Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor Vector
Control Based on MATLAB/Simulink
Xiaotong Li, Daoliang Xi, Yulin Zhang*
School of Information Science and Engineering University of Jinan
Jinan, China
ise_zhangyl@ujn.edu.cn
Abstract—This paper presented the mathematical model of
permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) and the basic
principle and realization of vector control (also called field-
oriented control, FOC). The simulation model of PMSM based on
speed and current double closed loop using vector control in the
MATLAB/Simulink environment is built and experimentally
simulated. The result shows that the vector control system of
PMSM has the super characteristics of dynamic response and
speed control, effectively verifying the correctness of the “id = 0”
control algorithm, and provides a theoretical basis for the
analysis, design and debugging of PMSM. Finally, according to
the basic idea of space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM)
technology, combined with TI Company’s DSP (Digital Signal
Processor) TMS320F28035, a complete set of model system in
Simulink capable of being built to hardware circuit board drives
PMSM with speed adjustment.
Keywords—PMSM; vector control; MATLAB; TMS320F28035
I. INTRODUCTION
Compared with other forms of motor, permanent magnet
synchronous motor (PMSM) has better dynamic performance,
smaller size and higher efficiency. In recent years, with the
rapid development of electric power electronics technical, rare
earth permanent magnetic materials and the increasingly
sophisticated research in permanent magnet motor, PMSM is
widely used in national defense, agriculture and daily life [1].
The control method of permanent magnet synchronous
motor is mainly divided into two kinds: One is vector control
and the other is direct torque control. The basic principle of
vector control is achieved by measuring and controlling the
stator current vector. It regulates the excitation current and
torque current of motor respectively according to the principle
of field orientation so as to control the motor torque. While the
direct torque control, as the name suggests, is to dominate the
torque directly. This paper discusses the first control method.
Based on MATLAB/Simulink platform, the PMSM vector
control simulation system model is built in Simulink. The
model has two loops that the outer one is the velocity loop and
the current loop is inside. The reference voltage values of the
three-phase motor are calculated through the control of speed
and stator current from the PMSM, and are sent to the Pulse
Width Modulation (PWM) unit, generating three-phase PWM
signals needed by voltage inverter in accordance with the rules
of the PWM to drive the motor. From the foundation on this,
combined with DSP TMS320F28035, a set of model including
interrupt control and field oriented control of the motor system
is established in Simulink, which then loaded and debugged in
CCS (Code Composer Studio) development environment of 3.3
version to generate project code and built to DSP hardware
platform connected with the XDS100 simulator to observe the
rotation of PMSM.
II. PMSM MATHEMATICAL MODEL
In order to simplify the mathematical model of the
synchronistic coordinate system of PMSM, the following
assumptions are often made: Neglecting the core saturated of
the motor; excluding eddy current and hysteresis losses of the
motor; the current of motor is symmetrical three-phase sine
wave current; neglecting magnetic saturation and iron loss;
magnetic circuit is linear; inverter provides an ideal three-phase
power; ignoring the higher harmonics and the rotor shaft
friction [2]. Vector control is a control method based on
coordinate transformation theory. By coordinate transformation,
speed control performance of PMSM can rival the great
standard as the DC motor. For this purpose, the mathematical
model in d-q coordinate system of PMSM can be described as
followed where the voltage, flux, torque and motion equations
are given respectively.
Voltage equation:
u d = R ⋅ id + Pψ d − ω ⋅ψ q  (1)
u q = R ⋅ iq + Pψ q + ω ⋅ψ d  (2)
Flux equation:
ψ d = Ld ⋅ id + ψ f (3)
ψ q = Lq ⋅ iq (4)
Torque equation:
3
Te = n p ⋅ [ψ f ⋅ iq + ( Ld − Lq ) ⋅ id ⋅ iq ] (5)
2
 As the Ld equals to Lq for the surface permanent magnet
synchronous motor (SPMSM), the formula above can be
written as:
3 SVPWM module together with the rectifier and inverter
Te = n p ⋅ψ f ⋅ iq (6)
2
In the above equations, ψd and ψq express respectively the d
and q axis component of stator flux; Ld and Lq express
respectively the d and q axis equivalent inductance of stator
windings; id and iq express respectively the d and q axis
component of stator current; ud and uq express respectively the
d and q axis component of stator voltage; ψf express the flux
of PMSM; R express the resistance of stator windings; ɷ
express the rotor speed; P expresses the differential operator; np
expresses the number of the pole pairs and Te is proportional to
iq.
Motion equation:
ω ω
Te = J × p( ) + RΩ × + TL (7)
np np
Where, TL is the load torque, and RΩ is the damping
coefficient; J means rotational inertia while ɷ represents the
rotor electric angular velocity. The formula (6) reflects the
vector control method of “id = 0”, i.e., the torque is a function
of only torque component of current (iq) and is maximum when
id = 0 [3].
III. PMSM VECTOR CONTROL THEORY
A. The Main Idea of Vector Control
PMSM is a high order, strong coupling multiply variable
system. The various parameters of the motor couple with each
other, therefore, make the AC motor control strongly nonlinear.
The basic idea of vector control is to make the torque current
and exciting current forming in the space of 90 electrical angle
degrees in d-q coordinate system through coordinate
transformation to achieve decoupling control of stator current.
Then AC motor is equivalent to the excitation DC motor. The
Fig. 1 shows the structure diagram of vector control system in
PMSM [4].
Fig. 1. PMSM vector control system block diagram
It is indicated by the Fig. 1 that the vector control system of
permanent magnet synchronous motor is composed of several
parts: Position and speed detection module, PI regulator of
speed loop and current loop, coordinate transformation module,
module.
B. Vector Control Coordinate Transformation
In the ABC coordinate system, the spatial position of the
three-phase stator windings is 120 degrees of the mechanical
angle. The three-phase sinusoidal current feeding into three-
phase windings connected to each other by 120 degrees
electrical angle will produce a magnetic field rotating with the
same intensity, which is the actual driving magnetic field of
motor.
However, to generate such a magnetic field does not
necessarily require three-phase winding. The two-phase current
perpendicular to each other can also make the composite
magnetic field with two-phase sinusoidal current different from
90 degrees electrical angle in the α-β coordinate system. This
field has the same characteristics as the three-phase rotating
magnetic field mentioned above.
As another example, suppose two DC windings with the
same number of turns and perpendicular to each other are
placed on the rotor. When they are fed with two DC currents
called id and iq, it is still feasible to synthesize such a constant
rotating magnetic field as above two. This coordinate is known
as the d-q coordinate system which corresponds to the polar
coordinate transformation of α-β coordinate system.
C. Principles of SVPWM Technique
SVPWM means a special switch trigger sequences and
pulse width combinations of three-phase voltage source
inverter in AC induction motor and PMSM, which will
generate three sinusoidal current waveforms with 120 degrees
electrical angle differing from each other [5]. A three-phase
voltage type PWM inverter is shown in Fig. 2. The aim of
vector control strategy based on SVPWM technique is to
obtain a circular magnetic field through the combination of
different width voltage pulse sequences [6]. We see from the
Fig. 2 that there are six power switches.
Fig. 2. Circuit of three-phase voltage inverter
We make the rules that when the upper arm is turned on
(lower bridge arm off), the switch state is “1”. On the contrary,
when the upper arm turns off (at this time the lower arm on),
the status is “0”. The six switch tubes of the three bridge arms
are formed “000, 001, 010, 011, 100, 101, 110, 111”, a total of
eight modes. Among these combinations, “000” and “111”
modes represent zero in inverter. The eight kind of switching
modes correspond to a group of eight voltage space vectors
associated by three-phase voltages (Uan, Ubn and Ucn) which are
called the basic voltage space vectors. The six nonzero vectors
have the same amplitude, with an interval of 60 degrees for
each adjacent side.
The two zero vectors have no magnitude, located in the
center. The movement orbits of terminal point of stator flux
vector is a regular hexagon when the six nonzero vectors
output respectively one by one, but in this way can only
generate a hexagonal rotating magnetic field instead of desired
rotating magnetic field. The hexagonal shape of basic voltage
space vector is shown in Fig. 3.
When the shape of rotating magnetic field is regular
polygonal with countless edges instead of hexagonal, we can
approximately get a circular rotating field. Obviously, the more
edges there are, the better degrees of approximation it is.
However, there are only six nonzero vectors. To obtain a
rotating field with edges as more as possible, the solution is to
use linear combinations of six nonzero fundamental voltage
space vectors for multiply switch states.
simple and efficiency which makes the motor control easier to
modify.
Fig. 4. Simulation model of permanent magnet synchronous motor
As shown in Fig. 4, the vector control system consists of
two control loops: A PI regulator speed controller in an outer
loop and a PI regulator current controller in an inner loop.
There are Clarke, Park and inverse Park transforms used for the
currents to generate the voltages required with appropriated
duty cycle for balanced Uan, Ubn and Ucn supplied to motor [7].
Simulink has many advantages over other simulation
platforms currently in use. It has a clear structure, rich
functional modules, and the correctness of the module can be
guaranteed. Simulink platform provides a wealth of simulation
blocks with basic functions. Users only need to learn how to
use them and drag each block from the Simulink function
library in a certain order according to the requirements. Users
don't need to use specific hardware, nor do they cost too much
time and effort on how the module functions. The properties
can be modified as needed quickly.
B. Simulation Results
The parameters used of the permanent magnet synchronous
motor for the simulation test are shown below: stator windings
resistance R = 1.132Ω, d-axis winding inductance Ld = 12.38e-
3H, q-axis winding inductance Lq = 15.72e-3H, rotational
inertia J = 1.79e-3kg·m2, the pole number np = 2 and the static
friction is 0.1N.m, the total simulation time t = 1s. Initially, the
speed given is 900 rpm (revolutions per minute), and the load
torque is set to 2N.m. When the simulation time reaches 0.4s,
the torque value increases to 5N.m. The waveforms are as
follows:

Fig. 3. Regular hexagon track of rotating magnetic field

IV. PMSM SIMULATION MDEL IN SIMULINK

A. PMSM Simulation Model
The model of permanent magnet synchronous motor based
on vector control built in Simulink is shown in Fig.4. PMSM
block and inverter modules in the model are both supplied from
the SimPowerSystem in the Simulink library. They don't show
the internal structure but providing the parameters for users to
modify. You can double click the two modules to fill the Fig. 5. Current response curve
parameters in the blanks to meet the needs of the actual
operation. Users can use oscilloscope block to observe the
simulation effect and changes in real time. This method is
 Fig. 6. d-q axis current waveform
Fig. 7. Rotor angular velocity (rad/s) and rotor speed (rpm)
Fig. 8. Electromagnetic torque waveform
We see from the simulation results that when the load
torque changes from 2 to 5 at 0.4s, the response time of the
currents is very short and the speed fluctuation is very small.
The waveforms suggest that the performance of this simulation
system is very steady and quick-responsible, which validate the
static and dynamic characteristics of vector control.
V. HARDWARE EXPERIMENT
A. The Composition of the Experimental Model
MATLAB Link for CCS Development Tools (CCSLink for
short) integrated in the MATLAB provides a two-way
connection among MATLAB, TI DSP integrated development
environment (CCS) and hardware circuit board, allowing
developers to complete operations of CCS and hardware target
in MATLAB environment. The powerful visualization, data
processing and analysis performance in MATLAB make it
easier to extract data and realize the function needed than under
the CCS environment.
The Simulink PMSM model based on field-oriented control
specialized to DSP TMS320F28035 is shown in Fig. 9. As seen
from the figure, the model has the following components:
Hardware Interrupt, FOC Algorithm, Speed Calculation, Speed
IIR Filter, Speed Control and F28035 chip.
Fig. 9. Field-oriented control specialized to DSP TMS320F28035
Among them, the hardware interrupt is used to trigger the
ADC sampling, collecting two phases of current and a given
motor speed as feedback to the FOC module. Speed
Calculation can get the current motor speed. The optical
encoder is installed around the rotor shaft of PMSM, consisting
of the light source, code plate, detection grating, photoelectric
detection devices and conversion circuit. Rotation of the motor
drives the grating disk to rotate at the same speed. The code
plate is a circular board with certain number of non-opaque
rectangular hole around used for calculating the number of
pulses to get the position increment [8]. Outputting the pulses
to eQEP (enhanced Quadrature Encoded Pulses) block in DSP
control board can get the current motor position and speed. The
given speed sampling from the ADC and the rotor actual speed
are the inputs of speed control module, which produce the
given q axis current calculated by PI regulator in the speed loop
for FOC algorithm.
The composition of FOC algorithm in model is shown in
Fig. 10. We may notice that the ADC and PWM modules are
provided by Simulink Library. Users only need to modify the
parameters within the module while not need to concern much
about the algorithm itself. The purpose of the FOC algorithm is
to obtain six complementary PWM waveforms to drive the
motor speed. To realize this algorithm, speed and current
double closed loop model mentioned above is needed. The
given voltages of α and β axis calculated through the Clarke,
Park and inverse Park coordinate transformations and PI
regulator input to SVPWM module for six square wave, which
is the key essential of PMSM vector control. Since the motor is
rotating all the time, the position is required to use for
coordinate transformation calculated by photoelectric encoder
and the eQEP module. We may see the Simulink
accomplishment of SVPWM technology in Fig. 11.
 Fig. 10. The composition of FOC algorithm in model
Fig. 11. Simulink accomplishment of SVPWM technology
B. Building and Running Result
MATLAB has rich interface resources, one of which named
MATLAB Link for CCS tool can not only provide control and
operation of the embedded system mechanism, but also assist
the DSP programming and debugging. MATLAB Link for
CCS can make MATLAB and CCS linked to each other, which
is, making MATLAB to compile, link loading and run the CCS
files, and also doing reading and writing operations upon data
from DSP memory. This paper is based on the MATLAB2014a
and CCS3.3 version software. After selecting the appropriate
DSP target board and the emulator model in CCS and
establishing a seamless connection between the two software,
you can input commands in MATLAB such as “ccsboardinfo”
and “checkEnvSetup (‘ccs’,‘F28035’,‘check’)” commands to
view the connection status. The results can be seen in Fig. 12
and Fig. 13.
Fig. 12. “ccsboardinfo” command in MATLAB command window
Fig. 13. “checkEnvSetup(‘ccs’,‘F28035’,‘check’)” command
The Simulink model can be compiled and built once the
connection is successful. After that, a complete project is
generated in CCS, which contains source files, header files,
library files, link command file, and an executable file. When
the emulator and hardware board has been connected to the
host computer, the project file codes will be automatically
downloaded to the hardware circuit board, and the PMSM
rotation process can be observed when connected. We may
input the wanted speed transmitted to ADC input for changing
the motor speed. And if a serial communication interface (sci)
is used to transfer the actual feedback speed of motor to host
computer, we could watch the regulation process. A complete
test system includes the following parts: PMSM, electric power
supply, DSP control and drive board, three-phase inverter
circuit, current sampling circuit, speed setting circuit and
XDS100 emulator. The two complementary PWM pulses of
one phase voltage collected through the oscilloscope is shown
in Fig. 14.
Fig. 14. Two complementary PWM pulses of one phase voltage
VI. CONCLUSION
This paper verified the performance of PMSM simulation
based on vector control in MATLAB/Simulink using the
control. The strategy of the model system is “id = 0”. Firstly,
we build a set of control system with the existing PMSM and
inverter module provided by Simulink Library. The simulation
results show that the control model has good performance. The
current can respond quickly and the fluctuation period of the
speed is short when the torque is suddenly changed, which
proves to be a stable software simulation model. Based on this,
another model is set up to drive the real motor. By connecting
the MATLAB with CCS, programming codes are generated
referring to the model. The experiment results suggest that the
motor starting and braking ability is fine and the model has a
stable speed during the rotation.
The simulation and experiment results prove that the vector
control algorithm can be applied to the actual control of
permanent magnet synchronous motor. It provides an effective
means and tools for analysis and design of PMSM control and
provides a guideline of designing and debugging for practical
PMSM system. Furthermore, MATLAB/Simulink is easily
operated and clearly observed, which represents outstanding
software for power control.
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