See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/305302518

Performance evaluation of Hybrid Fuzzy PI speed controller for Brushless DC

motor for Electric vehicle application

Conference Paper · December 2015

DOI: 10.1109/PCCCTSG.2015.7503912

CITATIONS READS

28 620

2 authors:

Venkata Reddy Kota Bapayya Naidu Kommula

Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Kakinada Aditya Engineering College
77 PUBLICATIONS 839 CITATIONS 25 PUBLICATIONS 279 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

A novel torque ripple minimization scheme for solar powered BLDC motor View project

Power Quality View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Bapayya Naidu Kommula on 19 November 2017.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 2015 Conference on Power, Control, Communication and Computational Technologies for Sustainable Growth (PCCCTSG)
December11-12, 2015, Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, India

Performance Evaluation of Hybrid Fuzzy PI Speed

Controller for Brushless DC Motor for Electric
Vehicle Application
Bapayya Naidu Kommula Venkata Reddy Kota
Student Member, IEEE, Member, IEEE,
Research Scholar, Department of EEE, UCEK, Assistant Professor, Department of EEE, UCEK,
Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Kakinada,
Kakinada, Kakinada, A.P, India. Kakinada, A.P, India.
E-mail: kbapayanaaiidu@gmail.com E-mail: kvr.jntu@gmail.com

Abstract— In future Electric vehicles (EV) are trend setters
for transportation with zero greenhouse gas emission and higher
efficiency. In EV applications, Brushless DC motors (BLDCM)
are most predominantly used. Here, a Hybrid Fuzzy PI
controller is intended for effective speed regulation of BLDCM.
In general, Fuzzy logic controllers (FLC) provide better transient
performance and results steady state error. The PI speed
controller gives good steady state performance but poor transient
performance. For getting an excellent performance, the referred
Hybrid fuzzy PI controller combines the merits of the above two
controllers. Also, this paper presents relative study among PI,
FLC and Hybrid Fuzzy PI controller for a BLDCM. In
Matlab/Simulink environment, the BLDCM with proposed
controller is designed and simulated. Results prove the
predominance of intended Hybrid Fuzzy PI for BLDC motors.
accurate mathematical model. During parameter variations, It
is also less sensitive. Normally, FLC includes human brilliance
in the application of system governing, thereby extracting
improved dynamic response from the system [4-5].
At present, there is a trend to incorporate the control
algorithms together for an improved performance. To attain
better dynamic response owing to parameter changes, a
Hybrid Fuzzy PI controller has been designed. Merits of FLC
and PI can be combined with a Hybrid Fuzzy PI controller [6-
7]. The hybrid controller acts as a FLC when the error in
speed is large and gives better transient performance. The
controller shifts to a PI when speed error is less and able to
enhance steady-state performance [8-10].

Keywords— Brushless DC motor (BLDCM), Fuzzy Logic In this work, a hybrid fuzzy PI controller has been designed
Controller (FLC), PI Controller, Hysteresis Current Controller to obtain the good dynamic and steady state response for speed
(HCC). control of BLDCM. This controller acts as FLC when speed
error is more than 10% and acts as PI is the error in speed is
I. INTRODUCTION less than 10%. This controller is best suitable to regulate speed
of BLDCM for maintaining the BLDCM speed to be constant
There is a rapid expanding interest in electric vehicle (EV) even on load changes. The working of Hybrid Fuzzy PI
among automakers, governments and customers with ever controller for a BLDC motor at various load conditions has
growing concerns on the environment and provide promising been observed. Comparison is made among the three
solutions to decrease vehicular emissions [1]. Owing to their controllers such as PI, FLC and Hybrid Fuzzy PI controller to
higher performance, efficiency, large torque output and evaluate a better controller.
compact size, BLDC motors are most suitable for EV
applications. The BLDC motor is highly nonlinear in nature.
The traditional controllers are unable to produce desirable II. MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF BLDC MOTOR
performance under different conditions like variations in load, The equivalent circuit of BLDCM has been presented in
parameter changes etc. [2]. Fig.1. The mathematical modeling of BLDCM drive is
A traditional PI controller is the familiar controller for described as follows.
regulating the speed of BLDCM. In the design of speed The voltage equations for a BLDCM is expressed as
controller, step response plays an important role. A good
controller should provide quick step response, fast settling ⎡va⎤ ⎡R 0 0⎤⎡ia⎤ ⎡Laa
without any overshoot. But, PI controller is not able to provide ⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥⎢ ⎥ + d ⎢
L L ⎤⎥ ⎡⎢i ⎤⎥ ⎡⎢e ⎤⎥
ab ac a a (1)
quick response for various loads and speed references [3]. It is ⎢vb⎥ ⎢
= 0 R 0 ⎥⎢ib⎥ dt ⎢Lba L L ⎥ ⎢i ⎥ +⎢e ⎥
bb bc b b
⎢v ⎥ ⎣⎢0 0 R⎦⎥⎢i ⎥
required to build up a controller that can alter its own ⎣ c⎦ ⎣ c⎦
⎢L
⎣ ca L L ⎥⎦ ⎢⎣i ⎥⎦ ⎢⎣e ⎥⎦
cb cc c c
parameters as per the environment yields acceptable control
action. This drives us towards intelligent controllers. Hence,
for improving the speed response an intelligent controller like where L denotes self-inductance and R denotes the stator
FLC is needed. For a system, the FLC will not require an resistance, va , vb , vc signifies phase voltages, ia , ib , ic

978-1-4673-6890-2/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE

266
signifies phase currents and ea , eb, ec denotes trapezoidal back ⎧
θ π
⎪ where 0 < θ ≤
EMFs of corresponding phases. ⎪ π 6
⎪ 6 (7)
⎪ π 5π
⎪ 1 where <θ ≤
⎪ 6 6
⎪ 5π
⎪⎪ (θ − )
6 5π 7π
f as (θ ) = ⎨ 1 − where <θ ≤
⎪ π 6 6
6
⎪ 7π 11π
⎪ −1 where <θ ≤
⎪ 6 6
⎪
⎪ ⎛ 11π ⎞
⎜θ − ⎟
⎪ ⎝ 6 ⎠ 11π
⎪ −1 + where < θ ≤ 2π
⎩⎪
( )
π
6
6

The functions f bs (θ ) and f cs (θ ) are expressed as

f bs (θ ) =
⎛
f as ⎜ θ +
2π ⎞ (8)
⎟
⎝ 3 ⎠
and ⎛ 2π ⎞ (9)
f cs (θ ) = f as ⎜ θ − ⎟
⎝ 3 ⎠

The functions f as (θ ), f bs (θ ), f cs (θ ) are identical to shapes of

Fig. 1. Model of BLDC motor drive
eas , ebs and ecs with a maximum magnitude of ±1.
As it has been assumed that saturation and iron losses of The rotor angle (θ ) in electrical degrees is related to the rotor
the motor are negligible, the resistance of three stator
angle in mechanical degrees ( θ m ) and the number of pole
windings is equivalent and self-inductances of three phases are
equal. The mutual inductances of concerning phases are pairs (P) as follows
identical. Ρ
θ = θm (10)
2
L aa
= L = L = L and
bb cc (2) Te
The electromagnetic torque can be stated as the following
L =L
ab ba
=L =L =L =L =M
bc cb ac ca
equation
Hence, the equation (1) can be rewritten as ea ia + eb ib + ec ic
Te = (11)
ω
⎡va⎤ ⎡1 0 0⎤ ⎡ia⎤ ⎡ L M M⎤ ⎡ia⎤ ⎡ea⎤ The equation of a motor can be expressed as
⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥d⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥ (3) dω
⎢vb⎥ = R⎢0 1 0⎥ ⎢ib⎥ + ⎢M L M⎥ dt ⎢ib⎥ + ⎢eb⎥ Te − Tl = J + Bω (12)
⎢v ⎥ ⎢⎣0 0 1⎥⎦ ⎢i ⎥ ⎢⎣M M L ⎥⎦ ⎢i ⎥ ⎢e ⎥ dt
⎣ c⎦ ⎣ c⎦ ⎣ c⎦ ⎣ c⎦ where J is the moment of inertia, B is the friction
coefficient and Tl denotes load torque.
In a 3-phase BLDC motor, the BEMF waveform depends
on rotor position and BEMF of each phase has phase
III. SPEED CONTROL OF BLDC MOTOR
difference with others, thus the equation of every BEMF phase
will be as represented as follows This section evaluates controller designs applied to a
BLDC motor for yielding an acceptable speed control
performance. The basic block diagram for regulating speed of
ea = Kb f as (θ ) ω (4) BLDCM is specified in Fig.2.

eb = K b f bs (θ ) ω (5)
e c = K b f cs (θ ) ω (6)

where Kb is Back EMF constant [V/rad/Sec], θ is rotor

angle [in electrical degrees], ω is the speed of rotor [rad/Sec],
and f as , f bs , f cs are trapezoidal functions. The trapezoidal
function f as (θ ) can be represented as
Fig. 2. Speed regulation of a BLDC M

267
A. Fuzzy Logic Controller 1 NL
NM NS Z PS PM PL

Basic structure of FLC is presented in Fig. 3. FLC can be 0.8

Degree of membership
designed mainly based on the human’s experience. 0.6

0.4

0.2

-1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

Error
(a)

NM NS Z PS PM
1 NL PL

Degree of membership
0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

-1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

Change in error
(b)
Fig. 3. FLC basic structure NM NS Z PS PM
1 NL PL

Inputs to FLC are error and change in error of the motor

Degree of membership
0.8

speed. Error is determined as difference between reference 0.6

speed and actual speed of motor. The controller’s output u(k) 0.4
is represented as
0.2

u(k ) = F[er(k ) − Δer(k )] (13)

0

-1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

Here F denotes a nonlinear function decided by parameters
of FLC; er(k), Δer(k) are the error and change in error
respectively. The major things, while designing of FLC are the
membership function design for input, output and the
formulation of Fuzzy If-Then rule base depend on human
experience.
Five triangular membership functions and two trapezoidal
membership functions are used in the design of FLC. The first
step in the FLC design is converting crisp inputs to linguistic
variables and is called Fuzzification. The later step is to
describe the rules. The rule base used for the speed controller is
illustrated in Table I. There are seven clusters, with seven
linguistic variables in the membership functions described as
Negative Large (NL), Negative Medium (NM), Negative Small
(NS), Zero (Z), Positive Small (PS), Positive Medium (PM)
and Positive Large (PL).
Reference current
(c)
Fig. 4. Membership functions of FLC
B. Hybrid Fuzzy PI speed controller
The main idea of the Hybrid controller is to make use of
the best features of the PI controller and FLC. This Hybrid
Fuzzy PI speed controller can provide improved response than
either PI or FLC. During transient period, FLC gives a better
speed response but maintains some steady state speed error.
The PI controller gives poor dynamic performance and
sensitive to load variation but results a very good steady state
performance. In proposed controller, best qualities of FLC and
PI are consolidated by employing a controlled switch. It is
depicted in Fig.5.

Table I. Rules for Fuzzy Logic Controller

The rules of FLC generate the needed output in a

linguistic variable. The last step in the FLC design is
converting linguistic variable to crisp output. This is termed as
Defuzzification. The “centroid” defuzzification scheme is
employed in this work. Fig. 4 illustrates the membership
functions for speed error, change in speed error and output Fig. 5. Hybrid Fuzzy PI speed controller
variables for controlling speed of BLDC motor.

268
 The function of switch depends on the speed error. This
controller acts as FLC when speed error is more than 10%of
reference speed and switch to PI controller when the speed
error is less than 10% of reference speed. The operation of
switch between PI controller and FLC is as given below.
⎧
waveform of phase A. It is noticed that torque created by
motor has less ripple as depicted in Fig. 7(d). It is
comparatively smaller amount than the torque ripples with PI
and FLC.
3000

S peed (rpm)
⎪ er ≥ ζ , t ≤ σ (Fuzzy controller) 2000
sw = ⎨
⎪ er ≤ ζ , t ≥ σ (PI controller )
⎩ 1000
Here er represents error in speed, t denotes time, ζ 0
indicates switch marginal value and σ is clock threshold value. 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4
Time (Sec)
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS AND ANALYSIS (a)
300
To validate the applicability of intended Hybrid Fuzzy PI
controller, simulation is carried out on a BLDCM in the 200

Ia (A )
Matlab/Simulink environment. This simulation evaluates the 100
performance of the BLDCM drive with the Hybrid Fuzzy PI 0
and to compare its excecution with FLC and PI. Fig.6 -100
represents the simulation model of BLDCM for speed control 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4
in Matlab/Simulink. The parameters of BLDC motor used in Time (Sec)
this work are specified in table II. (b)
BLDC
motor
20

3000 Va
w Eb (V) 0
Speed
Ref.
Controller Hysteresis
speed Power theta -20
Current 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4
Converter Vb
Controller
Scope Time (Sec)
Iabc (c)
Vc
40
eabc 30
Te(Nm)

T_load
20
Te
Tref
10

Conduction 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4

Angle Time (Sec)
Generation (d)

Fig. 7. Performance of BLDC motor with Hybrid Fuzzy PI controller at

Fig. 6. Matlab/Simulink model of BLDCM for speed control TL of 10 Nm applied at 0.2 Sec. (a) Speed response (b) Phase A current
Table II. BLDC motor parameters
I a (c) Back EMF Eba (d) Torque Te

Power 10 kW Table III illustrates a comparison among the three speed

Voltage 120 V controllers. Here, rise time and settling time are represented
Phase Resistance 18 mΩ in terms of simulation time, real time will be more than
Phase Inductance 252 µH
No.of poles 4
simulation time and will be proportional to simulation time. It
Rated speed 3000 rpm is apparent from table III that the PI has high peak overshoot
on load torque conditions. Also, the PI controller has
The performance of BLDCM with Hybrid Fuzzy PI comparatively higher settling time. FLC provides a sleek
controller and Hysteresis current controller (HCC) with a response while not peak overshoot and contains a quicker
hysteresis band of 0.05A is described in Fig.7. The Hybrid response than a PI. However, FLC settles with giant steady
Fuzzy PI controller results in quick transient response with state speed error during load variation. The Hybrid Fuzzy PI
less settling time. It can be observed from the speed response controller contains a relatively enhanced response than PI and
of the motor as displayed in Fig. 7(a). Fig. 7(b) and Fig.7(c) FLC for all the factors thought about, i.e. peak overshoots Mp,
illustrates armature current of phase A and back EMF settling time TS and steady state speed error ess.

269
 2015 Conference on Power, Control, Communication and Computational Technologies for Sustainable Growth (PCCCTSG)
December11-12, 2015, Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, India

Table III. Performance comparison of various controllers

At TL= 10 Nm, 3000 rpm At TL = 20 Nm, 3000 rpm

Controller
PI Fuzzy Hybrid PI Fuzzy Hybrid
MP (%) 3.2 0 0.9 4.1 0 0.9
Tr (Sec) 0.069 0.007 0.007 0.069 0.007 0.007
Ts (Sec) 0.114 0.009 0.008 0.147 0.008 0.007
ess (rpm) 0 20 5 0 20 5

The comparison of speed responses of BLDCM with PI,
FLC and Hybrid Fuzzy PI controller is depicted in Fig.8. From
this comparison, it can be noticed that during start-up, FLC
and Hybrid Fuzzy PI controller has less settling time
contrasted with PI controller. When an abrupt load of 10 Nm
is applied to the system at the time of 0.2 seconds, the PI
controller has a significant quantity of undershoot and stayed
to take after reference speed with higher settling time. In spite
of the fact that the FLC has smaller settling time, although it’s
a continuing speed error which effects of getting lesser actual
speed than the reference speed. The need is that, by
combining the best attributes of above mentioned controllers,
one will get the short response of the PI controller,
whereas other will eliminate the overshoot probably related
to it. Hence, Hybrid Fuzzy PI controller contains less steady
state speed error related to the FLC and smaller settling time.
Thus, the Hybrid Fuzzy PI controller enhances dynamic
response of the system.
3500
3000
2500
Speed (rpm)
Mathematical model and execution of BLDCM with typical
PI, FLC and Hybrid Fuzzy PI is analyzed and simulated in the
MATLAB/SIMULINK. The behavior of the BLDCM drive
with varied speed controllers like PI, FLC and Hybrid Fuzzy PI
Controller is compared. From the simulation results, it is
noticed that PI controller has initial Peak overshoot, slow
response, but maintains the steady state accuracy. Whereas,
FLC has zero Peak overshoot and quicker response. But, it
resolves with a large steady state error under load variations.
The proposed Hybrid Fuzzy PI controller has better dynamic
response of the system when differentiated with a typical PI
and FLC. Finally, the intended Hybrid Fuzzy PI controller
allows BLDC motor with a sustained speed regulation.
REFERENCES
[1] Singh, Madhusudan, and Archna Garg, "Performance evaluation of
BLDC motor with conventional PI and fuzzy speed controller", 2012
IEEE 5th India International Conference on Power Electronics (IICPE),
pp.1-6,Dec 2012.
[2] Muhammad Firdaus Zainal Abidin, "A comparative study of PI, fuzzy
and hybrid PI fuzzy controller for speed control of brushless dc motor
drive", 2011 IEEE International Conference on Computer Applications
and Industrial Electronics (ICCAIE), pp.189-194, Dec 2011.
[3] Zdenko Kovaccic and Stjepan Bogdan, “Fuzzy controller design theory
and applications”, © 2006 by Taylor & Francis Group.
Ref.speed [4] J.x. Shen, z.q. Zhu, d. Howe and j.m. Buckley, ‘fuzzy logic speed
PI control and current-harmonic reduction in permanent-magnet brushless
FLC ac drives’, iee proc.-electr. Power appl., vol. 152, no. 3, pp. 437-446,

2000 Hybrid Fuzzy PI 2005.

[5] M.Ali Akcayol, Aydin Cetin, and Cetin Elmas, An educational tool for
1500 fuzzy logic controlled BDCM, IEEE Transaction on Education, vol. 45,
no. 1, pp. 33-42, November 2002.
[6] J.-W. Kim and S. W. Kim, “Design of incremental fuzzy PI controllers
1000 for a gas-turbine plant,” IEEE/ASME Trans. Mechatronics, vol. 8, no. 3,
pp. 410–414, Sep. 2003.
500 [7] K. Venkata Reddy, M. Vijaya Kumar, “Hybrid fuzzy-PI controller for
the speed control of switched reluctance motors”, i-Manager’s Journal
on Electrical Engineering, Vol. 4, No.4, pp. 9-13, April-June 2011.
0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 [8] R. Shanmugasundram, K. M. Zakariah, and N. Yadaiah, “Low cost high
Time (Sec) performance brushless dc motor drive for speed control applications,” in
Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Adv. Recent Technol. Commun. Comput.,
Fig. 8. Comparison of PI, Fuzzy Logic Controller and Fuzzy PI speed Kottayam, India, pp. 456– 460, Oct. 27–28, 2009.
controllers for 3000 rpm at TL of 10 Nm applied at 0.2 Sec. [9] Rubaai, D. Ricketts, and M. D. Kankam, “Experimental verification of a
hybrid fuzzy control strategy for a high-performance brushless DC drive
system,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Applicat., vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 503–512,
V. CONCLUSION Mar./Apr. 2001.
[10] H. Grabner, W. Amrhein, S. Silber, and W. Gruber, “Nonlinear
In this paper, a Hybrid Fuzzy PI controller has been feedback control of a bearingless brushless dc motor,” IEEE/ASME
intended for achieving better response of the BLDC motor Trans. Mechatronics, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 40–47, Feb. 2010.
drive for EV applications.

978-1-4673-6890-2/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE 270

View publication stats