2013 International Conference on Mechatronic Sciences, Electric Engineering and Computer (MEC)

Dec 20-22, 2013, Shenyang, China

Double-Loop Networked Control System of DC

Motor Based on Dynamic Smith Predictor and
Fuzzy-PI Controller
Baolong Zhu, Min Li
School of Astronautics
Harbin Institute of Technology
Harbin, China, 150001
E-mail: baolong_zhu@126.com

Yuyin Cheng
School of Mines, China University
of Mining and Technology
Xuzhou, China, 221000
E-mail: ck09cheng@163.com

take the DC motor as controlled object and constructed a

kind of double closed-loop control system based on
network. At the same time, we propose different control
strategies for current loop and speed loop to overcome the
network-induced time delay in the network environment.
Finally, the simulation based on Matlab/Simulink and
TrueTime box is studied in this paper.
The paper is organized as follows: Section II
introduces the configuration of double closed-loop
networked control system of DC motor. In section III, we
discuss the controller design of double closed-loop
networked control system of DC motor and propose
different control strategies for current loop and speed loop.
Simulation analysis based on Matlab/Simulink and
TrueTime box are given in section IV. Finally, the
conclusions and future research directions are given.

AbstractThe double-loop control system of DC motor

based on network is investigated in this paper. System
configuration consists of the real-time network and three
intelligent nodes. In order to overcome the network-induced
time delay, the dynamic Smith predictor and Fuzzy-PI
hybrid control strategy are proposed respectively while
designing the current and speed loop. Finally, simulation
platform based on Matlab/Simulink and TrueTime toolbox
is established. Taking different delay upper bounds into
account, the dynamic responses of speed and armature
current is given and analyzed. Simulation results show that
system has excellent dynamic characteristics and robustness
when the network random delay upper bound is less than
one second. The effectiveness of control method proposed in
this paper provides a reference for other networked cascade
control system.
Keywords-DC motor; double closed-loop; network-induced
delay; Fuzzy PI; dynamic Smith predictor

I.

II. CONFIGURATION OF DOUBLE CLOSED-LOOP

NETWORKED CONTROL SYSTEM OF DC MOTOR
Theoretically, NCCS has eleven different topology
structures [12]. However, only four kinds of them be often
adopted in the industrial control field. In this paper, we
choose the typical I structure configuration to build the
whole control system. The typical I structure is shown in
Figure 1.

INTRODUCTION

Feedback control system, wherein information

(reference input, control input/output, plant output, etc.) is
exchanged via real-time networks, are called networked
control systems (NCSs for short hereinafter) [1]. Because
of its enormous advantages over traditional point-to-point
control system, such as lower cost, reduced weight and
power, simpler installation and maintenance, and higher
reliability[2]. Cascade control system has been widely
adopted for many years in modern industry for its
numerous advantages (e.g. improving the dynamic
characteristics of the plant and overcoming the disturbance
from the secondary loop effectively) [3]-[5]. Taking full
advantages of NCSs and the advantages of cascade control,
the networked cascade control system (NCCS for short
hereinafter) emerge [6]-[9].
It is worth mentioning that the double closed-loop
control system of DC motor have been widely adopted in
motor control field of industrial production [10][11], due
to its improving production quality, conserve energy,
reduce costs, etc. Actually, the double closed-loop control
system of DC motor is a class of cascade control systems.
However, up to the present, relevant literature about
double closed-loop networked control systems of DC
motor have not been found. Therefore, in this paper, we

978-1-4799-2565-0/13/$31.00 2013 IEEE

Qingbin Yu
Shandong Electric Power Research
Institute
Jinan, China, 250002
E-mail: yuqingbin001@163.com

 cc

 ca

Figure 1. Typical I structure configuration for double closed-loop

networked control system of DC motor

As seen in Figure 1, the controlled plant of system is

DC-motor. The primary and secondary controlled variables
are speed and current respectively. There are three

163

intelligent device nodes (Node1, Node2 and Node3)

distributed in the network. S1&C1 (Node1) indicates
primary sensor and controller (Specifically, speed sensor
and controller). S2&C2 (Node2) indicates secondary sensor
and controller (Specifically, current sensor and controller).
Actuator (Node3) indicates intelligent actuator of DC
motor. Network exists in between Node1 and Node2, and
between Node2 and Node1. The corresponding networkinduced time delays are indicated cc and ca.
According to the Figure 1, the block diagram of the
type I double-loop networked control system of DC motor
is shown in Figure 2.

From the TABLE I, we can establish the mathematical

model of DC motor.
The transfer function of the voltage, electromotive
force and current can be written as

I d ( s)
1/ R
2
=
=
U d 0 ( s ) E ( s ) Tl s + 1 0.03s + 1

where Id(s), Ud0(s) and E(s) are the Laplace transform of

DC average current, ideal no-load voltage, electromotive
force.
The transfer function of the current and electromotive
force is as follow

E ( s)
R
0.5
=
=
I d ( s ) I dL ( s ) Tm s 0.18s

r1 (k )
uc1 ( k )
y1( k )

r2 (k )

uc 2 ( k )

 cc

y1 (t )

(2)

where IdL(s) is the Laplace transform of load current.

The transfer function of the electromotive force and
speed can be written as

 ca
y2 ( k )

(1)

y2 (t )

n( s ) 1
1
=
=
E ( s ) Ce 0.132

By the formula(1),(2) and (3), we can get the dynamic

structure of DC motor with rated excitation, as shown in
Figure 3.

Figure 2. Block diagram for double closed-loop networked control

system of DC motor

As shown from the Figure 2, the set-point (one of

inputs for S1&C1) of control system is r1(k). y1(t) and y2(t)
are the primary and secondary controlled variables
(Specifically, speed and current), which are converted to
digital y1(k) and y2(k) by A/D convertor, and periodically
sampled by S1&C1 and S2&C2. The uc1(k)(output of the
S1&C1) is sent to the S2&C2 as its set-point r2(k) via the
network in each control period, with network-induced time
delay cc. uc2(k), the output of the S2&C2, is sent to the
Actuator as control signal through the same network, with
network-induced time delay cc. The two network-induced
delays incurred by the same network are denoted by cc and
ca, which may be constant, or even random, depending on
the network and hardware chosen.
III.

I dL ( s)

U d 0 ( s)

PHYSICAL PARAMETERS OF DC MOTOR

Value(unit)

UN

Rated voltage

220(V)

IdN

Rated load current

136(A)

nN

Rated speed

1460(r/min)

Electromotance
coefficient(rated magnetic flux)
Overload capacity

Motor armature resistance

Ce

Tm
Tl

Electromechanical time
constant
Armature circuit
electromagnetism time constant

E (s)

n( s )

B. Design of Current Loop Controller

In the double closed-loop control system, the current
loop is a following subsystem and the secondary controlled
variable is armature current. In current loop, there is
network-induced delay ca, which increases the phase lag
and decreases the system stability and the quality. With the
problem of time delay, Smith predictor is an effective
solution. The main advantage of its principle is that the
time delay is eliminated from the characteristic equation of
the closed-loop system. In different applications, the
improved smith predictor had been found in some
literatures [13][14]. According to the characteristic of the
network-induced delay, we adopt the dynamic Smith
predictor with on-line time delay identification structure
[15] to overcome the current time delay ca. The dynamic
smith predictor with on-line time delay identification
scheme of current loop is shown in Figure 4.

CONTROLLER DESIGN

Physical Interpretation

Symbol

I d (s)

Figure 3. The dynamic structure of DC motor in rated excitation

A. The mathematical model of DC motor

In order to establish the control system and design
controller, we should establish the mathematical model of
DC motor at first. We choose one kind common DC motor
as an example. Detailed parameters of the DC motor are
shown in TABLE I.
TABLE I.

(3)

r2 (s)

eca

W ( s)

I d (s)

0.132(V min/r)
2

e  ca

0.5()

W (s)

0.18(s)
Figure 4. The dynamic smith predictor with nn-line time-delay
identification scheme of current loop

0.03(s)

164

In Figure 4, W(s) is the no time delay open-loop

transfer function of the secondary controlled object. Its
transfer function can be written as
1/ R
2
W (s) =
=
(4)
(Tl s + 1)(T s + 1) (0.03s + 1)(0.0037)
where T is the time constant of current loop. In this paper,

differential de / dt . The two outputs of the Fuzzy controller

are the proportional term Up and integral coefficient Ki.
The output of the Fuzzy-PI hybrid controller is Uc1(k),
whose arithmetic can be expressed as
(8)
U i = Ki e(k )

we choose the general value [15], T = 0.0037 .

The networked-induced delay is ca, which occurs in
the current loop. The dotted frame is the section of the
Smith dynamic predictor with on-line time-delay
identification. Its transfer function can be written as

Seven fuzzy membership functions are used to describe

E, EC, Up and Ki, respectively. By trial and error, the
membership functions for Up and Ki are chosen as
Triangular-shaped triangle-shaped; the membership
functions for E and EC are chosen as Gaussian curve. The
fuzzy sets of the inputs and the outputs, all are chosen to
be equal in number and use the same linguistic descriptors:
NB (negative big), NM (negative medium), NS (negative
small), ZO (zero), PS (positive small), PM (positive
medium), and PB (positive big). The range for E, EC, Up
and Ki are [-18 18], [-2500 2500], [-20 20] and [0 1.15],
respectively. The rules of Fuzzy controller are shown in
TABLE II.

U c1 ( k ) = U p + U i

H ( s) =

2(1 e  ca )
(0.03s + 1)(0.0037)

(5)

The  ca is the mean of the time-delay ca and is

identified on-line, expression (6), refer to [16] in detail.
k n

 ca =

 ica / n

TABLE II.

(6)
i = k 1
The secondary control strategy is ordinary PI algorithm
and the smith dynamic predictor. In this paper, PI
parameter tuning adopt engineering PID parameter tuning
methods, refer to [15].After calculation, the proportionality
coefficient Kp=1.1 and the integral time constant Ti=0.03.
PI regulator can be written as

1.1(0.03s + 1)
R( s ) =
0.03s

RULES OF FUZZY CONTROLLER

E

U p / Ki

EC

(7)

C. Design of Speed Loop Controller

The master loop of system is outer (or speed) loop. Due
to the existence of the network, the control system
mathematical model will be uncertainty, which will
increases the difficulty to design the controller. Obviously,
conventional PID control method cannot meet our
requirement. We notice that fuzzy control method has
excellent robustness for the uncertainty of the controlled
plants [17]. The rich experiences of operators can be made
full use of by the fuzzy controller to deal with the
influence of network (e.g. network-induced delays and
data packet dropout). In this paper, combining
conventional PID with fuzzy control method, we propose
the Fuzzy-PI hybrid control strategy as the primary
controller. The block diagram of the Fuzzy-PI hybrid
controller is shown in Figure 5.

(9)

NB

NM

NS

ZO

PS

PM

PB

NB

NB/PS

NB/ZO

NM/NS

NS/NS

NM/ZO

ZO/NM

PB/NB

NM

NB/PS

NS/ ZO

NM/NS

NS/NS

NS/NS

PS/NM

PS/NM

NS

NM/PS

NS/ ZO

NS/NS

ZO/NS

ZO/NS

PM/NM

PB/NB

ZO

NB/ZO

NS/ ZO

NS/ZO

ZO/ZO

PS/ZO

PS/ZO

PM/ZO

PS

NB/PB

NM/ PM

NS/PS

PS/ZO

PS/PS

PM/ PM

PB/PB

PM

NM/PB

NS/ PM

ZO/PS

PS/ZO

PS/PS

PS/PM

PB/PB

PB

NM/PB

ZO/ PM

PS/PS

PM/ZO

PB/PS

PM/ PM

PM/PB

The control surfaces demonstrating the relationship

between E, EC, Up and Ki are presented in Figure 6. Figure
6 (1), (2) present the rule surfaces of Up and Ki respectively.

15
10

Up

5
0
-5
-10

I dL (s )

de

r1 (k )

dt

Up

U c1 (k )

-15

R
Tm s

1 n (t )
Ce

Ki

2000
1000
10

Ui

E(s)

5
-1000
-15

-10

EC

(1) Rule surfaces of Up

Figure 5. The Fuzzy-PI hybrid controller scheme of speed loop

The Fuzzy-PI hybrid controller scheme of speed loop

depicted in Figure 5, the dotted frame is the section of the
Fuzzy-PI hybrid control. For the Fuzzy-PI hybrid
controller, there are two inputs: the error e(k) and its

165

-5
-2000

15

rated load with different delay upper bound are obtained in

Figure 8.
1500
1460

1
0.9

Speed/( r/min)

0.8

1000

Ki

0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4

=0.05s

=0.5s

=1s

=2s

max
max

500

max

0.3

max

2000
1000
0
-1000
-2000

-15

-10

-5

EC

10

0
0

15

1.5

Time/s
300

Load current/A

Figure 6. Rule surfaces of Fuzzy-PI hybrid controller

SIMULATION ANALYSIS

TrueTime toolbox is an ideal simulation tool of

networked control systems based on Matlab/Simulink,
which can give synthetic simulation for network delay,
network scheduling, network parameters, control method
and so on. By using the TrueTime 1.5 toolbox, the
simulation platform for the double closed-loop networked
control system of DC motor is established.
The simulation block diagram for the double closedloop networked control system of DC motor is presented in
Figure 7. As shown in Figure 7, four TrueTime kernel
blocks are used to implement the primary controller
(S1&C1, Node 1), the secondary controller(S1&C1, Node
2), the Actuator (Actuator, Node 3), the interference
(Interference, Node 4). They are all connected to the same
network.

=0.05s

=0.5s

=1s

=2s

max

272
250

(2) Rule surfaces of Ki

IV.

0.5

max
max

200

max

150
100
50
0
0

0.5

1.5

Time/s

Figure 8. The dynamic response of the DC motor that start at rated load
with different delay upper bound

It can be clearly seen from Figure 8 that the primary

and secondary controlled variables (speed and load current)
have better dynamic characteristic and tracking capability
when the network random delay upper bound tmax is less
than one second. When the tmax is more than two second,
the armature current present greater shocks. Therefore,
with network-induced time delay, the dynamic smith
predictor and Fuzzy-PI hybrid control strategy are
effective solution in double-loop networked control system
of DC motor.
V.

CONCLUSIONS

In the network environment, the double closed-loop

control system structure of DC motor has been established
in this paper. Taking into account the network-induced
delay, we propose different control strategies for current
and speed loop. With designing current and speed loop, the
dynamic smith predictor and the Fuzzy-PI hybrid control
strategy are adopted respectively. Simulation results
illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control method.
However, in this paper, we suppose the data loss
probability is very small (only 0.1%) and it does exist in
the network. So how to solve the problem of data loss will
be the next research direction.
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Figure 7. The simulation block diagram for double closed-loop

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upper bound tmax. Taking the value of tmax as 0.05s, 0.5s, 1s
and 2s, the dynamic responses of the DC motor that start at

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