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Arduino based V/f Drive for a Three Phase Induction Motor using Single Phase
Supply

Conference Paper · October 2020

DOI: 10.1109/ICSTCEE49637.2020.9277093

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 Arduino based V/f Drive for a Three Phase
Induction Motor using Single Phase Supply
Harsha A R Pranupa S Kiran Kumar B M
Dep. of Electrical Engineering Dep. of Electrical Engineering Dep. of Electrical Engineering
Vellore Institute of Technology Ramaiah University of Applied Ramaiah University of Applied
Vellore, India Sciences Sciences
harsha.raghuveer@gmail.com Bangalore, India Bangalore, India
pranupa.ee.et@msruas.ac.in kirankumar.ee.et@msruas.ac.in
S Nagaraja Rao
Dep. of Electrical Engineering M S Indira
Ramaiah University of Applied Dep. of Electrical Engineering
Sciences Ramaiah University of Applied
Sciences
Bangalore, India
Bangalore, India
nagaraja.ee.et@msruas.ac.in
indira.ee.et@msruas.ac.in

Abstract— Induction Motors (IM) are work horse of power
industries. Controlling of IM is crucial task in most of the
applications. This paper presents implementation of a Variable
Frequency Drive (VFD) controller for a three phase induction
motor driven by single phase supply on an Arduino platform.
The hardware setup involves a rectifier-inverter combination
along with a DC link. The present work concentrates on
programming the timers of ATMEGA 2560 microcontroller to
obtain the required switching pulses. The simulation results of
the developed switching control technique with due validation
from a hardware setup are presented.
Keywords— Arduino and scalar control, Induction motor, V/f
control, Variable Frequency Drive
I. INTRODUCTION
Industrial automation, electric vehicle technology or any
other electro-mechanical system necessitates the use of
variable frequency drives to obtain the desired torque-speed
response as use of motors operating at fixed power
frequency lead to huge energy losses. Induction Motor (IM)
is a widely used electrical machine because of its reliability,
efficiency, economical construction and adaptable response
[1-2]. Earlier, mechanical output generated by the machine
was a major parameter. In the current era of industrial
automation, energy conservation, operational precision and
accuracy have become significant. [3][4]. Moreover,
accuracy demands a precise control over the speed of motor
that is related to the proportional variation of power
frequency and voltage.
The speed of induction motor can be controlled using
various methods. V/f control strategy has distinct advantages
over the conventional methods like simplicity and
robustness. However, this method of speed control has a low
dynamic performance compared to vector control method
[5].
A V/f controller for medium power three phase induction
motor using Motorola Digital Signal Processor (DSP) with
Software Development Kit (SDK) is presented in [6]. A six-
step inverter controlled three phase IM, to determine the
effect of non- sinusoidal voltages on motor currents based on
Fourier analysis is presented in [7] . The authors have shown
that the effect of higher order harmonics is negligible. Open-
loop V/f speed control of an IM is achieved using ATMEGA
2560 microcontroller. Arduino is an economical and easy-to-
use hardware with an open-source software prototyping
platform. [9-12].The concept behind V/f speed control is
variations of power frequency relating to the speed input.
Variation in power frequency of an induction motor requires
the adjustment of terminal voltage to keep the stator
magnetic flux at its rated value. Excessive magnetic
excitation can lead to increase in iron losses of the machine
while reduction in magnetic flux can affect the generated
electromagnetic torque [8]. In order to overcome this, the
terminal voltage is also varied whenever frequency is
changed to maintain a constant V/f ratio, to control the
motor speed. Each segment of V/f control will be discussed
in detail in this paper.
Variation in voltage and frequency is obtained using
various PWM techniques [13]. Sine wave Pulse Width
Modulation (SPWM), a popular PWM technique, has been
implemented to obtain the control signals [14]. Appropriate
control logic has been programmed on to the
microcontroller. The input speed signal generated according
to the SPWM algorithm is processed to produce a low
voltage (5V) output PWM signal. This low voltage PWM
signal is amplified by the opto-controller to a required level
of voltage to drive the MOSFET. This paper presents
hardware prototype of an Arduino based V/f speed
controller for a 3-Phase Induction Motor of rating 0.37kW,
1440RPM and the corresponding simulation results.
Fig. 1. Steady State Equivalent Circuit of an Induction Motor
II. V/F CONTROL OF AN INDUCTION MOTOR
In V/f control or scalar control, the flux in the air gap
between stator and rotor is maintained constant, thereby
making the motor torque independent of the applied
frequency. Constant air gap flux is achieved by maintaining a
constant voltage to frequency ratio. However in this method
motor speed is not equal to synchronous speed due to the
presence of slip. The actual speed of the motor depends on
the load. On no-load the speed is very close to synchronous

978-1-7281-7213-2/20/$31.00 2020
c IEEE 90
speed and the slip is negligible. Consider the steady state across the 1 kΩ load resistance at the output drives the
equivalent circuit of an induction motor as shown in Fig. 1. MOSFET when the transistor is turned ON.
The stator Lls and the rotor Llr leakage reactances are
combined together and represented as ‫ܮ‬m = ‫ •Žܮ‬+ Llr . The B. Pulse Generation
stator resistance Rs is assumed to be zero. Hence the
SPWM modulation techniques offer the advantage of low
magnetizing current is given by equation 1.
Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) as compared to
௩ೞ
‫ܫ‬௠ ൌ (1) conventional PWM techniques. SPWM pulses are generated
ఠ௅௥
by comparing a sinusoidal reference signal of supply
Lm is constant when the induction motor operates in the frequency with a high frequency carrier signal as shown in
linear magnetic region and the magnetizing current is Fig. 4.
proportional to the ratio of stator voltage to the synchronous
frequency. Thus if the ratio of Vs/f is maintained constant
then the developed torque becomes independent of supply
frequency.

Fig. 4. Sine pulse width modulation (SPWM)

ATMEGA 2560 microcontroller has 6 timers and 15 PWM

Fig. 2. Block Diagram of the Proposed V/f Controller
pins. Timer 0 and Timer 2 are 8 bit timers, whereas timer 1,
Block diagram of the proposed low cost V/f converter is timer 3, timer 4 and timer 5 are 16 bit timers. Two registers
shown in Fig. 2. The converter is based on ATMEGA 2560 TCCRxA and TCCRxB are used to configure. the timers,
microcontroller popularly known as Arduino Mega. The where x is the timer number as shown in Table I.
rectifier unit consists of an uncontrolled bridge rectifier The
DC link capacitor stabilizes the DC link voltage. The inverter TABLE I. : TIMER CONTROL REGISTERS
consists of six IRF840 MOSFET’s fired by a gate drive
circuit. ACT2E opto-couplers are used in the drive circuit to TCCR1A – Timer/Counter1 Control Register A
isolate the controller from the converter. The opto-coupler Bit 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
also provides sufficient voltage to drive the MOSFET. The (0x90) COM1A1 COM1A0 COM1B1 COM1B0 ---- ---- WGM11 WGM10

gate pulses are generated by ATMEGA 2560 using built in Read/Write R/W R/W R/W R/W R R R/W R/W
Initial
PWM pins. Sinusoidal pulse width modulation is used to Value 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

reduce harmonics and increase the efficiency. SPWM pulses

are generated by using a look up table written onto the TCCR1B – Timer/Counter1 Control Register B
EPROM of the microcontroller. An inductive 3φ filter is
used to remove ripples in the load current. Bit 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
(0x81) ICNC1 ICES1 ----- WGM13 WGM12 CS12 CS11 CS10

III. HARDWARE IMPLEMENTATION Read/Write

Initial
R/W R/W R R/W R/W R/W R/W R/W

Value 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
A. Driver Circuit
Last three bits of timer control register B CS10, CS11 and
CS12 decides the output frequency of the PWM pulses. It
can be configured as shown in Table II.

TABLE II. : CLOCK SELECT BITS

CS12 CS11
0 0
0 0
0 1
0 1
Fig. 3. MOSFET Driver Circuit 1 0
1 0
The MOSFET driver circuit is implemented using opto - 1 1
coupler MCT2E as shown in Fig. 3. Maximum switching
1 1
frequency achievable using this drive circuit is around 5 kHz.
A 100 Ω resistor at the input limits the current. The drop
CS10 Description
0 NO clock source(Timer/Counter stopped)
1 ݈ܿ݇݅ȀͲȀͳ(No prescaling)
0 ݈ܿ݇݅ȀͲȀͺ(From prescaler)
1 ݈ܿ݇݅ȀͲȀ͸Ͷ(From prescaler)
0 ݈ܿ݇݅ȀͲȀʹͷ͸(From prescaler)
1 ݈ܿ݇݅ȀͲȀͳͲʹͶ(From prescaler)
External clock source on T1 pin. Clock
0 on falling edge.
External clock source on T1 pin. Clock
1
on rising edge.

International Conference on Smart Technologies in Computing, Electrical and Electronics (ICSTCEE 2020) 91
 The selected switching frequency of 15.625 kHz is arrived (uint8_t)(icnt + OFFSET_1)))/x;//12
by dividing a clock frequency of 16 MHz by a prescaler x OC0R1B=(pgm0_read_byte_near(sine256 +
value of 1024. The CS10, CS11 and CS12 are made high, (uint8_t)(icnt + OFFSET_2)))/x;
low and high respectively. A sample program to achieve this x OC0R4A=(pgm0_read_byte_near(sine256 +
is shown below (uint8_t)(icnt +OFFSET_1+128)))/x;
x OC0R3A=(pgm_read_byte_near(sine256 +
sbi (TC0CR1B, CS10); (uint8_t)(icnt + OFFSET_2+128)))/x;
cbi (TCC0R1B, CS11); x OC0R5A=(pgm_read_byte_near(sine256 +
sbi (TCC0R1B, CS12); (uint8_t)(icnt +128)))/x;
cbi stands for clear bit and sbi stands for set bit
The hardware prototype of the proposed converter is shown
The waveform generation bits WGMx0, WGMx1, WGMx2 in Fig. 6.
and WGMx3 are chosen such that the timers work in PWM,
phase and frequency mode as shown in Table III. A sample
program to achieve this is shown below

TABLE III. WAVEFORM GENERATION MODE BIT

Timer/Counter
Update of
Mode WGM13 WGM12 WGM11 WGM10 Mode of TOP
Operation OCRx at
0 0 0 0 0 Normal 0xFFFF Immediate
PWM, Phase
1 0 0 0 1 Correct, 8 bit 0x00FF TOP
PWM, Phase
2 0 0 1 0 Correct, 9 bit
0x01FF TOP
PWM, Phase
3 0 0 1 1 Correct, 10 bit 0x03FF TOP
4 0 1 0 0 CTC OCR1A Immediate
Fast PWM, 8
5 0 1 0 1 bit 0x00FF BOTTOM
Fast PWM, 9
6 0 1 1 0 bit 0x01FF BOTTOM
Fast PWM, 10
7 0 1 1 1 bit 0x03FF BOTTOM
PWM, Phase
8 1 0 0 0 and frequency ICR1 BOTTOM
Correct
PWM, Phase
9 1 0 0 1 and frequency OCR1A BOTTOM
Correct
PWM, Phase
10 1 0 1 0 Correct ICR1 TOP
PWM, Phase
11 1 0 1 1 OCR1A TOP
Correct Fig. 6. Hardware prototype of proposed converter
12 1 1 0 0 CTC ICR1 Immediate
13 1 1 0 1 Reserved -- --
14 1 1 1 0 Fast PWM ICR1 BOTTOM
15 1 1 1 1 Fast PWM OCR1A BOTTOM IV. RESULTS
The timers generate six sinusoidal pulse width modulated A. Simulation Results
gate signals based on look up table. The PWM pins on the The circuit is simulated using MATLAB/Simulink using
ATMEGA 2560 microcontroller are addressed as OCRxA, built in libraries of power system toolbox. The Matlab model
OCRxB or OCRxC, where x is the timer number. A sample of the proposed system is shown in Fig. 5.
program to generate SPWM pulse for the first two switches Fig. 7 shows the simulation results of speed control of IM by
in the 3 Phase H - Bridge converter is shown below: V/f technique.
OC0R2A = (pgm0_read_byte_near(((sine256) + icnt)))/x;
OC0R1A = (pgm0_read_byte_near(sine256 +
(uint8_t)(icnt+OFFSET_1)))/x;

Fig. 7. Output waveforms (Graph 1 to 4)

Fig. 5. MATLAB/SIMULINK model of proposed converter • Graph 1: Supply Voltage V/s Time
• Graph 2: Rectified Output Voltage V/s Time
In the above program OFFSET_1 is the phase shift between • Graph 3: Inverter Output Voltage V/s Time
first phase and second phase and x is the modulation index. • Graph 4: Filtered Output Voltage V/s Time
The program to generate six SPWM pulses is given below: • Graph 5: Stator Current V/s Time
x OC0R2A=(pgm0_read_byte_near(((sine256)+ icnt)))/x; • Graph 6: Speed of rotor V/s Time
x OC0R1A=(pgm0_read_byte_near(sine256 + • Graph 7: Torque V/s Time

92 International Conference on Smart Technologies in Computing, Electrical and Electronics (ICSTCEE 2020)
The waveforms obtained for a modulation index of 0.8 are level protects the MOSFET against heating. The DC input
shown in Fig. 8. LC filters are used to remove the distortion. voltage to the inverter is Vin =230V. The values of
Graph 1, shows the supply voltage. Graph 2, shows the modulation index calculated based on experimental results
rectified output waveforms obtained after the rectifier. is shown in Table IV.
Graph 3, shows the inverter output waveforms obtained
after the 3-Leg MOSFET based inverter. Graph 4, shows the TABLE IV. READING OBTAINED FROM EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
filtered inverter output waveforms obtained after the 3-Leg Vo Modulation
MOSFET based inverter. Sl. f(Hz) Measured Index,
No
(Volts) ma=(Vo/Vin)
1. 10 40 0.173
2. 18 80 0.32
3. 25 104 0.44
4. 32 124 0.54
5 35 132 0.42
6. 38 140 0.628
7. 44 180 0.76

The experimental results obtained from V/f open loop speed

Fig. 8. Output waveforms (Graph 5 to7) control of IM under no-load conditions are shown in Table
V.
B. Hardware Results
TABLE V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
The gate pulses for SPWM for the first two switches is
shown in Fig. 9 and Fig. 10 respectively. It is observed that Sl. f Voltage(Volt) Speed V/f
the switching pulses are 1200 out of phase. No (Hz) (RPM)
1 10 40 120 1
2 18 80 252 1.1
3 25 104 364 1.04
4 32 124 468 0.96
5 35 132 500 0.94
6 38 140 552 0.92
7 44 180 672 1.02

Fig.9. Gating Signal waveform obtained in R and Y Phase
Fig.10. Gating Signal waveform obtained in R and B Phase
V. CONCLUSION
A commercially viable converter controller is proposed in
the present work. The hardware implementation of a low
cost Arduino based V/f drive for a three phase induction
motor driven by single phase supply along with the
simulation results using MATLAB/Simulink is presented.
The proposed drive is validated using both hardware
prototype and simulation. From the results obtained, it is
observed that, the ratio of voltage to frequency is almost
constant with a tolerance of ± 6%. The prototype designed
with a low cost microcontroller results in reduction of
overall cost of the system. The MOSFETs are driven using
simple optocoupler based gate drive circuit thereby further
reducing the complexity and the cost. The dynamic response
of the converter can be further increased by integrating a
feedback loop to the proposed converter.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Authors would like to sincerely thank the Vice Chancellor
and Management of Ramaiah University of Applied
Sciences, Bangalore for providing all facilities required to
carry out this research work.

Modulation index is varied from 0 to 0.8 and the voltage

varies from 0 to 184 V proportionally. The reduced voltage

International Conference on Smart Technologies in Computing, Electrical and Electronics (ICSTCEE 2020) 93
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