MOTORS

AC motor control: DSP, MCU

or FPGA?
By Mike Thompson
Actel Corp.

Electric motors convert electrical

energy into mechanical motion.
These motors are broadly catego-
rised into two main categories:
direct current (DC) and alternat-
ing current (AC). In turn, each
of these categories comprises
numerous sub-types, each offer-
ing unique capabilities and each
targeted towards a specific range
of applications.
Today, electric motors are ubiq-
uitous, appearing in a seemingly
infinite variety of applications,
Figure 1: The main elements of a motor control system.
including residential (refrigerators,
fans, washers, pumps...), commer-
cial (heating, cooling, ventilation...),
and industrial (actuators, robotics
systems...).
Consider the “How It’s Made”
program on the Science television
channel, for example. A typical in-
stallment shows a product being
processed by multiple actuators,
manipulators, and robotic sys-
tems. As the product wends its
way through the factory, it may be
“touched” by hundreds of motors.
Few people, however, realise
just how many motors there actu-
ally are and their impact on the
environment. In fact, over 2 crore
(20 million) motors are produced
every day around the world, which
equates to more than 700 crore (7
billion) new motors each year.
Furthermore, experts estimate Figure 2: A mixed-signal FPGA contains sufficient analogue and digital processing capabilities to control 10 or more
that motors consume over 50 per motors simultaneously.
cent of the total energy produc-
tion in the United States. In 2005, rised as small (less than HP), me- for a motor is around 95 per cent, per cent efficient, then only half
for example, the US consumed dium (1 to 99 HP), and large (100 and the larger motors typically of the power it consumes is being
over 4,000 billion KWh (kilowatt HP and up). Some electric motors achieve 93 to 94 per cent efficien- converted into useful work; the
hours) of electrical power, a stag- can be extremely large; NASA and cy. other half is burned off as heat,
gering 2,000 billion KWh of which Boeing use 60,000 HP electric Unfortunately, for every large which means each motor is actu-
was consumed by electric mo- motors in their wind tunnels, for electric motor there are tens of ally acting like a small (or not-so-
tors. example. thousands of smaller ones, the small) radiator.
The power output of electric The larger motors tend to be vast majority of which are highly This can add up to a huge
motors is measured in horsepow- the most efficient, because they inefficient. The efficiency of small amount of energy in an industrial
er (HP), where 1 HP equates to are constructed from the ground AC motors, for example, can be as setting like a factory, which actu-
approximately 750 watts. Electric up with efficiency in mind. The low as 50 per cent. What does this ally receives a “double whammy.”
motors may be broadly catego- theoretical maximum efficiency mean? Well, if a motor is only 50 This is because it is now necessary

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to provide cooling systems to
remove the undesired heat, and
these cooling systems use ... you
guessed it ... yet more inefficient
electric motors.
Users are becoming increas-
ingly conscious of the rising
cost of energy and the effects of
technology on the environment.
Also, there is ever-increasing pres-
sure for greater efficiency from
environmental regulators, and
motor-driven products are more-
and-more being required to meet
the stringent environmental stan-
dards mandated by regulatory ini-
tiatives like Energy Star, the Kyoto
Summit, and the U.S. Department
of Energy Part 430.
One solution is to add intel-
ligent load-matching and variable
speed control, which can increase
efficiency by anywhere from 14 to
30 per cent. Implemented broadly,
electronic motor control could re-
sult in savings of as much as 15 per
cent of the total electric power
used in the US. This equates to an
annual reduction in energy con-
sumption of as much as 30000
crore (300 billion) KWh, thereby
saving Rs.74,578.79 crore ($15 bil-
lion) and reducing greenhouse
gasses by more than 18 crore (180
million) metric tons a year. When
extrapolated on a worldwide
basis, the potential savings are
staggering.
Who is in control?
For the purposes of this article,
we are going to focus on AC
electric motors, which account
for 70 per cent of the power con-
sumed by industrial applications
(they also account for 45 per
cent of the power in commercial
applications and 42 per cent in
residential applications).
AC electric motors consist of
a stator (stationary field) and a ro-
tor (the rotating field or armature).
Rotational speed and torque are
produced by the interaction of
magnetic flux and electric current.
The key components for a system
used to control an AC electric mo-
tor are sensors and an associated
interface, a digital control system,
and a power stage. For a large
proportion of applications, it will
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also be necessary to provide some
form of user interface (Figure 1).
For closed-loop control
systems, rotor position and/or
tachometer inputs are needed.
These may be provided by hall-ef-
fect sensors built into the motor or
externally mounted optical posi-
tion encoders, synchro-resolvers,
or magnetic induction sensors.
Each of these sensor types are
available in various electrical
topologies, and therefore may
require unique analogue or digital
sensor interfaces to receive and
format information in a manner
that is appropriate for the digital
control logic/system.
In the case of back-EMF detec-
tion, synchro-resolver positioning
sensors, resistive position sensors,
and so forth, an analogue-to-
digital converter (ADC) will be
required. In some applications it
may also be necessary to perform
some form of signal conditioning
(filtering, for example).
A motor’s speed, torque, and
direction are managed by elec-
tronically switching (modulating)
voltages across the motor wind-
ings. In a pulse width modulation
(PWM) controlled system, the se-
quence in which voltages are ap-
plied to the windings determines
the rotational direction and speed
of the motor.
Based on the inductance of the
winding, the frequency and dura-
tion (duty cycle) of each “pulse”
the peak current and therefore
the peak magnetic flux (torque)
that is achieved in each winding
is realised. The motor’s winding
inductance that is partially set
by the number of turns used in
the motor’s windings, filters and
smoothes out the digital PWM
pulses transforming them into
mechanical momentum.
By controlling the sequencing,
frequency, and duty-cycle of the
drive electronics, PWM systems
can control direction, speed, and
average torque of a motor. The
PWM output from the digital
control logic interfaces with the
motor through the power stage.
MOSFETs are the most commonly
used power stage switching
component for electronic motor
control.
The user interface component
in a motor control system allows
users to issue commands for ini-
tializing, configuring, and control-
ling the control logic component.
It can be as simple as a forward or
reverse switch and a speed adjust-
ment circuit, or as complicated as
providing voltage, current, and
temperature monitoring capa-
bilities related to the control of the
motor.
There are many different types
of AC motors, each of which will
require control techniques, sen-
sors, power stage and algorithms
that are tailored to the specific
motor. Having a versatile, highly
configurable, and highly inte-
grated controller that can support
a broad range of motor control
techniques and motor types is
desirable, and would improve
cost, performance, and power ef-
ficiency.
Don’t slip
The term “slip” is used for the differ-
ence in angular position between
the location of the electric current
in the rotor and the actual physical
position of the rotor. In essence, slip
equates to torque; the current has
to lead the physical mass by some
amount to cause the rotor to spin.
Slip is not an unmixed blessing, be-
cause if the slip becomes too great
power will be wasted. Fortunately,
slip and wasted power can be
minimised with electronic motor
control while at the same time
maximising torque across a broad
range of loading conditions.
Another big factor impacting
AC motor efficiency is loading
mismatch. An AC motor achieves
its maximum efficiency when it is
operating at or near its full rated
load, but this is rarely the case.
One consideration is that of “over
engineering” in which the design
engineer says something like: “I
really only need a 1 HP motor, but
I’ll use a 2 HP unit just to be safe.”
As a result, it is not unusual to find
motors that are two to three times
larger than they need to be for the
load that they are driving, which is
an expensive mode of operation.
And, even when the motor
is correctly sized to meet the
maximum load, in practice it will
often be run at a lower, less ef-
ficient loading. In the case of an
escalator whose motor is sized to
carry some maximum number of
people, for example, much of the
time there will be relatively few
people on the escalator causing it
to run at a low level of efficiency,
thereby wasting power.
By means of an electronic mo-
tor control system, the load can
be intelligently and continuously
sensed and exactly matched with
the proper input power. Even
small variations in the loading can
be detected and power precisely
applied to match it without affect-
ing the speed of the motor. In ef-
fect, electronic control constantly
sizes an AC induction motor to the
job, so that it is always operating
under ideal load conditions. This
maximises the efficiency of the
motor over its full operating load
range and minimises its power
consumption and operating
costs.
Another consideration is that
not all applications require the mo-
tor to be run at a constant speed.
In some cases, it may be necessary
to continuously vary the motor’s
speed to match it to current con-
ditions. This is impossible to do
with a standard AC motor, but an
electronic control system may be
used to continuously monitor the
speed of the motor and adjust it
to meet the requirements of the
moment.
DSPs, MCUs or FPGAs?
There are a number of potential
solutions with regard to the
digital control logic/system.
One alternative is to use special-
purpose DSPs, but these can
be expensive and also typically
require the addition of analogue
components, control elements
and sub-systems.
Another common alternative
is to use a microcontroller (MCU),
many of which contain at least
some of the required analogue
capabilities such as an ana-
logue-to-digital converter (ADC).
Microcontrollers have the advan-
tage of being relatively cheap
(around Rs.49.72 [$1] to Rs.99.44
[$2] for an industrial motor con-
troller application), but they are
typically clocked in the range of 10
to 50 MHz, which limits the speed
with which they can control the
pulse width modulation.
Yet another consideration is
that each microcontroller has suf-
ficient analogue capabilities and
bandwidth to control only a single
motor; there may not be sufficient
bandwidth to support communi-
cations for diagnostic purposes,
for example. Thus, if you have
a robot application containing
several motors, you will need sev-
eral microcontrollers and perhaps
another one or two to handle the
user interface and communica-
tions adding more cost.
By comparison, a Rs.248.60
($5) mixed-signal FPGA (Figure 2)
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contains sufficient analogue and
digital processing capabilities to
control two motors simultane-
ously. In addition to the fact that
such a device can be clocked at
around 250 to 300 MHz, the digi-
tal portion of the FPGA fabric can
be used to implement massively
parallel processing of the motor
control algorithms.
Furthermore, in the case of a
mixed signal FPGA, a portion of
the digital fabric can be used to
implement a soft microprocessor
core, such as the FPGA-optimised
ARM Cortex-M1. In addition to
handling the user interface and
communications, this core can
also be used to monitor and fine-
tune the analogue components
“on-the-fly”.
The use of a mixed-signal FPGA
with an integrated soft processor
allows motors to be built with sen-
sor-less sinusoidal current control,
eliminating costly sensors and
further reducing the price of the
electronic controls.
In addition to monitoring
the bus voltage, motor currents,
and speed, the combination of a
Cortex-M1 processor in a mixed-
signal FPGA can also perform
diagnostics and handle any user
interface requirements. The ability
to run diagnostics and respond
intelligently to problems as they
occur can significantly reduce
damage and increase the life of
the motor, further reducing the
cost of ownership.
Last but not least, we should
note that the conversion of AC
motors to include electronic
control systems doesn’t necessar-
ily require an expensive replace-
ment of all of the motors that are
currently in use. The Department
of Energy estimates that the
industrial sector alone uses 1.24
crore (12.4 million) motors larger
than 1 HP. Motor replacement is
an ongoing activity, with as many
as 600,000 motor failures and re-
placements in the US each year.
This means that, over the
next 20 years, most of the mo-
tors larger than 1 HP will need
to be replaced. Replacing these
units with highly-efficient, elec-
tronically-controlled motors will
reduce ongoing industrial power
requirements by as much as 18
per cent, resulting in significant
energy cost savings for the manu-
facturing sector and substantially
decreasing the environmental
impact associated with running
these motors.