Sensor-less brushed DC motor speed control with intelligent controllers

Abstract

A Direct Current (DC) Motor is usually supposed to be operated at a desired speed even if the load on the shaft is exposed to changes. One of its applications is in automatic door controllers like elevator automatic door drivers. Initially, to achieve this aim, a closed loop control can be applied. The speed feedback is usually prepared by a sensor (encoder or tachometer) coupled to the motor shaft. Most of these sensors do not always perform well, especially in elevator systems, where high levels of noise, physical tensions of the mobile car, and maintenance technicians walking on the car, make this environment too noisy. This Paper presents a new approach for precise closed loop control of the DC motor speed without a feedback sensor, while the output load is variable. The speed here is estimated by the Back EMF (BEMF) voltage obtained from the armature current. First, it is shown that a PID controller cannot control this process alone, and then intelligent controllers, Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) and Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference Systems (ANFIS), assisting PID are applied to control this process. Finally, these controllers' performance subjected to a variable mechanical load on the motor shaft are compared.