Tj .e ; Ij / D Nr Wc .e ; Ij /; (5)
@e
 988 R. Gobbi et al.
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Figure 2. Approximated inductance profile for phase 1.

where e is the electrical angle, and Nr is the number of rotor poles. Therefore, e D Nr .
The coenergy Wc is defined as
Z Ij
Wc .e ; Ij / D 'j .e ; ij / d i; (6)
0

where 'j .e ; Ij / is the flux linkage and, with assumption of linear magnetics, is ex-
pressed as

'j .e ; Ij / D Lj .e /Ij .e /: (7)

Hence, the final expression for the torque model can be obtained as

4 4
X Nr X @Lj .e / 2
T .e ; Ij / D Tj D Ij .e /: (8)
j D1
2 j D1 @e

3.1. Non-linear SRM Model with Magnetic Saturation

A main program to model the SRM is written using M-scripts with two input parameters,
namely phase voltages (v1 , v2 , v3 , and v4 ; one for each phase) and load torque (Tl ). These
inputs are set as global variables that can be read from the workspace by any M-script
program. Along with these input parameters, the resistance of the phase winding, the
moment of inertia, the viscous and Coulomb frictions, the calculated motor torque, and
the current are also set as global variables. The block diagram of the SRM model is
shown in Figure 3.
The main program calls a function named “sim_diff,” which calculates the states
of the SRM. The function “sim_diff” uses the MATLAB function “ode23” to solve the
differential equations (Eqs. (1)–(3)). The inputs to this function are the phase voltages,
phase currents, and load torque. The outputs are the rotor position (), phase 1 flux
linkage ('1 ), phase 2 flux linkage ('2 ), phase 3 flux linkage ('3 ), phase 4 flux linkage
('4 ), and motor speed (!).
 Torque Ripple Minimization 989
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Figure 3. Block diagram for the SRM model.

Next, a two-dimensional lookup table (LUT1), storing the measured flux linkage,
the rotor position, and the phase current, is loaded into the workspace. The data for the
lookup table are obtained from flux measurement. The lookup table outputs the phase
current values for the given flux linkage and the rotor position. A linear interpolation
technique is employed whenever necessary. The rotor position stored in the lookup table
is in a mechanical angle from the unaligned position (0ı ) to the aligned position (30ı).
Therefore, it becomes necessary to convert the mechanical angle () to the electrical
angle (e ) using
e D rem.Nr  ; 2 /; (9)

where “rem” is a MATLAB command to perform a mathematical reminder operation. The

rotor position at which the motor is initialized every time before it is started is set at 0ı .
At this rotor position, the rotor pole is aligned with the stator pole of phase 1. In order to
run in forward motoring operation, a phase whose stator pole is unaligned with the rotor
pole at 0ı is energized. For the 8/6 SRM, phase 3 is energized. Hence, the rotor angle
e3 is set equal to e D 0ı . In order to use the same lookup table, the rotor positions for
the other phases (e2 , e4 , and e1 ) have to be normalized to e . The rotor positions must
equal 0ı to 30ı before the corresponding phase current value is obtained from the same
lookup table. The normalization equations are given in Eq. (10). The output current values
for phases 1 to 4 are called the actual motor instantaneous currents and denoted as i1 ,
i2 , i3 , and i4 , respectively. Also, it is worth noting here that throughout this simulation,
all the phases are assumed to be identical electrically and mechanically.

e1 D e ; e   I

e2 D e 3=2; e  3=2I

(10)
e3 D e I

e4 D e =2; e  =2:

The phase currents and the normalized rotor position values are then used to obtain
the electromagnetic torque of the motor. Here, another two-dimensional lookup table
(LUT2), storing the measured current, rotor position, and torque data, is loaded. The
lookup table outputs four phase torque values (T1 , T2 , T3 , and T4 ) based on the actual
 990 R. Gobbi et al.

phase current and the normalized rotor position. The phase torques are added together to
obtain the total motor torque (T ).
The entire process explained above is repeated for every sample (n). The number of
samples is computed using Eq. (11):

nmax D floor.tend = h/; (11)

where “floor” is a mathematical command to round a number towards minus infinity, tend
is the computation time set by the user, and h is the step size in seconds.

4. FIT for Computation of Reference Current Waveforms

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In this section, a novel algorithm for calculating the reference current waveforms for
the SRM to minimize the torque ripple is discussed. It is an iterative approach using
fuzzy logic and the multiplying factor. The proposed FIT modulates the reference current
waveforms iteratively by the use of the multiplying factor determined by fuzzy systems
using torque error and rotor position as the two inputs. The FIT computes the incremental
change (correction term) for the current profile at each iteration.
The phase current for the given reference torque (desired torque) Td is computed
using the torque model described in Eq. (8). The @Lj =@e is defined as a constant (),
which is the slope of the inductance profile in the zone of increasing inductance (shown
as a solid line in Figure 2) [18].

La Lu
D : (12)
Nr ˇs
It is clearly observed from Figure 4 that this phase current gives rise to a very
high torque ripple when tested using the SRM model. In addition, the average motor
torque is much lower compared to the desired torque Td . Because of the severe non-
linearity present in SRM magnetic characteristics, it is extremely difficult to obtain an
analytical expression for the multiplying factor Kt that can be used in a straightforward
way (using Eq. (8)) to calculate the desired current profile to achieve the desired torque
Td . In order to circumvent this difficulty, the FIT is developed here. In this approach,
the desired reference current profile is determined by iterative modulating of an initial
current profile that may be assumed as zero current for all rotor positions (and phases).
The block diagram of this scheme is shown in Figure 5.
In this method, a sufficient number of sampling points (rotor positions) in an electrical
cycle of the SRM are chosen, and the phase current profile is computed at those points
using Eqs. (13)–(15). These equations do not have reference to any specific phase:

i k .m/ D i k 1 .m/ C i k .m/; (13)

s
k 2jT k .m/jKtk .m/
i .m/ D ; (14)
Nr 

T k .m/ D Td T k .m/: (15)

The phase index is decided by the control logic, depending upon the rotor position
and the sign of the torque error. Superscript k denotes the iteration number. Index m
identifies the rotor position in an electrical cycle. In Figure 5, the “open” status of the
 Torque Ripple Minimization 991
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Figure 4. Two-phase-ON scheme with TSFs for Td D 1 Nm: (a) torque profile and (b) phase
currents.

control switch in any iteration at any rotor position means that the corresponding phase
current is not modulated (adjusted) at that position during that iteration, i.e., i k .m/ D 0.
The multiplying factor Kt is computed heuristically by a fuzzy rule base described in
Table 1. The fuzzy system essentially consists of a linguistic rule base with two inputs and
one output. The inputs are the absolute value of torque error (T ) and rotor position e0
(D REM.e ; cond /), where the function REM does the mathematical remainder operation

Figure 5. Block diagram model of the fuzzy iterative approach for current calculation with TSFs.
 992 R. Gobbi et al.

Table 1
Fuzzy rule base for determination of Kt

e0

VS S M L VL

jT j VS M S VS S S
S M S VS S S
M L M S M M
L L M M M L
VL L M M M L
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Figure 6. Membership functions for jT j.

Figure 7. Membership functions for rotor position.

and cond D =2. The output is the multiplying factor Kt . The heuristic knowledge about
the fuzzy rule base is obtained by a careful examination of the simulation results for
different values of the torque command Td . The fuzzy membership functions for T
and e0 are shown in Figures 6 and 7 respectively. The linguistic labels for the fuzzy sets
are: VS (very small), S (small), M (medium), L (large), and VL (very large). A typical
rule in the rule base can be interpreted as follows. If the torque error, jT j is VL, and the
 Torque Ripple Minimization 993

rotor position of the conduction interval of the phase is M , then the multiplying factor
should be M . The crisp value of Kt is computed by the well-known max-min rule. In
the output space of the fuzzy system, the fuzzy sets are taken as fuzzy singletons.
The iterative modulation of the phase currents starts with the initial zero-current
profile for all phases. Subsequently, in each iteration, the magnitudes of the phase currents
of the selected phases are modified, depending upon the torque error using Eqs. (13)–
(15). It is important to stress that for any iterative computational algorithm, the step size
to be used for finding the solution plays a significant role in deciding the convergence or
divergence of the algorithm. Generally, this step size is reflected as some sort of tunable
gain(s) appearing in any iterative algorithm. The same is also true for the FIT, and the
step size, in this case, is of course i . In a typical iterative algorithm, the step size may
generally be large initially, and as the correct solution is approached, the step size could
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become smaller and smaller. Since the central values of the fuzzy singletons in the output
space effectively determine the step size through Kt , the gain scheduling of these central
values are performed in the FIT to achieve the stated objective; i.e., the output space has
four fuzzy singletons and their central values are gain-scheduled, as a function of Td ,
from iteration to iteration, as in Eq. (16):
 
k
CV.k; r / D .aTd C br / exp ; (16)


where r is the index number of the membership function in the output space (1  VS,
2  S , 3  M , 4  L), a and b are suitably chosen constants,  is a constant
that controls the decay rate, and CV.k; r / are the respective central values of the fuzzy
singletons of the output space.
The correction term i k .m/ is then added/subtracted to the phase current produc-
ing positive torque, depending on the sign of the torque error (positive/negative). This
iterative process goes on until the torque ripple is completely eliminated. The method is
tested under the assumed static operating conditions of the motor using the SRM model
described in Section 3. The FIT developed in this work is tested with two-phase-ON
with TSFs, as it was found to produce the minimum torque ripple and was suitable for
practical implementation. Figure 8 shows the iterative torque variation under assumed
static conditions for Td D 1 Nm.
The simulation is repeated for a full range of rotor positions and torque values, and
the modulated phase current data is stored in a two-dimensional lookup table (LUT3).

5. Experimental Verification
In this section, the experimental verification of the FIT for torque ripple reduction
is carried out. The experimental setup consists of the SRM, inverters, drivers, and
sensors. The reference phase current for the experiments can be computed either on-
line using Matlab/Simulink models or taken from LUT3 where the phase current values
are stored after performing off-line computations, as described in Section 4. For on-line
implementation, the minimum sampling period of the control system should be more
than the turn-around time (TAT) of the reference phase current computation. The TAT
is the minimum time required for the computational process to complete the reference
phase current, whether modulated by the FIT or not. The TAT is directly proportional to
the number of blocks and the complexity of each block in the Matlab/Simulink model
that is used to compute the modulated reference current. As the TAT is found to be too
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Figure 8. (a) Iterative torque variation as a function of rotor angle for Td D 1 Nm and (b) current
waveforms in an electrical cycle for zero torque error.

large, the on-line computation of the reference current is not done in the experiments.
Instead, the reference current stored in the lookup table is used.
Based on the simulation results reported in this article, it can be concluded that the
FIT-modulated reference current is able to reduce the torque ripple in the SRM, provided
the hysteresis current controller accurately tracks the modulated reference current. The
effect of poor tracking by the hysteresis current controller on torque ripple is depicted
in Figure 9. The experimental results are obtained from closed-loop speed control under
steady-state conditions. The phase current and voltage waveforms for all the phases are
shown in Figures 10 and 11, respectively. A poor tracking of the reference current is
observed at the incoming and outgoing phase current regions. In addition, it may be
noted that the hard-chopping operation is set by the current protection circuit whenever
the actual current reaches 15 A. This hard-chopping option can be avoided if the phase
voltage is reduced and/or the PWM switching frequency is increased. This aspect has
been investigated and will be briefly explained later in this section. It is interesting
to note that the torque response oscillates with a period of one mechanical cycle.
This periodic oscillation is due to secondary effects such as mutual phase interaction,
loading effects, phase asymmetry and instrumentation tolerance [9]. This phenomenon
is significant at low speeds. In this study, the effect of phase asymmetry is neglected,
and only the data obtained for one complete electrical cycle are used repeatedly. The
peak-to-peak torque values, which are used to calculate the torque ripple, are given by
Tx in Figure 9.
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Figure 9. Torque waveforms (reference speed D 200 RPM, phase voltage D 200 V, Tl D 1:0 Nm).

Figure 10. Current waveforms (reference speed D 200 RPM, phase voltage D 200 V, Tl D
1:0 Nm).
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Figure 11. Voltage waveforms (reference speed D 200 RPM, phase voltage D 200 V, Tl D
1:0 Nm).

Based on experimental studies, there are three factors affecting the efficiency of the
current controller: i) the sampling time, (ii) the magnitude of phase voltage, and (iii) the
converter switching strategy. It has been understood that the current controller needs a
small sampling period (step size) to control the actual motor phase current from rising
fast beyond the upper band limit of the hysteresis controller. The fixed band and phase
voltage values do not help the current controller to track the reference current for the
SRM. This is mainly due to the non-linearity behavior of the motor. For these reasons,
a few optimization techniques were adapted for the current controller and are briefly
explained below.

Smaller Hysteresis Band Size. An investigation referring to the phase voltage found that
the positive voltage is maintained for two consecutive sample points. This is because
at the first sample point, the current error is within the upper hysteresis band; hence,
for the next sample point, the same positive voltage is maintained, which forces the
current to rise even higher. This problem can simply be solved by reducing the hysteresis
band. However, it is noted that the band size does not contribute to close tracking of
the reference current. That is, the actual current does not fluctuate within the band limits
(especially the upper limit) if the step size is larger than the time constant of the phase
circuit.

Hard-chopping Activation at Outgoing Phase Region. During the outgoing phase current
region, the actual current decays more slowly than the reference current, since the
inductance is large at this region. One way to remedy this is to activate hard-chopping of
 Torque Ripple Minimization 997

voltage at this period so that the current is forced to decay faster. Practically, the hard-
chopping approach puts more voltage ripples into the DC-link capacitor, thus reducing the
capacitor life and increasing the switching losses of the power switches due to frequent
switching [19].

Lower Phase Voltage. The incoming phase current waveform exhibits a sharp rise due to
the low-phase winding inductance. To avoid the sharp rise of the current, a lower phase
voltage is applied. In other words, the phase voltage may be adjusted depending upon the
reciprocal of positive dL=d. However, some practical issues have to be incorporated
in designing the control function for the phase voltage. One of them is that during
the starting operation, the motor draws a high starting current value, and therefore,
the rated phase voltage has to be supplied. Nevertheless, a low phase voltage may be
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sufficient to produce the required starting torque when phase resistance is low, which
is true for the motor tested here. For the experimental study, the phase voltage is set
as 50 V.
Using the experimental setup, the motor is run for two operating conditions—
the steady-state and dynamic conditions—and both under closed-loop speed control
schemes.

5.1. Closed-loop Speed Control under Steady-state Conditions

In this section, the FIT-modulated reference current stored in LUT3 is used for the
investigation of the torque response. For this experiment, a low speed value of 200 RPM
is chosen. The block diagram of the closed-loop speed control scheme is shown in
Figure 12. The sampling time and PWM switching frequency are set at 50 sec and
10 kHz, respectively. All control systems shown in the figure are implemented in software
using Matlab/Simulink.
As explained earlier, to track the reference phase current, a hard-chopping method
applying a negative phase voltage whenever the current is required to decay fast is
employed. Hard-chopping is applied only at the outgoing phase current region. Fig-
ures 13 and 14 show the current and voltage waveforms, respectively. The outgoing
reference phase current is tracked closely by the current controller. As expected, once
the outgoing phase current is tracked well by the current controller, the torque dip is
reduced; this is shown in Figure 15. The torque ripple is reduced to less than 5%. The
torque response shown in Figure 12 is for two electrical cycles. It may be observed from
Figure 14 that the phase windings do not receive the full voltage of 50 V during some
part of the hard-chopping period, which is due to the failure of the DC-link capacitor to
get charged to the full value as fast as the switching frequency.

Figure 12. Block diagram of the closed-loop speed control.

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Figure 13. Current waveforms (reference speed D 200 RPM, hysteresis band D 5%, phase
voltage D 50 V, Tl D 1:0 Nm).

Figure 14. Voltage waveforms (reference speed D 200 RPM, hysteresis band D 5%, phase
voltage D 50 V, Tl D 1:0 Nm).
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Figure 15. Torque waveforms (speed D 200 RPM, hysteresis band D 5%, phase voltage D 50 V,
Tl D 1:0 Nm).

5.2. Closed-loop Speed Control under Dynamic Conditions

Having completed the closed-loop control study under steady-state conditions, the study
is now focused on the performance of the FIT-modulated reference current with the same
parameter settings of the speed and current controllers under dynamic conditions. The
main intention of this study is to test whether the modulated reference phase current is
able to track the changes in speed and torque and maintain the same torque ripples as
obtained during the steady-state operation.
For this study, the speed is increased from 200 RPM to 400 RPM and, after some
time, reduced back to 200 RPM in steps. Figure 16 shows the speed response. The dotted
line indicates the step speed command. Region A is the transient period when the speed
is increasing from 200 RPM to 400 RPM, and Region B is that when the speed is
decreasing from 400 RPM to 200 RPM. The torque responses during the transient and
steady-state periods are shown in Figure 17. The torque ripple is maintained within 5%,
even during the transient periods. Figure 18 shows the phase current response to the step
changes in speed for both the regions of interest.
Further, the motor is tested for its robustness when the load torque is varied in steps.
A step load torque of 1 Nm is applied to the motor when it is running at a steady-state
speed of 200 RPM. Figure 19 shows the torque response. Note that at the instant when the
load torque is applied, the motor operates in reverse generating mode; i.e., it produces
positive torque while the speed is in the anti-clockwise or reverse direction and then
quickly returns back to forward motoring condition. This is reflected in the speed response
shown in Figure 20. This behavior is mainly due to low phase voltage that is not sufficient
to produce the required high torque under the step load change. The corresponding current
waveforms are shown in Figure 21. This condition is intentionally presented here to show
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Figure 16. Step speed response (Initial speed D 200 RPM, intermediate speed D 400 RPM, final
speed D 200 RPM, hysteresis band D 5%, phase voltage D 50 V, Tl D 1:0 Nm).

Figure 17. Torque response (initial speed D 200 RPM, intermediate speed D 400 RPM, final
speed D 200 RPM, hysteresis band D 5%, phase voltage D 50 V, Tl D 1:0 Nm).
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Figure 18. Current waveforms (hysteresis band D 5%, phase voltage D 50 V, Tl D 1:0 Nm):
(a) initial speed D 200 RPM, final speed D 400 RPM; (b) initial speed D 400 RPM, final speed D
200 RPM.

Figure 19. Torque response (speed D 200 RPM, hysteresis band D 5%, phase voltage D 50 V,
step Tl D 1:0 Nm).
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Figure 20. Speed response (speed D 200 RPM, hysteresis band D 5%, phase voltage D 50 V,
step Tl D 1:0 Nm).

Figure 21. Current waveforms (speed D 200 RPM, hysteresis band D 5%, phase voltage D 50 V,
step Tl D 1:0 Nm).
 Torque Ripple Minimization 1003

the adaptability of the control system employed for load uncertainties during the dynamic
operation of the motor.

6. Conclusions
In this article, a novel FIT to reduce torque ripples in SRMs has been developed. This
approach modulates the desired phase current waveforms that will produce zero torque
ripple. The modulation is done by adding a multiplying factor during the phase current
calculation. The multiplying factor is computed using a fuzzy system that takes two
inputs, i.e., the rotor position and torque error. The modulation is done under assumed
static operating conditions iteratively until the torque ripple is reduced to zero. It is
identified that the main challenge to maintain the zero/low torque ripple is to let the
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modulated reference current waveforms flow into the motor phase winding without
significant deviation, and this has to be done through a current controller. Three factors
that affect the efficiency of the current controller in tracking the modulated reference
current are the phase voltage, the step size, and the hysteresis band. The phase voltage is
reduced to minimize the rising rate at the incoming phase current region. At the outgoing
reference current region where inductance is large, the current controller is operated in
the hard-chopping mode to force the current to decay fast. Also, the hysteresis and
step size are set to minimum throughout the experimental study. The performance of the
FIT-modulated reference phase current has been tested experimentally under both steady-
state and dynamic conditions using closed-loop speed control scheme. As expected, the
experimental results show that the torque ripple can be successfully reduced to be within
5%, even under dynamic operating conditions.

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Appendix
Motor parameters: SRM is from Rocky Mountain Technologies Inc. (Basin, Montana,
USA)
Model: SR165M from Rocky Mountain Technologies Inc.
Number of phases: four (8/6 topology)
Peak torque: 7.1 Nm
Nominal speed: 6000 RPM
Power output (cont.): 3.1 HP (2.32 kW)
Nominal current: 11.56 A
Phase voltage: 200 V