Enhanced dynamic performance in DC–DC converter-PMDC motor combination through an intelligent non-linear adaptive control scheme

Abstract

A novel neuro-adaptive control scheme is proposed in the context of angular velocity tracking in DC–DC buck converter driven permanent magnet DC motor system. The controller builds upon the idea of backstepping and consists of a fast single hidden layer Hermite neural network (HNN) module equipped with on-board (adaptive) learning to counteract the unknown non-linear time-varying load torque and to ensure nominal tracking performance. The HNN has a simple structure and exhibits promising speed and accuracy in estimating dynamic variations in the unknown load torque apart from being computationally efficient. The proposed method guarantees a rapid recovery of nominal angular velocity tracking under parametric and non-parametric uncertainties. In order to verify the performance of the proposed neuro-adaptive speed controller, extensive experimentation has been conducted in the laboratory under various real-time scenarios. Results are obtained for start-up, time-varying angular velocity tracking and under the influence of highly non-linear unknown load torque. The performance metrics such as peak undershoot/overshoot and settling time are computed to quantify the transient response behaviour. The results clearly substantiate theoretical propositions and demonstrate an enhanced dynamic speed tracking under a wide operating regime, thus confirming the suitability of proposed method for fast industrial applications.