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DC Motor Control Using Sliding Mode Method

Conference Paper · September 2013

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Abolfazl Zebardast Hamid Ghadiri

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 SRPioneers
© Science and Research Pioneers Institute ([Link]), International Conference on
Electrical and Computer Engineering (ICECE2013), 26-28 September 2013, Istanbul Royal Hotel, Turkey

DC Motor Control Using Sliding Mode Method

[Link] H. Ghadiri
Department of Electrical Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering
Islamic Azad University Islamic Azad University
Abhar, Iran Qazvin, Iran
ab_zb@[Link] [Link]@[Link]

Abstract— The main objective of this paper is to control the to be an intensive, popular and suitable method for the
shaft speed and armature current as output variables. control of wide classes of linear and nonlinear systems
armature and field voltages are manipulating variables of a [3]. PI controllers are not perfectly able to stabilize the
separately excited DC motor. using sliding mode controller system, particularly, when the nonlinearity is very high or
based on variable structure systems, the aim is reducing the the bound of uncertainty is large. In many practical
peak overshot and steady-state error of the DC motor. The problems, almost perfect disturbance rejection or control
results show that the outputs change have very little impact performance is required. Sliding mode control (SMC)
on each other, and controller is robust against input may be applied to the system to obtain these
[Link] is simulated using
performances [3]. A SMC is designed such as to force the
MATLAB/SIMULINK.
system trajectories to move onto a predefined surface
Keywords- variable structure control; sliding mode within finite time and approaches to an equilibrium point
control; DC motor; armature current; shaft speed; armature all along this surface. The closed-loop dynamics of the
voltage; field voltage system is absolutely controlled through the switching
function equations provided the system trajectories
remain on this surface. Various SMC approaches have
been evolved during the last three decades comprising of
I. INTRODUCTION
practical implementation of SMC and theory
Electrical drives involving various types of DC development of SMC.
motors, turn the wheel of industry. More than 50 percent
of the generated electrical energy is consumed in motor II. SLIDING MODE IN VSS
drives in the developed countries [1]. DC motors are A variable structure system is a dynamical system
comprehensively used in various industrial applications whose structure changes in accordance with the current
such as electrical equipments, computer peripherals, value of its state. A variable structure system can be
robotic manipulators, actuators, steel rolling mills, viewed as a system composed of independent structures
electrical vehicles and etc. its applications spread from together with a switching logic between each of them.
low horse to the multi-mega watt due to its wide power, With appropriate switching logic, a variable structure
torque, speed ranges, high efficiency, fast response, system can exploit the desirable properties of each of the
simple and continuous control characteristics [2]. structures the system is composed. Even more, a variable
Variable structure control (VSC) made its first structure system may have a property that is not a
appearance in early 1950’s. The variable structure property of any of its structures [3]. Consider the
systems (VSS) consist of a set of continuous subsystems nonlinear system affine of the form
with proper switching logic and, as a result, control
actions are discontinuous functions of system states, x  f (t , x)  g (t , x)u(t ) (1)
disturbances and reference inputs. The dominant role in nn nm
x(t )  R , u(t )  R , f (t , x)  R and g (t , x)  R
n m
VSS theory is played by sliding modes, and the main idea
of designing VSS control algorithms consists of enforcing The components of the discontinuous feedback are given
this type of motion in some manifolds in system state by
spaces. When there are disturbances and uncertainties in a  
ui (t , x), if  i ( x)  0
system, an appropriate control should be designed so that ui   i  1,2,...,m (2)

the system stability and desired system responses are ui (t , x), if  i ( x)  0

achieved. Sliding mode control (SMC) is insensitive in Where  i ( x)  0 is the i  th sliding surface, and
the presence of external disturbances and uncertainties.
The robustness properties of SMC have led this approach  ( x)  [ 1 ( x),  2 ( x),..., m ( x)]T  0 (3)
 SRPioneers
© Science and Research Pioneers Institute ([Link]), International Conference on
Electrical and Computer Engineering (ICECE2013), 26-28 September 2013, Istanbul Royal Hotel, Turkey

The control problem consists of developing continuous the system state is constrained by the discontinuity
 
function u , u and the sliding surface  ( x)  0 , so that
i i
surface, which is an invariant set after the sliding mode
has been established. This, requires infinitely fast
the closed-loop system (1) exhibits a sliding mode on the switching. There are present imperfections in real systems
(n  m) -dimensional sliding manifold  ( x)  0 . The such as delay, hysteresis, etc. which force switching to
design of the sliding mode control law can be divided in occur at a finite frequency. The system state then
two phases: oscillates in the neighbourhood of the switching surface.
1. Phase1 consists in the construction of a suitable sliding This oscillation is called chattering. If the frequency of
surface, so that the dynamic of the system confined to the the switching is very high compared with the dynamic
sliding manifold produces a desired behavior. response of the system, the imperfections and the finite
2. Phase2 entails the design of a discontinuous control switching frequencies are often but not always negligible
law that forces the system trajectory to the sliding surface [4].
and maintains it there.
The sliding surface  ( x)  0 is a (n  m) - III. DC MOTOR DYNAMICS
n DC motors are extensively used in robotics and electrical
dimensional manifold in R determined by the
equipments. Therefore, the speed control of them is very
intersection of the m(n  1) -sliding manifold  ( x)  0 . important. Accurate speed control of the motor is the
The switching surface is designed so that the system basic requirement in such applications. Generally, the DC
response restricted to  ( x)  0 has a desired behavior. motor systems have uncertain and nonlinear
Although general nonlinear switching surfaces (3) are characteristics which degrade performance of the
possible, linear ones are more prevalent in design. thus controllers. Based on these reasons, sliding mode control
for the sake of simplicity, it has been decided to focus on is one of the popular control strategies and powerful
linear switching surfaces of the form  ( x)  sx(t ) where control technologies in order to deal with the uncertain
nonlinear systems. In this method, precise dynamic
s  R mn . After switching surface design, the next models are not required and its control algorithms can be
important aspect of sliding mode control is to guarantee easily implemented. However, the robustness of the
the existence of a sliding mode. A sliding mode exists, if sliding control strongly depends on the specified
the velocity vectors of the state trajectory is always parameters in the sliding function design [3]. The electric
directed toward the switching surface in the vicinity of circuit of the separately excited DC motor is shown in Fig.
the switching surface,  ( x)  0 . Consequently, if the state 2.
trajectory intersects the sliding surface, the value of the
state trajectory remains in the neighborhood of
{x  ( x)  0}. if a sliding mode exists on  ( x)  0 , then
 (x) is termed as a sliding surface. As can be seen in
Fig. 1, a sliding mode on  ( x)  0 can arise even in the
case when sliding mode does not exist on each of the
surfaces  ( x)  0 taken separately.

Fig. 2 separated excited DC motor structure

A desired speed can be achieved when a desired shaft
position is tracked. The reference signal determines the
desired speed/position and the control is designed to
ensure the difference between the reference input and
system's output ultimately approaches to its minimum
value, perfectly zero [2]. In the current study, armature
Fig. 1 sliding mode in the intersection of the discontinuity and field voltages are used as inputs to control armature
surfaces [4] current and speed as outputs. The electrical and
mechanical equations are assuming that the magnetic
An ideal sliding mode exists only when the state circuit is not saturated. These equations are given below:
trajectory x(t ) of the controlled plant satisfies  [ x(t )]  0

at every t  t 0 for some t 0 . Starting from time instant t 0 ,

 SRPioneers
© Science and Research Pioneers Institute ([Link]), International Conference on
Electrical and Computer Engineering (ICECE2013), 26-28 September 2013, Istanbul Royal Hotel, Turkey

dia IV. SLIDING MODE CONTROLLER

V a  R a i a  La  Vb DESIGN
dt
( Vb  K a f  ) The sliding surfaces are designed to impose a trajectory
tracking of the output y with respect to a reference
di f
Vf  Rf if  Lf (4) y ref . Thus, for each component of S ( x, t ) , one may
dt
choose:
d
J  Bd    l r j 1
dt S j ( x, t )   l ji ( y jref  y j ) (i ) j  1,2,...m (8)
(  K a f i a ) i 0
Where r j is the relative degree of the output y j [5]. The
Where the physical parameters are described as:
Va : Armature voltage (V) Vb : Back emf (V) value of r j implies that sth is dependent on S . The
sliding surface (8) is designed as a linear dynamics of
Ra : Armature resistance (  ) La : Armature inductance (H) tracking error ( y ref  y) . It is possible to guarantee the
ia : Armature current (A) V f : Field voltage (V) sliding surface by an adequate choice of the coefficients
l ji , so if the system is constrained to remain in surface
R f : Field resistance (  ) L f : Field inductance (H)
S ( x, t )  0 , it slides towards the origin, i.e., the error
i f : Field current (A)  : Generated torque (Nm) ( y ref  y) tends toward zero with the trajectory dynamics
constrained by the choice of l ji .
 l : Load torque (Nm) J : Moment of inertia ( kg m 2 / s 2 )
dS S dx S
Bd : Damping ratio (Nms)  : Speed of shaft (rad/s) S ( x, u, t )    j  1,2,...,m
dt x dt t
For example:
K a : Motor constant  f : Field flux (Wb)
S
The state, input and output vectors are defined as: S ( x, u, t )  ( f ( x, t )  g ( x, t )u )  c(t ) (9)
x
x1 x2 x3 T 
 ia i f  T  Equation (9) can be written in the following form:

[u1 u 2 ]T  [Va V f ]T (5) S ( x, u, t )  a( x, t )  b( x, t )u (10)

The control law for (8) is defined as:
[ y1 y 2 ]T  [i a  ]T
 a ( x, t )  u n
The new parameters are: u (11)
b ( x, t )
 Ra K a L f R f Ka L f
a1  , a2  , a3  , a4  The result of the application of this control is:
La La Lf J
S ( x, u, t )  u n (12)
B 1 1 l
a5  , b1  , b2  , c1 
J La Lf J The design of u n ( x, t ) is based on the concept of stability
according to Lyapunov [Link] selecting the
Using above equations and definitions, one can write state
1
model by ia , i f ,  as state variable and Va ,V f as V ( x, t )  S 2 the time derivative V ( x, u, t )  SS  S u n has
2
manipulating variables, as given below: been computed. To guarantee the negativity of
V ( x, u.t ) and thus the stability of the system toward the
 x1  a1 x1  a 2 x 2 x3  b1 0  0
  

 
  u1    0  origin of S ( x, t ) , it is sufficient that u n  k sign(S ) with
 2 
x a x
3 2  0 b 2     l (6)
k : [k1 ,...,k m ] where the k j is strictly positive. The
 x 3  a x x  a x  0 0   2  c1 
u
 4 1 2 5 3
control by sliding modes is written as below:
The above equations can be written in the following
1
closed form: u [a( x, t )  k sign( S )] (13)
b( x, t )
x  f ( x)  g u   (7)
In the case of uncertainties or disturbances, the control
Where  is a disturbance input (load torque).  a ( x, t )
known as equivalent control ( ) is not able to
b ( x, t )
 SRPioneers
© Science and Research Pioneers Institute ([Link]), International Conference on
Electrical and Computer Engineering (ICECE2013), 26-28 September 2013, Istanbul Royal Hotel, Turkey

guarantee S ( x, t )  0 continuously. The trajectories of the u1   u11 

system leave the surface instead of remaining or sliding on   
it. It is the role of the controlled or controlling u n , to force u 2  u 21  u 22 
a ( x, t )  k 2 tanh(10S 2 )
the trajectories of the system to return to the sliding u11   2
surface. Because of the presence of the discontinuous b21 ( x)
term, u n , the control can present a succession of a1 ( x, t )  k1 tanh(10S1 )
u 21   (18)
commutations. This is the phenomenon of chattering, as b12 ( x)
represented in Fig. 3 [5].
b11 ( x) [a 22 ( x, t )  k 2 tanh(10S 2 )]
u 22 
b12 ( x)b21 ( x)
where k j are the switching control gains .

The choice of the parameters l j determines the slope of

the sliding surface, i.e., the convergence speed of the error
dynamics when the system is in sliding mode.
V. SIMULATION RESULTS
To validate the effectiveness of the designed controller,
Fig. 3 phenomenon of chattering the simulation results are presented in this section. The
system parameters considered for simulation are as
A possible way to design the switching function is to use follows:
one dead zone and two linear zones or using the
Ra  0.6  , R f  60  , La  12 mH , L f  8 mH
hyperbolic tangent function, in order to smooth the
control. For a DC motor with no saturation of the K a  62 , J  0.0167 kg m 2 / s 2 , Bd  0.00167 Nms
magnetic circuit, the equation (6) is obtained. The outputs
y1 and y 2 are the current(s) of (the) armature (i a ) and Case 1: The current of armature and load torque are
the speed ( ) . The goal is to force these outputs to track constant( ia  8 A , l  10 Nm ), and the speed is subjected
a given trajectory. According to the presented technique, to be increased from 0 to 150 rad/s at t=0.5s and then
the sliding surfaces that are selected are: reduced to 50 rad/s at t=1.5s. Fig. 4 shows that the
controller has responded well to the changes of the
S1  ( ref   )  l1 ( ref   )
 reference speed. Fig. 5 shows that the maximum
 (14)
 S  l (i  ia ) deviation of the armature current from the reference value
 2 2 a ref
is 0.55% in the steady state. Therefore, control inputs
The objective is to force these outputs to trend toward have changed appropriately and our wishes are fulfilled.
zero to obtain a sliding mode. The dynamic equation of Fig. 6 shows control inputs of V a and V f .
S1 ( x, t ) is:

S1 ( x, u, t )  (ref  )  l1 ( ref   ) (15)

If the load disturbance is taken into account, equation (15)

becomes:
S1 ( x, u, t )  a1 ( x, t )  b11 ( x) u1  b12 ( x) u 2 (16)

The dynamics of S 2 ( x, t ) is as follows:

S 2 ( x, u, t )  l 2 (iaref  ia )  a 2 ( x, t )  b21( x) u1 (17)

Finally, the control is written as:

Fig. 4 speed changes tracking by the controller
 SRPioneers
© Science and Research Pioneers Institute ([Link]), International Conference on
Electrical and Computer Engineering (ICECE2013), 26-28 September 2013, Istanbul Royal Hotel, Turkey

Fig. 5 current of the armature when the speed is changed Fig. 8 shaft speed when the load torque is changed

Fig. 6 control inputs of V a and V f when the speed is changed Fig. 9 armature current when the load torque is changed

Case 2: In this case, assumed that the reference speed and

the current of the armature are
constant ( i a  8 A ,   150 rad / s ). the Load torque is
changed like Fig. 7. Speed and current of the armature are
shown in Fig. 8 and 9. It is noted deviations are very little
and controller is functioning correctly in comparison with
extreme changes of load torque. Maximum deviations for
speed and current of the armature are 0.1% and 0.5%
respectively. Furthermore, control inputs are shown in
Fig. 10. Load torque changes greatly and has little impact
on outputs, and it can be resulted that the sliding mode
Fig. 10 control inputs of V a and V f when the load torque is
controller is extremely robust against disturbances.
changed

Fig. 7 load torque changes Fig. 11 changes of the armature current tracking by the
controller
 SRPioneers
© Science and Research Pioneers Institute ([Link]), International Conference on
Electrical and Computer Engineering (ICECE2013), 26-28 September 2013, Istanbul Royal Hotel, Turkey

REFERENCES
[1] W. Lan, and Q. Zhou, “Speed control of DC motor using
composite nonlinear feedback control”, 2009 IEEE International
Conference on Control and Automation Christhchurch, New
Zealand, December 9-11, 2009.
[2] G. Murtaza, and A. I. Bhatti,“Control of DC motors using sliding
mode”,2012 IEEE International Conference on Applied Sciences
and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan, January 9-12, 2012, pp. 37-
42.
[3] U. Maheswararao, Y. Babu and K. Amaresh, “Sliding mode speed
control of a DC motor”,2011 IEEE International Conference on
Communication Systems and Network Technologies, Katra,
Jammu, India, 3-5 Jun, 2011, pp 387-391 .
[4] C. Vecchio, “Sliding mode control”, [Link]. thesis,University of
Fig. 12 shaft speed when the current of the armature is Pavia,pp. 6-8.
changed [5] W. Perruquetti and J. P. Barbot, “Sliding mode control in
engineering”, New York, Copyright 2002 by Marcel Dekker, pp.
402-408,
[6] V. I. Utkin,“Sliding mode control design principles and
applications to electric drives” IEEE Trans. On Industrial
Electronics, vol. 40, No. 1, pp. 23-35.

Fig. 13 control inputs of V a and V f when the current of the

armature is changed
Case 3: In this case, it is assumed that the reference speed
and load torque are
constant (  l  10 Nm ,   150 rad / s ). Current of the
armature according to Fig. 11 at t=1 s and with sloop
1000 A/s increase from 5A to 10 A and then at t=1.5 s
decrease to 7 A with sloop -600 A/s. Results show that
the controller is tracking reference changes. Fig. 12
shows the shaft speed compared with the armature current
changes. It can be seen/understood that maximum
deviation is very low (0.15%) and the speed can be
assumed to be nearly constant. Fig. 13 shows (the)
control inputs.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a separately DC motor control using
sliding mode controller is studied. Armature current and
shaft speed are output parameters and the armature and
field voltages have been considered as control inputs. By
changing the reference of each output, controller tracks it
perfectly with minimum error and reaches to steady state.
By the way, each output change has very little impact on
another. One of the obvious features of sliding mode
controller is robustness in uncertain and input
disturbance. Results show that changing of the input
disturbances have little influence on the system outputs,
and this proves the robustness of the controller.

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