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Book Title Computational Intelligence Methods for Green Technology and Sustainable Development
Series Title
Chapter Title Synchronous Control of Dual Motor with Master-Slave and Cross-Coupling Methods
Copyright Year 2023
Copyright HolderName The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Author Family Name Le
Particle
Given Name Vong Ky Cong
Prefix
Suffix
Role
Division Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Organization Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education
Address Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
Email kyvong1998@gmail.com
Corresponding Author Family Name Tran
Particle
Given Name Duc Thien
Prefix
Suffix
Role
Division Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Organization Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education
Address Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
Email thientd@hcmute.edu.vn
Author Family Name Nhat
Particle
Given Name Thien Mai
Prefix
Suffix
Role
Division Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Organization Vinh Long University of Technology Education
Address Vinh Long, Vietnam
Email thienmn@vlute.edu.vn

Abstract This paper presents the synchronous efficiency of two synchronous control methods based on a PID
controller for the model of two electric motors with variable load. The two synchronization methods used
are the Master-Slave method and the Cross-Coupling method. First, a mathematical model of the motor,
load variation, and system is established. Then, a combine with Motor parameters throughs identification
to conduct system simulation. Simultaneously, the design and synchronous control for this two-motors
system were also carried out. Moreover, the characteristics and properties of the Master-Slave and Cross-
 Coupling synchronization methods are studied and analyzed. The Master-Slave method uses a sample
Motor and is followed by a dependent Motor that is operated on the signal of the sample Motor. The Cross-
Coupling method is based on the signal error of each motor compared to the desired value and the error
between the motors. Finally, the evaluation of the effectiveness of these two methods is made based on the
results obtained from simulation and experiment. From simulation and experimental results, it shows that
the Master-Slave and Cross-Coupling methods help to solve phase synchronization and error. The
difference between the two motors, the Cross-Coupling method also solves the problem of the response
time of the two motors and the error at the start of the two motors simply.
Keywords Dual motor system - Master-slave - Cross-coupling - Synchronization control - PID controller
(separated by '-')
 Synchronous Control of Dual Motor
Author Proof

with Master-Slave and Cross-Coupling Methods

Vong Ky Cong Le1 , Duc Thien Tran1(B) , and Thien Mai Nhat2
1 Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Ho Chi Minh City University of
Technology and Education, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
thientd@hcmute.edu.vn
2 Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Vinh Long University of Technology
Education, Vinh Long, Vietnam
thienmn@vlute.edu.vn

Abstract. This paper presents the synchronous efficiency of two synchronous

control methods based on a PID controller for the model of two electric motors
with variable load. The two synchronization methods used are the Master-Slave
method and the Cross-Coupling method. First, a mathematical model of the motor,
load variation, and system is established. Then, a combine with Motor parameters
throughs identification to conduct system simulation. Simultaneously, the design
and synchronous control for this two-motors system were also carried out. More-
over, the characteristics and properties of the Master-Slave and Cross-Coupling
synchronization methods are studied and analyzed. The Master-Slave method uses
a sample Motor and is followed by a dependent Motor that is operated on the sig-
nal of the sample Motor. The Cross-Coupling method is based on the signal error
of each motor compared to the desired value and the error between the motors.
Finally, the evaluation of the effectiveness of these two methods is made based on
the results obtained from simulation and experiment. From simulation and exper-
imental results, it shows that the Master-Slave and Cross-Coupling methods help
to solve phase synchronization and error. The difference between the two motors,
the Cross-Coupling method also solves the problem of the response time of the
two motors and the error at the start of the two motors simply.

Keywords: Dual motor system · Master-slave · Cross-coupling ·

Synchronization control · PID controller

1 Introduction
In many industrial applications, such as papermaking, steel mills and manufacturing
assembly [1], loads are often driven by two or more motors simultaneously. Motors can
be designed to follow a given trajectory and maintain their speed throughout the run.
It has been found that the synchronization performance of the system can be degraded
due to a number of factors such as changes in system parameters and external or inter-
nal disturbances in the system, and synchronization errors will affect the quality of the
workpieces and even to the stop of the work process [2]. Therefore, it is possible to

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023

Y.-P. Huang et al. (Eds.): GTSD 2022, LNNS 567, pp. 1–11, 2023.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19694-2_52
 2 V. K. C. Le et al.

achieve good synchronizing performance on many motor synchronous control systems

Author Proof

while having different noise types, which has become a challenge due to the increasing
demand for response speed. Fast response and high precision manufacturing inspection.
There are two ways to synchronize motors with each other: mechanical synchronous
or electrical synchronous [1]. Many motors can be synchronously mechanically driven
or controlled [2]. However, mechanical synchronization is less widely used for the fol-
lowing reasons: high mechanical wear, low control accuracy, and limited transmission
range [1]. In electrical synchronization, there are two typical synchronization methods,
master-slave and cross-coupling.
In the traditional synchronous control system, each motor is designed with a sep-
arate controller and the same set value. Therefore, when the noise factor is affected,
the synchronization is not guaranteed. To solve this problem, the Master-Slave method
is proposed. Compared with the equivalent control, the master-slave control has better
synchronization control performance under noise [2] by using the output signal of the
master motor as the input signal of the slave motor. This method is widely applied in
the industries of steel rolling, lifting bridge, paper production [1]. However, when the
slave motor is affected by noise, the system cannot overcome it, affecting the synchro-
nization of the system. From that problem, the Cross-Coupling synchronization method
was first proposed by Koren and extended by Tomizuka et al. [3]. The Cross-Coupling
synchronous control method is superior to the Master-Slave control in anti-interference
[4] through the use of the error feedback value of each motor relative to each other and
to the system.
Based on the synchronous control method of cross-coupling, many scholars have
proposed many methods of deviation-coupling, ring coupling, relative coupling [2, 4].
These improved methods can be used in synchronous control systems of more than three
motors. Speed control of a single motor is the basis of multi-motor synchronous control
[4]. In terms of speed and position control algorithms, PID control is the most classic
method. The article has applied master-slave control, cross-coupling for the synchronous
system of phase, position and speed of two motors and the efficiency has been verified
by simulation and experiment.
Regarding the research on synchronous methods in Vietnam, there are project on
synchronization such as “Synchronizing Multi-Motors Control With Electric Lineshaft”
in year 2009 by Binh and Luong [6]. From that, it can be seen that the research on motor
synchronization in Vietnam is quite small. Therefore, the study of these synchronization
algorithms is very necessary. That is why this paper studies two methods of Master-Slave
synchronization and Cross-Coupling. This paper is done through the establishment of a
mathematical model of the motor, the variation of the load and the system. From there,
combine with the parameters of the Motor to simulate the system. Simultaneously, the
design and synchronous control of the two-motor system on the real model are also
carried out. Two methods of Master-Slave, Cross-Coupling and PID controller are also
studied and analyzed. The evaluation of the effectiveness of these two methods is based
on both experiments and simulations. From the simulation and experimental results, it is
shown that it is effective when using two synchronous methods Master-Slave and Cross-
Coupling to help solve phase synchronization and error between two motors, especially
 Synchronous Control of Dual Motor with Master-Slave 3

the Cross-Coupling method also solves problems. Solve the problem of the response
Author Proof

time of the two motors and the error at the start of the two motors.
In this paper, the structure will be presented as follows, the theory will be clarified in
Sect. 2. Section 3 will deal with kinematics and motor equation recognition. Section 4
will perform simulations based on differential equations of the motor. In Sect. 5, some
experiments will be performed to clarify the advantages and disadvantages of the two
synchronous methods. Section 6 conclusions.

2 The Mathematical Model of the Dual Motors

2.1 Mechanical Parts
Applying Newton’s law to the motor system, the mathematical model of the motor is
presented as the following equation.

Ji θ̈i = Ti − bi θ̇i − TLi

where θi the output is the angular position of the shaft; θ̈i ; θ̇i are the acceleration and
angular velocity of the rotor, respectively; Ti is the torque of the motor; Ji is the rotor
inertia force; bi is the coefficient of friction; with i = 1, 2.
The motor torque is proportional to the armature current i by a constant factor kti as
shown in the relation below.

Ti = kti i (1)

2.2 Electrical Parts

Considering Kirchhoff’s law, the electrical parameters in the DC motor presented as
AQ1 Eq. (3) below
•
Li ii = −Ri ii + Vi − ei (2)

where Ri is the armature resistance; Li is the armature inductance; Vi the voltage applied
to the motor’s armature; with i = 1, 2.
The back emf, ei , is proportional to the angular velocity of the shaft by a constant
factor kei
•
ei = kei θ (3)

From Eqs. (1) and (4), we obtain

⎧
⎪ 1 
⎪
⎨ θ̈i = J kt i ii − bi θ̇i − TLi
i
 , (4)
⎪
⎪
• 1 •
⎩ ii = −Ri ii + Vi − kei θi
Li
 4 V. K. C. Le et al.

3 Synchronization Techniques
Author Proof

3.1 Proportional Integral Derivative (PID)

A Proportional Integral Derivative Controller is a controller with a long history in the
field of automatic control, dating back to the last century [5]. Due to its intuitiveness
and simplicity, the high performance achieved in many practical systems has made it the
standard controller in the industry. There are various methods to adjust PID controller
parameters such as manual tuning, Ziegler-Nichols, software tools, Cohen-Coon. In
this paper, we will present how to select controller parameters based on the manual
adjustment method to understand the influence of these parameters on the system. The
structure of the PID controller is presented as Eq. (5) below.

τ
dei (τ )
ui (τ ) = KP i ei (τ ) + KI i ei (τ )d τ + KDi (5)
dτ
0

where ui (τ ) is the output control signal, ei (τ ) is the error of the system. KPi is that the
larger the value proportional gain, the faster the response, hence the larger the error.
KIi is that the larger the integral gain, the faster the stability error is eliminated. KDi is
that a larger differential gain reduces overshoot but slows down transient response, with
i = 1, 2.

3.2 Master-Slave Method

The configuration of the Master-Slave synchronous method for the motor synchronous
system is shown in Fig. 2. This synchronous method uses one motor as a template and
is followed by the dependent motors, the dependent motors. This dependency works on
the signal of the sample Motor. Changes to the template Motor will affect all dependent
motors. But any change on the dependent motors does not affect the sample device.
Therefore, when the auxiliary motors are disturbed, the system will not be able to over-
come it, affecting the synchronization ability of the system as shown in Fig. 1 with TLi
being the load.
The above system has different error signals presented as the following equation.
⎧ • •
⎨ e1 (t) = θr − θ1
• •
(6)
⎩
e2 (t) = θ1 − θ2
•
where e1 (t), e2 (t) is the error of motor 1 and motor 2, respectively; θr is the set value;
• •
θ1 , θ2 are the output speed response of motor 1 and motor 2, respectively.
Based on Eqs. (6) and (7) the control law of two motors is calculated as the equation
below.

τ
dei (τ )
ui (τ ) = KP i ei (τ ) + KI i ei (τ )d τ + KDi (7)
dτ
0

where ui (τ ) is the output control signal, ei (τ ) is the error of the system; with i = 1, 2.
 Synchronous Control of Dual Motor with Master-Slave 5
Author Proof

Fig. 1. Master-slave structure diagram

3.3 Cross-Coupling Technique Method

The Cross-Coupling synchronization method is a method that works based on the error of
the signal of each motor compared to the desired value and the error between the motors.
This allows the system to notice any changes affecting all motors. Therefore, when there
are disturbances occurring to the motors, the system can detect and correct them, which
stabilizes and increases its synchronization ability. This method was originally proposed
by Koren for production systems and was further developed by Tomizuka et al. The
configuration of this method is shown in Fig. 2, where with TLi being the load.

Fig. 2. Cross-coupling structure diagram

For the Cross-Coupling method, there are also different error signals and are
presented as the following equation.
⎧ • • •
⎨ e1 (t) = θr − 2θ1 + θ2
• • •
(8)
⎩
e2 (t) = θr + θ1 − 2θ2
•
where e1 (t), e2 (t) is the error of motor 1 and motor 2, respectively; θr is the set value;
• •
θ1 , θ2 are the output speed response of motor 1 and motor 2, respectively.
Based on Eqs. (6) and (9) the control law of two motors is calculated as the equation
below.

t
d
ui (t) = KPi ei (t) + KIi ei (t)dt + KDi ei (t), (9)
dt
0
 6 V. K. C. Le et al.

where ui (t) is the control signal; ei (t) is the error signal; with i = 1, 2.
Author Proof

4 Result of Simulation

4.1 Simulation Setup

In this paper, a number of position and velocity simulations are proposed on the two-
motor synchronous model. In the first simulation, perform the no-load case, TLi = 0 N·m.
The load case will be performed on the second simulation, TLi = 500 N · m. The
simulation environment is Matlab/Simulink 2018b with a sampling time of 0.01 s, how
to calculate ode14x. The set signal to perform the above simulations is presented as
Eq. (10) below

xd = π sin(2π ft), (10)

where f is the frequency, selected at 0.01 Hz velocity; t is time.

In order to prove the superiority of the proposed synchronous methods, the simulation
results of these two methods are compared with each other. The parameters of the PID
AQ2 controller are shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Simulated PID controller parameters of each motor

Case Parameter
Speed Motor 1: KP1 = 12; KI1 = 10; KD1 = 0
Motor 2: KP2 = 14; KI2 = 9; KD2 = 0

4.2 Velocity Simulation Results

Firstly, the reference setpoint results based on two motor synchronous control methods
are presented as Fig. 3.
Secondly, the error results are showed in two motors synchronous control methods
in Fig. 4.
Finally, the output response results based on two motors synchronous control
AQ3 methods are given in Fig. 5.
Through simulation results, the Cross-Coupling synchronization method achieves
the best results in terms of phase synchronization efficiency, error and response time.
As for the Master-Slave synchronization method, although the response time is not
good when not using the synchronous method, the synchronization efficiency is good.
Not using the synchronous method has a good response time, but the synchronization
efficiency is very poor in terms of both phase and error.
 Synchronous Control of Dual Motor with Master-Slave 7
Author Proof

Fig. 3. Two motor output and setting value. a No synchronous method is used; b master-slave
method; c cross-coupling method

5 Experimental Results
5.1 Experimental System

In this paper, an experimental model is made to verify the results of the synchronous
effectiveness of each method. At the same time, it also shows the cases of interference
causing system delay when using the synchronous method and not using the synchronous
method. The experimental model uses two Planet 12 V DC motors, two control circuits (H
Bridge), two 600-pulses Encoder, and a STM32F04 microcontroller. The experimental
model components are annotated as the following Fig. 6.
In the experimental part, the set value of the system is described as the Eq. (10) in
the simulation part. The system’s PID parameters are presented in Table 2.

5.2 System Experimental Results

The experimental results of the system’s speed that are applied the above synchronization
and asynchronization methods are presented to set point, error and output as the following
figures.
 8 V. K. C. Le et al.
Author Proof

Fig. 4. Error of motor a between setting value and output motor 1 of three methods; b between
setting value and output motor 2 of three methods; c between motor 1 and output motor 2 of three
methods

Fig. 5. Output of two motors in each method

First, the reference setpoint results based on two motor synchronous control methods
are presented as Fig. 7.
 Synchronous Control of Dual Motor with Master-Slave 9
Author Proof

Fig. 6. Experimental model

Table 2. Experimental PID controller parameters of each motor

Case Parameter
Speed Motor 1: KP1 = 0.15; KI1 = 0.9; KD1 = 0.003
Motor 2: KP1 = 0.15; KI1 = 0.9; KD1 = 0.003

Fig. 7. Setting value and output of two motors. a Asynchronous method is used; b master-slave
method; c cross-coupling method
 10 V. K. C. Le et al.

Second, the error results are showed in two motors synchronous control methods in
Author Proof

Fig. 8.

Fig. 8. Error between two motors. a Asynchronous method is used; b master-slave method; c
cross-coupling method

Final, the output response results based on two motors synchronous control methods
are given in Fig. 9.
Through the experimental results, the Cross-Coupling synchronization method is
the most optimal in terms of synchronism and system response in terms of speed and
position synchronization. The Master-Slave method synchronizes well in terms of speed,
but in terms of position motor 2 has a certain delay compared to motor 1 which adversely
affects the synchronization result. Because motor 2 receives the output value of motor
1 as an input signal is frequently fast, the microcontroller cannot handle it well.
 Synchronous Control of Dual Motor with Master-Slave 11
Author Proof

Fig. 9. Output of two motors in each method

6 Conclusions
In this paper, the dual motor control system have been presented. By combining Master-
Slave and Cross-Coupling methods, the simulated results demonstrate to control a two
motors model that was built on MATLAB/Simulink. Besides, comparing the output
response with the input signal will help determine the error in the system calculation.
Moreover, an experimental model is made to verify the results of the synchronous of
the system’s speed that applied the Master-Slave and Cross-Coupling methods. In the
future, the results of this research can be used to build a synchronous controller for
multi-motors model with accuracy and high speed application in production as well as
daily life.

Acknowledgment. This research was implemented at Robotics and Intelligent Control Labora-
tory (RIC Lab), Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Ho Chi Minh City University
of Technology and Education, Vietnam.

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1016/j.isatra.2016.01.015
3. Pkrez-Pinal, F.J., Nunez, C., Alvarez, R., Cervantes, I.: Comparison of multi-motor synchro-
nization techniques. In: IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, pp. 1670–1675 (2004). https://
doi.org/10.1109/IECON.2004.1431832
4. Sun, G., Mao, Y., Li, X., Ni, Y.: Dual-motor master-slave cross-coupling synchronization con-
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 Author Queries
Author Proof

Chapter 52

Query Refs. Details Required Author’s response

AQ1 The equation citations in the text does not match with the cor-
responding equation. Please check all the citations and change
accordingly.
AQ2 Please check and confirm if the inserted citation of Table 1 is
correct. If not, please suggest an alternate citation. Please note
that tables should be cited sequentially in the text.
AQ3 Caption of Figs. 5 and 9 seems to be identical. Please check and
correct if necessary.