IET Power Electronics

Research Article

Chaos in the switched reluctance motor drive ISSN 1755-4535

Received on 10th August 2019
Revised 4th February 2020
employing digital speed and current control Accepted on 25th February 2020
E-First on 3rd April 2020
doi: 10.1049/iet-pel.2019.0919
www.ietdl.org

Sen Li1 , Mehdi Moallem1, Poras T. Balsara1, Babak Fahimi1

1Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA
E-mail: sen.li@utdallas.edu

Abstract: Adjustable speed motor drives are among the most representative types of non-linear systems which can exhibit rich
varieties of complex dynamic behaviours. This study presents the investigation of chaotic phenomena in the switched reluctance
(SR) motor drive employing digital speed regulator and hysteresis current controller. For conducting stability analysis, a small
signal discrete-time model of the SR drive has been derived and analysed for a range of control parameters. The simulation
results of time-domain and frequency-domain analysis and phase portraits of the SR drive system are also demonstrated and
discussed. Two influencing factors for chaotic behaviour in the SR drive system are identified and examined in detail: the
feedback delay of the speed regulator and measurement imperfection from a rotary incremental encoder. For verification, an 8/6
pole 2.3 kW SR drive is employed in experimental tests. The bifurcation diagrams of the reference signal, waveforms of phase
current, and the corresponding frequency spectra are recorded and illustrated for both normal and chaotic operations, which
reveal the pattern of chaos exhibited from this type of electric drive system.

1 Introduction microcontroller units, and direct regulation of phase current. In

Electric motor drives are crucial members of modern energy
conversion and transportation systems. They are playing essential
roles in various industrial applications including electric and hybrid
vehicles, cooling fans, robots, and construction machinery. In
recent years, significant research has been done on switched
reluctance motors (SRMs) [1–8]. Typically, compared with
induction, DC, and permanent magnet motors, the rotor of SRM is
of a simpler type in which no magnets, windings, commutators or
brushes exists. One major benefit of this structure lies in the easy
cooling of the motor, which ensures the proper functionality of
SRM under harsh environmental conditions. In general, some
salient features of SRM include simple and rigid structure, high
temperature and fault tolerance, low manufacturing cost, and
remarkable torque-speed characteristics with an extended speed
range in the constant power region [9, 10]. On the other hand, the
magnetisation characteristics of SRM such as phase inductance and
torque profile are highly non-linear and position-dependent due to
the double salient structure of the motor. These intrinsic non-linear
properties pose a challenge to develop accurate performance
estimators and make the machine to exhibit high levels of radial
vibration, torque pulsation and hence acoustic noise [11–13].
Generally, numerous sources of non-linearity can be identified in
the motor drive systems including switching behaviour of power
semiconductor switches, magnetic saturation of stator/rotor core,
and sophisticated loss mechanisms including eddy current,
hysteresis, and stray losses. Under certain operating conditions,
complex non-linear phenomena can be observed in switched
reluctance (SR) drive systems. Previously, the preliminary studies
of chaos in the voltage-controlled and hysteresis-controlled SR
drives have been reported in [14, 15]; the simulated results of non-
linear behaviours in linear SRM have been demonstrated in [16].
The examination of non-linear dynamics in the SR drive with
delayed feedback control has been presented in [17]. Similar to the
case of power electronic converters, subharmonic and chaotic
oscillations are direct evidence of instability within the drive
system. Consequently, for reliable operation of the machine, the
occurrence of these phenomena is highly unwanted.
The hysteresis control of current is among the most commonly
used control scheme for the SR drive system because of its
simplicity, easy implementation with digital signal processors and
most applications of electric drive systems, the proportional–
integral (PI) controller is usually employed for speed regulation
because of its easy configuration and convenient implementation
within various types of control topologies. On the other hand, some
practical issues including electromagnetic interference (EMI),
cross-coupling, and other disturbances can adversely influence the
controller operation. Owing to these non-idealities, the drive
performance can be affected by the poor transient response from
the feedback loop. Some improved control techniques including
model predictive control and fuzzy logic have been proposed to
remove the unwanted fluctuations and other induced uncertainties
exhibited in the speed and torque profiles [18–20]. Furthermore,
the phase current of the electric machine is usually limited below
certain maximum value for protecting power switches and internal
windings. However, in most scenarios, the extra degree of
undesired non-linearity can be introduced into the drive system by
such protection measures. Under certain parametric settings, even
chaos can be stimulated, in which case the normal behaviour of
drive operation is interrupted. Hence the reliability of the system is
compromised [21].
In this study, a comprehensive study of the occurrence and
mechanisms of non-linear dynamic phenomena in the SR motor
drive system with digitally implemented current and speed
controllers is presented. This is not being reported in the existing
literature and current references. The main focuses of this study
include the mathematical modelling of the closed-loop SR drive
system, stability and simulation analysis of the selected system
model, and the experimental examinations of the nonlinear
dynamics in the prototype of the digitally controlled SR drive
system. For different values of motor speed, by adjusting the
proportional gain of the speed controller, a variety of distinct
behaviours of the drive system have been observed and identified
including fundamental, subharmonic, and chaotic modes of
operation. The discussion and explanation of the obtained results
are also covered in detail. Overall, this study provides one with
significant analytical and practical insight into the non-linear
dynamics of the SR drive system, which is well supported by the
simulation analysis and experimental tests.
The contents of the paper are organised as follows: Section 2
demonstrates the linearised small-signal model of the SR drive and
derivation of the system's closed-loop transfer function in discrete-

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 are controlled independently for manipulating the asymmetric
bridge converter. Specifically, to achieve proper phase
commutation, the turn-on angle θon and turn-off angle θoff of the
low-side switches are determined by the recorded rotor position θ.
Within each active phase period, the high-side switch is controlled
by the hysteresis band Δv. To simplify the model, the current of
adjacent phases is non-overlapping for the normal operation. The
reference signal, vc, is generated from the speed regulator, which is
implemented by a PI controller. A multiplexer is employed to
select and scale the active phase current with gain ki and outputs
the feedback signal vi. The equations of vi, vc, and Δv are expressed
Fig. 1  Configurations of the 8/6 pole four-phase SRM
by (1) and (2)
(a) Cross-section view, (b) External package

vc = kiiref = kp ωref − ωf + ∫ kint ωref − ωf dt (1)

vi = kiim, Δv = kiΔi (2)

where ωref is the reference speed, ωf is the feedback signal of the

motor speed ω, im is the mth phase current, iref is the reference
current, kp and kint are the proportional and integral gains,
respectively. Fig. 3 displays the ideal profiles of phase current im
and inductance Lm of the SR drive. The inductance at the aligned
rotor position (θa) and unaligned position (θu) are denoted by La
and Lu, respectively. The slope of the phase inductance Lm θ ,
dLm θ /dθ, is given by

dLm θ La − Lu
=M= (3)
dθ θa − θu

The electromagnetic torque T e im , in the absence of magnetic

saturation, is approximated by

∂W m im2 dLm θ 1
T e im = = ⋅ = Mim2 (4)
∂θ 2 dθ 2

Fig. 2  Model of the SR drive system The mechanical equation of SRM is as follows:
(a) Controller scheme, (b) Converter schematic
1 2 dω
Mi = J + Bω + T l (5)
2 m dt

where J is the inertia coefficient of the motor, T l is the load torque,

and B is the friction coefficient. The phase voltage equation is
given by

dim
vm = (Rs + Mω)im + Lm θ (6)
dt

where vm and Rs denote the mth phase voltage and winding

Fig. 3  Ideal inductance profile and phase current waveform of the resistance, respectively. Using (5) and (6), the system equations of
hysteresis-controlled SR drive SRM are given by

time domain; to identify the dynamic properties and chaotic dim vm − Rs + Mω im

=
behaviour of the system, the analysis of system's local stability, dt Lm θ
numerical calculation of largest Lyapunov exponent (LLE), and dθ
bifurcation of reference current under different settings of the =ω (7)
dt
controller are studied in Section 3; Section 4 presents the
discussion of simulated results including time-domain current dω 1 1 2
= Mi − Bω − T l
waveforms, frequency spectra, and phase portraits; Section 5 dt J 2 m
provides the investigation of measurement imperfection from the
rotary incremental encoder and its impact on the actual drive For the motor drive system with digital control, the dynamic
operation; the obtained experimental data are analysed and behaviours exhibit entirely in the discrete domain. Let θ = θu, θa ,
explained further in Section 6; the conclusion and some comments then the discrete-time difference equations of SRM are derived,
of the paper are given in Section 7. which can be expressed as

2 Modelling of the SR drive system

The transversal view and external package of the 8/6 pole 4-phase
SRM are shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 2 displays the controller diagram
and converter schematic of the hysteresis-controlled SR drive. The
high-side (A1, B1, C1, D1) and low-side switches (A2, B2, C2, D2)

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 im k + 1 − im k vm k − Rs + Mω k im k first-order lag with gain kspd and time constant T f . Thus, the speed
=
Ts Lu + M θ k − θu feedback transfer function Gf z can be expressed by
θ k+1 −θ k
=ωk (8) kspd
Ts Gf z =
1 + (2/T s) ⋅ ((z − 1)/(z + 1)) ⋅ T f
ω k+1 −ω k 1 1 (19)
= Mi k 2 − Bω k − T l kspdT s z + 1
Ts J 2 m =
T s + 2T f z + T s − 2T f
where T s is the sampling period of the system. Apparently, (8) is
non-linear, hence local linearisation should be performed. The transfer function for the current regulator Gr z is
Assuming that the load torque T l is constant, let
kpp + kii(T s /2) z + −kpp + kii(T s /2)
Gr z = (20)
im k = Imo + Δim k (9) z−1

vm k = V m + Δvm k (10) where kpp and kii are the gain constants. From (2), the current
feedback gain Gs is set to ki. Using (15)–(20), then the open-loop
ω k = ωo + Δω k (11) transfer function Goc z is found which is given by

θ k = θo + Δθ k (12) Gc z Gr z GI z Gw z Gf z
Goc z = (21)
1 + GI z Gr z Gs + GI z Gw z Gm
where Imo, V m, ωo, θo and Δim k , Δvm k , Δω k , Δθ k are the
local operating conditions and small-signal variations around the Therefore, the closed-loop transfer function Gcc z can be
corresponding operating point, respectively. Note that when T s is expressed by
sufficiently small and the SR drive operates at moderate or low-
speed levels, θ k + 1 ≃ θ k ≃ θo. Therefore, by ignoring the Goc z
Gcc z = (22)
second-order small signal terms, the linearised difference equations Gf z 1 + Goc z
can be simplified as
After expanding and rearranging the terms in the numerator and
Δim k + 1 − Δim k denominator, (22) can be rewritten as
Ts
Δvm k − Rs + Mωo Δim k − MImoΔω k z3 A7 + z2 A8 + zA9 + A10
= (13) Gcc z = (23)
Lmo z A1 + z4 A2 + z3 A3 + z2 A4 + zA5 + A6
5

Δω k + 1 − Δω k MImo B where the expressions for A1 − A10 are given in the Appendix.
= Δim k − Δω k
Ts J J Hence, the characteristic equation is

where Lmo = Lu + M θo − θu . The next step is to construct the L z = z5 A1 + z4 A2 + z3 A3 + z2 A4 + zA5 + A6 = 0 (24)

small-signal z-domain model of the SR drive system, as shown in
Fig. 4. To begin with, performing z transformation on (13), one can The roots of (24) determine the stability of the linearised SR drive
obtain system. In particular, if all the roots reside within the unit circle,
then the system is stable. On the other hand, if any root is located
Δim z z − 1 Δvm z − Rs + Mωo Δim z − MImoΔω z outside the unit circle, then the system becomes unstable. Since the
=
Ts Lmo linearisation is performed at a given rotor position, this process
(14) should be repeated under different conditions including the aligned
Δω z z − 1 MImo B
= Δim z − Δω z and unaligned positions.
Ts J J

From the first equation of (14), the transfer function GI z and Gm 3 Stability analysis of the SR drive system
can be found which are given by The developed small-signal model can be used for studying the
local stability of the system. To proceed with the analysis, the
Δim Ts following local operating conditions are specified:
GI z = = (15)
Δvm Δω = 0 Lmoz + (RsT s + MωoT s − Lmo)
ωo = ωref (25)
Δvm
Gm = = MImo (16) 2 T l + Bωo
Δω Δim = 0
Imo = (26)
M
From the second equation of (14), the transfer function Gw z ,
which relates Δω and Δim, is given by θon + θoff
Lmo = Lu + M − θu (27)
2
Δω MImoT s
Gw z = = (17) The selected parameters of the model are given in Table 1.
Δim Jz + BT s − J

The transfer function for the speed regulator Gc z is

kp + kint(T s /2) z + −kp + kint(T s /2)

Gc z = (18)
z−1

where kp and kint are the proportional and integral gain,

respectively. In this model, the speed measurement is treated as a Fig. 4  Small signal z-domain model of the SR drive system

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Table 1 Parameters of the SR drive for stability analysis Table 2 System poles at diverse values of kp (Tf = 2 ms)
Parameters Values Values of kp Poles ( pi) Stability
unaligned position θu, deg 36 0.01 p1,2 = 0.999485 ± 0.002657i stable
aligned position θa, deg 60 p3 = 0.992339, p4 = 0.999949
turn-on angle θon, deg 42 p5 = 0.999999
turn-off angle θoff , deg 54 0.1 p1,2 = 1.001429 ± 0.006852i unstable
inductance Lu at θu, μH 60 p3 = 0.988406, p4 = 0.999995
inductance La at θa, μH 560
p5 = 0.999999
winding resistance Rs, mΩ 12
0.2 p1,2 = 1.002456 ± 0.008786i unstable
load torque T l, N m 0
p3 = 0.986349, p4 = 0.999998
speed control integral gain kint 0.1
p5 = 0.999999
current feedback gain Gs, V/A 0.05
0.3 p1,2 = 1.003186 ± 0.010130i unstable
current regulator gain kpp 5
p3 = 0.984887, p4 = 0.999998
current regulator integral gain kii 0.5
p5 = 0.999999
speed feedback gain kspd 800
0.4 p1,2 = 1.003771 ± 0.011195i unstable
inertia momentum J, kg m2 0.0034
p3 = 0.983718, p4 = 0.999999
friction coefficient B, N m s/rad 0.0023
p5 = 0.999999
reference speed ωref , rpm 1000
0.5 p1,2 = 1.004267 ± 0.012093i unstable
sampling time T s, μs 5
p3 = 0.982726, p4 = 0.999999
p5 = 0.999999
0.6 p1,2 = 1.004701 ± 0.012876i unstable
p3 = 0.981858, p4 = 0.999999
p5 = 0.999999

Using these parameters, the pole loci of the system can be

obtained at diverse values of kp. Considering the existence of
certain non-idealities including the measurement delay of motor
speed and EMI issues caused by the power source and converter, T f
is set to 2 ms, which is consistent with the actual operating
condition (as a comparison, T f is set to 5 μs for ideal operating
condition). Fig. 5 shows the loci of system poles for different
values of T f (the extreme cases of Lmo = Lu and Lmo = La are also
included and displayed in these figures). The values of the
corresponding system poles are summarised in Tables 2 and 3. It
can be seen that when T f is set to a large value, the stable region of
the system is very small and, as kp increases, two poles ( p1 and p2)
cross the boundary of the unit circle. Consequently, the linearised
system becomes unstable. On the other hand, when T f is small all
poles remain within the unit circle as kp varies. Therefore, in this
case, the local stability of the system is maintained.
When instability condition occurs, it is helpful to identify the
operating mode of the drive system. In particular, whether chaotic
behaviours can be expected in the system. Calculating Lyapunov
exponent is an effective way to identify the existence of such
abnormal phenomena. Generally, chaos is featured by divergence
of nearby trajectories hence its long-term predictability is
impossible. This property is very useful in finding and quantifying
the ‘chaotic behaviour’ of a dynamic system by the rate of
separation of adjacent trajectories. Let ε0 be the initial distance
between two close orbits, as the time elapses, the separation can be
expressed as

ε t = ε0eλt (28)

Note that the sign of the variable λ determines the expansion or

contraction of the distance. Specifically, if λ > 0, the two
trajectories diverge exponentially with time, and vice versa. Since
the rate of separation varies along the trajectory, it is necessary to
find the average divergence rate over a long section of such
trajectory. In addition, the rate also depends on the initial condition.
Fig. 5  Loci of system poles when k p varies from 0.01 to 0.6 when ωref = 
Thus, plenty of measurements are required to evaluate the average
1000 rpm Lyapunov exponent. In addition, for the first-order systems, only
(a) Tf = 2 ms, (b) Tf = 5 μs one Lyapunov exponent exists. On the other hand, for higher order
systems, there are several Lyapunov exponents within the system,

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 Table 3 System poles at diverse values of kp (Tf = 5 μs)
Values of kp Poles ( pi) Stability
0.01 p1,2 = 0.996914 ± 0.003599i stable
p3 = 0.333310, p4 = 0.999949
p5 = 0.999999
0.1 p1,2 = 0.996995 ± 0.014778i stable
p3 = 0.333104, p4 = 0.999995
p5 = 0.999999
0.2 p1,2 = 0.997108 ± 0.021127i stable
p3 = 0.332875, p4 = 0.999998
p5 = 0.999999
0.3 p1,2 = 0.997222 ± 0.025964i stable
p3 = 0.332646, p4 = 0.999998
p5 = 0.999999
0.4 p1,2 = 0.997336 ± 0.030028i stable
p3 = 0.332418, p4 = 0.999999
p5 = 0.999999
0.5 p1,2 = 0.997450 ± 0.033602i stable
Fig. 6  LLE at diverse values of k p
p3 = 0.332190, p4 = 0.999999
(a) kp = 0.01, (b) kp = 0.1, (c) kp = 0.2, (d) kp = 0.6
p5 = 0.999999
each determining the expansion or contraction of the system in one 0.6 p1,2 = 0.997563 ± 0.036828i stable
specific direction. If any of these exponents becomes positive, then p3 = 0.331962, p4 = 0.999999
the system starts operating in the chaotic region. Consequently, the
p5 = 0.999999
positivity of the LLE, λLLE, can serve as the sound evidence of
chaos in the given dynamical system.
For the case of SR drive, due to the intrinsic complexity of
magnetisation characteristics of SRM and strong mutual coupling δ j i = D jeλLLE iΔt (32)
of system variables, it is impractical to compute λLLE using the
analytical approach. Alternatively, by performing analysis on a where D j is the initial separation. By taking logarithm on both
uniformly sampled time series from the selected system output sides of equation, (32) can be rewritten as
signal, one can numerically calculate λLLE of the original system.
Let S = s1, s2, …, sN denote an N-point time series with sampling ln δ j i = ln D j + λLLE iΔt (33)
interval Δt, then the reconstructed phase space vector Yi can be
expressed as Equation (33) reveals the linear relation between ln δ j i and λLLE.
Therefore, λLLE can be easily calculated by adopting least-squares
Yi = si, si + τ, …, si + l−1 τ , i = 1, 2, …, K (29) fitting to the ‘average’ line y i defined by

where K = N − l − 1 τ, τ is the time delay that can be found at the
first local minimum of the average mutual information function,
and l is the embedding dimension, which can be found using
Takens’ theorem [22, 23]. After reconstructing the phase space, the
next step is to locate the nearest neighbour of each point on the
trajectory. The expression for the minimal distance between the
particular reference point, Y j and its nearest neighbour Y j′ is found
by
δ j 0 = min Y j − Y j′
where δ j 0 is the initial distance and ⋅ denotes the Euclidean
norm. For considering each pair of neighbours as the nearby initial
conditions for different trajectories, an extra constraint is imposed
that the temporal separation among nearest neighbours is greater
than the mean period τm of S (i.e. j − j′ > τm). Then, λLLE can be
estimated as [24]
1 δj i + k
λLLE i, k = ln
kΔt δj i
where ⋅ denotes the average of all values of j, k is a constant that
specifies the differentiation interval, δ j i is the distance between
the jth pair of nearest neighbours after i time steps. The main issue
with this approach lies in the difficulty of normalising δ j i .
According to [25, 26], one can assume that δ j i varies
approximately at the rate given by λLLE. Then from (28), δ j i can
be expressed as
K
1 ∑ j = 1 ln δ j i
yi = (34)
Δt K
In this study, the total phase current (numerical sum) is selected as
the system variable to produce the time series S. Δt is set to 5 μs
and 10,000 samples are recorded. To compute λLLE, 4000 iterations
are performed with removal of initial 200 time steps (starting stage
of computation). Fig. 6 shows the estimation of λLLE at diverse
values of kp when Tf = 2 ms. It has been found that λLLE < 0 for the
(30) cases of kp = 0.01 and 0.1 (Figs. 6a and b) and λLLE > 0 for the
cases of kp = 0.2 and 0.6 (Figs. 6c and d), respectively. Therefore,
certain range of kp (i.e. kp∈[0.17, 0.6]) can result in positive value
of λLLE. In such a case, the chaotic motion is stimulated in the SR
drive system.
As another effective approach for analysing the non-linear
dynamic behaviours of the system, the bifurcation diagram is
usually employed for visualising the operating mode of the system
under variation of certain selected variable. Let the system
(31) variables be X = θ, ω, im T, then the Poincaré section ∑ is defined
as
∑ := X: t − t0 mod T I = 0 (35)
where t0 is the initial time. Equation (35) indicates that the
trajectory of X repeatedly crosses ∑ with the interval of T I. The
sequence of such crossing defines the Poincaré map P:
θ, ω, im nT + 1 = P θ, ω, im Tn . Let tn = t0 + nT I denote the nth

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Fig. 7  Bifurcation diagram of the reference current ire f as k p varies in
range of 0.01 to 0.6
(a) ωref = 1000 rpm, (b) ωref = 300 rpm

crossing instant and the corresponding state vector to be Xn, by

numerically solving (35), Xn + 1 at the (n + 1)th crossing can be
found. Consequently, P can be expressed as

Xn + 1 = P Xn (36)

For generating the bifurcation diagram, T I is set equal to T f and the Fig. 8  Magnetisation profiles of the SRM
reference current iref is selected as the variable to be observed. (a) Flux linkage, (b) Phase inductance, (c) Electromagnetic torque
Fig. 7 displays such diagrams for two different speed levels as kp
varies from 0.01 to 0.6. Table 4 Parameters of the 8/6 pole 4 phase SRM
For the case when ωref = 1000 rpm, it can be seen that the SR Parameters Values
drive system experiences subharmonic bifurcations before rated input voltage, VDC 48
switching to the chaotic operation. On the other hand, such process rated power, kW 2.3
disappears when ωref = 300 rpm. This phenomenon reveals that the
rated speed, rpm 6000
chaotic behaviour is more robust for low-speed operation than
rotor radius at airgap, m 0.0397
high-speed operation.
radial airgap, m 0.0003
shaft radius, m 0.02
4 Simulation results of non-linear dynamical
outside radius, m 0.07
behaviours in the SR drive
active length, m 0.0712
To continue with the analysis and examination of the non-linear rotor pole arc, deg 23
behaviours in the SR drive system, an 8/6 pole four-phase SRM is stator pole arc, deg 23
selected and a model of the SR drive system has been realised
number of rotor poles 6
using MATLAB Simulink. The profiles of flux linkage, phase
inductance, and electromagnetic torque of the SRM are illustrated number of stator poles 8
in Fig. 8. The motor parameters and controller settings are turns per pole 8
manifested in Tables 4 and 5, respectively. For keeping the phase magnetic steel M19
current non-overlapping (assumed operation), θon and θoff of each
phase are set to 42° and 54°, respectively. In this condition, θd of
each phase is equal to 12° which is smaller than the commutation unaltered, one can discover that the system resides in fundamental,
angle θS (15°). The proportional gain kp of the speed regulator is period-4, and intense chaotic orbits in sequential manner. The
selected as the system parameter to be adjusted. By changing the corresponding time-domain waveforms of the phase current, motor
value of kp from 0.01 to 0.6 while maintaining all other parameters speed, and electromagnetic torque are shown in Figs. 9 and 10.
Figs. 11 and 12 display the phase portraits of motor speed and
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Table 5 Controller settings
Parameters Values
dwell angle θd, deg 12
commutation angle θS, deg 15
turn-on angle θon, deg 42
turn-off angle θoff , deg 54
hysteresis band Δv, V 0.05
DC link voltage V DC, V 30
integral gain kint 0.1
feedback gain ki, V/A 0.05
reference speed ωref , rpm 1000

Fig. 9  Simulated waveforms of phase current

(a) Fundamental mode (kp = 0.01), (b) Period-4 mode (kp = 0.1), (c) Chaotic mode (kp 
= 0.6)
electromagnetic torque and fast Fourier transform (FFT) analysis
results of phase current, respectively. Obviously, when kp is
sufficiently small, the system state resides in the normal periodic
orbit and, due to this fact, the current and torque profiles of all
phases are largely identical. On the other hand, as kp increases, the
deviations of motor speed from its desired value will be amplified
in the feedback loop. As a result, the generation of reference
current iref can be negatively affected. In such case, the output of
the PI controller, vc, will vary in an irregular and unpredictable
pattern, which leads to chaos exhibited by the state variables.
Further increase of kp makes the maximum value of vc grow even
larger within the active phase period. Therefore, the possible
dynamical range of individual phase current extends accordingly.
Fig. 10  Simulated waveforms of motor speed (bottom) and
electromagnetic torque (top)
(a) Fundamental orbit (kp = 0.01), (b) Period-4 orbit (kp = 0.1), (c) Chaotic orbit (kp = 
0.6)
In the meantime, the current profiles of all phases become
significantly disparate which results from intrinsic variation of the
drive system's dynamical properties, as can be identified from the
obtained simulation results. Moreover, compared with the case of
normal periodic operation, significant amount of frequency
components with high amplitude can be observed from the FFT
analysis of phase current under chaotic operation, as shown in
Fig. 12. Particularly, the peak amplitudes of the components which
reside below the fundamental frequency (400 Hz) are much higher
than the rest of the components. These results indicate that the

1662 IET Power Electron., 2020, Vol. 13 Iss. 8, pp. 1656-1666

© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2020
 Fig. 13  Rotary incremental encoder
(a) External package, (b) Pulse pattern

converting them to digital/analogue outputs. Generally, two types

of encoders are found in practical applications: absolute and
incremental. For the incremental encoders, two channels of
quadratic pulses, A and B, are produced when the shaft rotates, as
demonstrated in Fig. 13. The pulse frequency correlates to the
speed of shaft rotation, whereas the direction of rotation depends
on the A–B phase difference. To achieve better resolution, both
rising and falling edges of A and B are counted in measurement.
The equation for motor speed ωr (in rpm) can then be expressed as

Nps ⋅ 60
ωr = (37)
4 ⋅ Npr ⋅ T r

where Nps is the number of edges recorded within the interval T r

and Npr is the total number of pulses per revolution for each
individual channel. In essence, both position and speed information
recorded and processed by the encoder are in digital (discrete)
form. Considering such device as a single mechatronic system, it
could encounter several types of electrical and mechanical errors
which affect the quality of its output signals. These errors include
non-uniform spacing of the disc slit due to course manufacturing
and accidental damage, tilting and eccentricity of encoder
mounting due to misalignment to the rotor shaft, and other
unwanted issues introduced from electronic circuitry [27, 28]. The
above defects may lead to reproducible deviations from the ideal
position and speed measurement. Note that the encoder errors can
be treated as the outcomes of certain irregular situations, which
result from the occurrence of undesired phase shifts of the rising or
Fig. 11  Phase portraits of electromagnetic torque (vertical axis) and falling edges of the quadrature pulses that serve as the output
motor speed (horizontal axis) signals. Therefore, these errors can be further quantified and
(a) Fundamental orbit (kp = 0.01), (b) Period-4 orbit (kp = 0.1), (c) Chaotic orbit (kp =  accessed by performing statistical analysis of deviated data
0.6) compared to the default ones. For conducting the experimental test,
the rotary incremental encoder CH25 (Npr = 4096) from TE
Connectivity is selected. The sampling interval T r is set to be equal
to T f (2 ms) and the total number of samples is 300 for each speed
level. Figs. 14 and 15 illustrate the obtained waveforms of sampled
motor speed from measurement and distribution plots of the
obtained speed values when the reference speed ωref is set to 300
and 1000 rpm, respectively. One can observe that the speed
deviations which are in immediate proximity to the nominal values
(300.3 for ωref = 300 rpm and 999.8 for ωref = 1000 rpm) occur
more frequently compared to those which are further away.
Moreover, the number of bins for obtained speed values is greater
in case of high-speed operation than that of low-speed operation.
These results collectively indicate that the error range of speed and
position measurements becomes larger as the speed of the SR drive
Fig. 12  Frequency spectra of phase current: fundamental mode (kp =  system increases. In addition, such imperfection of the encoder can
0.01), period-4 mode (kp = 0.1), moderate chaotic mode (kp = 0.3) and potentially interrupt the proper regulation of phase current and
intense chaotic mode (kp = 0.6) hence the electromagnetic torque from the control loop, leading to
the emergence of instability issue within the drive system.
chaotic behaviour is mainly stimulated by aperiodic subharmonic
oscillations of the phase current. 6 Experimental results
Fig. 16 demonstrates the experimental workbench for verifying the
5 Effect of measurement imperfection from a theoretical model and simulation analysis of the SR drive system.
rotary incremental encoder The power metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor
Rotary encoders are extensively utilised in electric motor drive IRFP4410Z and the Schottky rectifier STPS40H100CW are
systems for acquiring angular position and speed information, and selected as the semiconductor switches for the converter. The phase
current is captured by the current sense IC ACS730T. The digital

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© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2020
Fig. 14  Sampled motor speed from measurement
(a) ωref = 300 rpm, (b) ωref = 1000 rpm
Fig. 15  Sample distributions of speed measurement
(a) ωref = 300 rpm, (b) ωref = 1000 rpm
Fig. 16  Experimental settings of the SR drive system
(a) Power converter, (b) Mechanical setup
control of the drive is realised by C2000 microcontroller unit
TMS320F28379S from Texas Instruments. An unexcited
permanent magnet DC motor is installed and serves as the load for
the SR drive system. For performing the test, the sampling interval
of the speed controller is set to 2 ms. The proportional gain kp for
the speed controller varies from 0.01 to 0.6. The gain for the
current controller is set to 0.05. The time-domain waveforms and
frequency spectra of the phase current are shown in Figs. 17 and 18
for the fundamental (kp = 0.01), moderate chaotic (kp = 0.3), and
intense chaotic (kp = 0.6) operating modes when ωref is set to 1000  system for the two speed levels, as can be observed from the
rpm. It can be seen that the obtained data have strong behavioural
resemblance to previous simulation results. Essentially, as the
increase of kp drives the system out of the fundamental mode of
operation, the local dynamic properties of the system are altered.
Owing to this fact, the developed small-signal model is no longer
valid when the state of the system enters chaotic orbit. Larger value
of kp makes the degree of chaoticity progress deeper. In such case,
all phases of the drive become inherently different from each other
in terms of the current and torque profiles. Therefore, the
unforeseeable nature of the system's dynamic behaviours exhibits
even more noticeably. Moreover, when chaos appears in the drive
1664
Fig. 17  Experimental waveforms of phase current when ωref is set to
1000 rpm
(a) Fundamental mode (kp = 0.01), (b) Moderate chaotic mode (kp = 0.3), (c) Intense
chaotic mode (kp = 0.6)
system, significant rising of the subharmonic components can be
observed in Fig. 18. This fact also complies with the results from
the simulation analysis.
The bifurcation diagrams of sampled reference current under
variation of kp are displayed in Fig. 19, when ωref is set to 300 and
1000 rpm, respectively. Interestingly, these results are quite
different in shape from those in Fig. 8. Such discrepancies mainly
stem from the discrete property of measurement and other non-
ideal performances of the rotary encoder. According to the analysis
from Section 5, the sampled speed values, for the case ωr = 300 
rpm, are mainly distributed around five discrete values (see
Fig. 15a) while the recorded speed distributions are mostly around
six discrete values for the case ωr = 1000 rpm (see Fig. 15b). These
tendencies directly affect the regulation process of the phase
current, which results in different bifurcation patterns of the drive
number of ‘branches’ shown in Fig. 19 (5 in Fig. 19a and 6 in
Fig. 19b). Moreover, when kp is small, the deviations of speed
value have little effect on the generation of proper reference
current. As a result, the system state resides in the periodic orbit.
On the other hand, as kp increases further, the impact of deviated
speed measurement on the SR drive operation becomes more
pronounced and non-negligible. These results uncover that, for
actual operation, the chaotic dynamics are more divergent when the
SR drive system operates at higher speed level.
IET Power Electron., 2020, Vol. 13 Iss. 8, pp. 1656-1666
© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2020

Fig. 18  Frequency spectrum of phase current
(a) kp = 0.01, (b) kp = 0.1, (c) kp = 0.3, (d) kp = 0.6
Fig. 19  Bifurcation diagrams of the sampled reference current
corresponding to the variation of kp
(a) ωref = 300 rpm, (b) ωref = 1000 rpm
7 Conclusions
Non-linear dynamical behaviours are found ubiquitously in diverse
types of power and energy systems. This study has presented a
comprehensive examination of bifurcation and chaos in the SR
motor drive system employing digital speed regulator and
hysteresis current controller. It provides detailed analyses and
direct evidence that, under the certain configuration of control
parameters, subharmonic oscillation and chaos can be induced,
which remarkably influence the normal operation of the SR drive
system. The magnetisation characteristics of the machine, as well
as parametric settings of the SR drive, have been briefly
introduced. In addition, the discrete-time small-signal modelling
and stability analysis have been performed and discussed in detail.
By changing the selected parameter of the speed controller,
different modes of the drive system including fundamental,
subharmonic, and chaotic operations have been observed and
analysed in the simulation study. Based on the time-domain and
FFT analysis, it has been found that the irregular subharmonic
oscillations of the phase current are the major cause of chaotic
motion in the SR drive system. Moreover, the measurement non-
idealities of motor speed stemming from the rotary encoder and its
effect on dynamical behaviours of the system have also been
investigated and discussed. For conducting the experimental study,
a laboratory workbench has been assembled and tested. The
interpretation and comparison have been made between the
obtained data and simulation results, which are in accordance with
the theoretical modelling and analyses.
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8 Appendix
The expressions for coefficients A1 − A10 are
A1 = a2a5a13 (38)
1665
 A2 = a2a5 a14 − 2a13 A7 = a1a4a8a10a13 (44)
(39)
+a13 a2a6 + a3a5 + a2a4a10a15
A8 = a1a4 a8a10a14 + a8a11a13 + a9a10a13 (45)
A3 = a2a5 a13 − 2a14 + a2a6 + a3a5 a14 − 2a13
A9 = a1a4 a8a11a14 + a9a11a13 + a9a10a14 (46)
+a13 a3a6 + a1a4a7 + a4a10 a3a13a15 + a1a8a12 (40)
+a2a4a15 a10a14 + a11a13 − a10a13 A10 = a1a4a9a11a14 (47)

A4 = a3a5 a13 − 2a14 + a1a4a7 + a3a6 a14 − 2a13 where

+a2a14 a5 − 2a6 + a2a4a15 a11a14 − a11a13 − a10a14
(41) a1 = MImoT s, a2 = J, a3 = BT s − J (48)
+a3a4a15 a10a14 + a11a13 − a10a13 + a2a6a13
+a1a4 a8a10a12 + a8a11a12 + a9a10a12 a4 = T s, a5 = Lmo, a6 = MωoT s + RsT s − Lmo (49)

A5 = a14 a2a6 + a3a5 − a2a4a11a15 − a3a4a10a14a15 kintT s kintT s

a7 = MImo, a8 = kp + , a9 = − kp + (50)
+a3a4a11a15 a14 − a13 + a3a6 + a1a4a7 a13 − 2a14 (42) 2 2
+a1a4 a8a11a12 + a9a10a12 + a9a11a12
Ts Ts
a10 = kpp + kii , a = − kpp + kii , a12 = kspdT s (51)
A6 = a3a14 a6 − a4a11a15 2 11 2
(43)
+a1a4 a7a14 + a9a11a12 a13 = T s + 2T f , a14 = T s − 2T f , a15 = ki (52)

1666 IET Power Electron., 2020, Vol. 13 Iss. 8, pp. 1656-1666

© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2020