Name of Project: Three-Phase Induction Motor Controller

Name of Participants: Ryan Booth, Samer Matti, Yadollah (Moez) Moradipour

Abstract:
In todays automotive industry, two types of motors have been widely used in driving battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) and
hybrid-electric vehicles (HEVs). The brushless DC motor was and continues to dominate in HEVs. On the other hand, three-phase
induction motors have had success in driving world class BEVs such as the Tesla Roadster. There are advantages and disadvantages
to each motor type. Such factors as ease of control, cost, and size may make it hard to choose the best motor. It is recommended,
however, to use three-phase induction motors for applications requiring greater than 10 horsepower because even though the control
of the motor is considered more complicated and more expensive, the price of the motor itself is much cheaper and outweighs the cost
of the control circuit. This report focuses on the speed control of three-phase induction motors.
There are several ways to control a three-phase induction motor. The best method centers on keeping the magnetizing
current constant, and utilizing a constant torque for variable speeds up to the synchronous speed. This is done by a V/f control
method, which is a method that keeps the stator voltage to frequency ratio constant. As the frequency increases, the speed of the rotor
increases (since the number of poles P is held constant) based on the formula: ns=120f/P. This control method allows for rotor
speeds higher than the synchronous speed. To achieve V/f control, the input AC voltages must be converted to DC via a full bridge
rectifier and a smoothing capacitor (or a DC source must be supplied such as a battery bank in an electric vehicle). The DC supply
feeds a three-phase inverter circuit that converts the power back to AC. However, Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) signals control the
frequency and voltage used by the inverter.
Microcontrollers can be used to create these PWM signals and a potentiometer is used to vary the frequency. If a
microcontroller is used, an IGBT driver circuit is also used along with the inverter circuit. The inverter circuit is wired to the motor in
a specific fashion and the six switches of the circuit must be switched on and off in an organized manner. This is the method used in
this report. Note that the IGBT driver circuit also acts as the protection for the circuit.

Literature Survey:
In our modern times, the automotive industry is dominated by two classes of vehicles. The first class of vehicles depends on
the conventional internal combustion (IC) engine propulsion system and the second depends on the electric propulsion system. The
second class can be subdivided into two categories: battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) and hybrid-electric vehicles (HEVs). The
concept of an electric vehicle has been around for a very long time. In fact, the electric motor, which many consider as the heart of
the electric vehicle, was introduced by Nikola Telsa in as early as the late 1880s. It is the IC engine; however, that has had the upper
hand over the years and has dominated the early battle. What made the internal IC engine propulsion system so dominant over the
years came down to the simple fact that the battery proved to be no match to the greater driving range, much faster refuelling times,
ease of handling and ultimately the cheap and abundant supply of gasoline. This caused the electric vehicle to virtually vanish from
the American market in the early to mid 1900s. In his book, Alternative Cars in the 21st Century: A New Personal Transportation
Paradigm, Riley believes that although the conventional internal combustion (IC) engine propulsion system has been deemed the
winner thus far in the battle, ultimately it will be electric propulsion system who will be crowned the winner. He puts it best when he
writes that the IC engine may ultimately become the victim of its own success. [1] Riley refers to the wide-spread use of the IC
engine in most vehicles on the road, which has contributed greatly to pollution among other effects on the environment, thus leading
governments to enforce strict standards.
In the past, the easiest way to adhere to government standards has been and for the most part continues to be to improve the
existing model; that is, to further improve the vehicles depending on the conventional internal combustion (IC) engine. For instance,
in 1971 Canada began its national emissions regulations for new gasoline and diesel-fuel road vehicles. [2] These regulations continue
to be subject to increasingly severe laws. One way car manufactures decided to deal with this is by using a close-loop controlled 3-
way catalyst.
It is however more recently that great strides have been made by automotive companies to introduce HEVs and BEVs. One
reason is the soaring gasoline prices and the second is the push for more eco-friendly solutions. People are starting to take notice and
are slowly realizing that someday the world will exhaust its supply of fossil fuels, and hence, maybe HEVs and BEVs are here to stay.
From and efficiency and eco-friendly point of view, the heart of the electric vehicle is the clear winner. For instance, an IC engine
uses only about 20 percent of energy stored in the gasoline compared with an electric motor that uses up to 75 percent of the chemical
energy stored in the batteries. [3]
There is obviously some development areas in all facets of the electric vehicle that must researched further to make HEVs
and BEVs more competitive in the global market. Some of these areas include better battery management systems and an
infrastructure to support the development of these vehicles. This report focuses on specific research area, which is controlling the
heart of the electric vehicle; that is the motor.
There are several motors that exist in the market today. These motors can be divided into two main groups: AC motors and
DC motors. Since the motor is considered to be the heart of the electric vehicle, it is important to choose the most suitable motor for
the electric vehicle and then find out how to control motor to get the desired response (i.e. speed control).
Ultimately the decision came down to choosing between two motors. Wally Rippel, an engineer at Tesla Motors 1 and a
former engineer at AeroVironment, who helped develop the EV-1 for General Motors wrote an excellent blog in the Telsa Motors
website. In it he summed up the main question for the choice of best motor perfectly by writing:
In that odious world of gas powered vehicles, engines are not all alike. There are flat-heads, Hemis, straight, opposed, and V
configurations. And on and on. One would have thought that, years ago, someone would have figured out which was best. That
would have ended all the choices and thereafter only the one best engine type would be in production. Not so. There is no one
best engine type, rather there are different types of engines to suit personal requirements, such as price and performance. This
is also true for electric vehicle drives. [4]
His blog goes on to narrow the field of electric motors to two choices: the DC brushless motor and the induction motor. In his
comparison he mentions that in the 1990s, all electric vehicles, with the exception of one, were powered by the DC brushless motor.
The Dominance of the DC brushless motor is still prevalent to this day when it comes to hybrid cars. Although all hybrid cars use a
DC brushless motor, some electric vehicles have decided to use induction drives. The most notable of these electric vehicles is the
EV-1 (produced by General Motor), tzero2 (produced by AC Propulsion), and The Tesla Roadster. [4]
The two motors have some similarities as well as some notable differences. Some of the similarities and differences from the
blog are mentioned next to complement the comparison made earlier and make the argument for the best motor type more complete.
Both DC brushless and AC induction drives have similar stators and use similar three-phase modulating inverters. The rotor
and the inverter controls comprise as the major differences between the two drives. Brushless DC drives are favoured because: there
is much less rotor heat loss generated, rotor cooling is easier, and peak point efficiency is higher. Moreover, it is possible to operate
brushless DC drives at a unity power factor. This is significantly better than the maximum achievable power factor of 0.85 attainable
for induction motors. Ideally, the magnetic field B produced by the permanent magnets is adjustable so that the sum of eddy,
hysteresis, and I losses is minimized 3. It is hard in practise to alter the value of B with permanent magnets. This is where the
advantage of induction motors comes in. Notice that induction motors have no magnets. The magnetic field B is adjustable and is
proportionate to voltage over frequency in the case of an induction motor. In short, when the induction machine is operated with a
smart inverter control, it has the upper hand over the brushless DC motor. With brushless DC motors, an increase in the size of the
motor leads to increase in magnetic losses, this however is not the case for induction machines, which is part of the reason that makes
them more favourable in high-performance applications. Finally it should be noted that induction motors, although are easier to
protect, do have the disadvantage of being harder to control when compared with brushless DC motors. For these reasons, Mr. Rippel
believes that the brushless DC motors will continue to dominate the hybrid market and the induction motor will likewise continue to
get more support from the pure electric vehicle market. A tough decision will be made by the hybrid market in the future when the
hybrids become more electrically intensive, as well as when the performance levels increase. [4]
This is a very valid concern raised by Mr. Rippel. It should come by no surprise that newer cars contain more
electrical/electronic equipment. The book Automotive Technology of the Future, written about two decades ago suggests that the cost
portion of electronic/electrical components on the total manufacturing cost of automobiles was about 16%. This number was
projected to increase to 23% by the year 2000. This suggestion assumed that there would be advancements in semiconductor
technology. [5] This prediction seems to be somewhat close with another more recent article that suggests today electronic
components comprise about 20-30% of total costs for all car categories4. The authors of the same article believe electronics/electrical
components will account for about 40% on the total manufacturing cost of automobiles by 2015. That is a huge number considering
that today, 70% of the cost is attributed to materials and components while 15% is charged to labour and the other 15% is charged for
miscellaneous expenses. [6] That just goes to show the importance of technology on the future of the automotive industry. Some of
the most notable electrical equipment many can recognize include powerful speaker systems, car navigation systems, HD and satellite
radios, a transition from tape players to much more advanced stereo systems that support gadgets such as MP3 players and iPods,
collision detection and avoidance systems on some newer models, and even some things that we take for granted like cruise control

1
Tesla Motors are manufacturers of one of the best electric vehicles available in the market today; the Tesla Roadster. Tesla Motors
has named their company after the pioneer of the electric motor, Nikola Tesla, who invented the induction machine in 1888.
2
tzero draws its name from the mathematical expression t0, which means a starting point in time.
3 2
At maximum torque (at low speeds), B is increased to reduce I R loses and when the torque is low, B is decreased to decrease
hysteresis and eddy current losses.
4
According to the article electronic components makes up 10-15% of the total production cost of model compact cars, 20-30% of
the cost of luxury models, and for around 50% of the cost of HEVs
systems. This list can be extended much further to include several other electronics that never existed in the past. This trend is very
likely to continue as the numbers suggest and new features will continue to be added. Due to the increased number of amenities
available as newer vehicles are developed, it is clear that the need for the most powerful motor is needed and hence, the choice for
best motor for the electric vehicle is the three-phase induction motor. Control of this motor is covered briefly in the Pictures,
Diagrams and Other Pertinent Information section.

Work Done:
The work was split into three phases. In the first phase, the research and design phase, the group researched the best motor to
use for an electric vehicles and the speed control methods that can be implemented. In the second phase, the software and hardware
implementation, the group simultaneously worked on the software and hardware components of the project. Finally, the last phase,
which was the testing and troubleshooting phase, the group test the final circuit built after all the different components were joined
together and ensured that all the components seamlessly worked together. With some extra time left, the group added features to
enhance the project. One feature added was the tachometer.
As far as breaking the work down between the group, it was realized early on that even though all the students were fourth
year electrical engineering students, each team member brought forth a different skill to the team. It is evident from the personal bios
that each person has had a great coop working experience and shared an expertise in a specific field. Furthermore, different members
had some different academic backgrounds due to the electives they have chosen. Although the objective was to work on the project as
one team so that each person can get the maximum learning experience, the group tended to have the different members focusing on
different areas of research/implementation. Everyone in the group assisted in the early stage of the research such as choosing the best
type of motor. After this point, Ryan focused his research on finding the best way of implementing the PWM outputs using interrupts.
Samer focused on the hardware due to his background in power electronics. Yadollah tied the software and hardware fronts due to his
earlier experience working with motors as well as his knowledge in embedded systems. He made sure that all the theory about the
control of induction motors were seamlessly being implemented by the software. However, all members helped out one another
whenever a problem arose or if troubleshooting was needed.

Pictures, Diagrams and Other Pertinent Information:

The best speed control method for an induction motor is to change the stator voltage and frequency together. This is not very
simple and it cannot be done directly. Instead, it must be controlled using the following circuit shown below.

Block diagram of V/f control circuit

The V/f control must be done through the use of PWM. The way the control circuit works is as follows. A DC supply
source is used to drive a three-phase inverter. In an electric vehicle the DC voltage is supplied by the cars battery bank. For testing
the control circuit, however, such supply is not available. Instead, AC (single phase or three-phase) is converted to DC voltage by
means of a full bridge rectifier circuit and a smoothing capacitor. The capacitor used must be large (ideally in the Farads range, but cF
range may be acceptable) in order to obtain a smooth DC voltage without too many ripples. This DC input is used to drive the three-
phase inverter used to convert the DC back to AC. Hence, the output of the three-phase inverter is three-phase AC voltage. The key
in controlling the frequency and voltage is in the Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) signals that feed the three-phase inverter. This is
the basic operation of the circuit.
The group implemented the design above using a microcontroller to generate the PWM signal. The implementation of the
V/f control circuit is somewhat similar to the one discussed earlier. A good block diagram is shown below:
 Block diagram of V/f control circuit

Here is a very simplistic overview of how the circuit operates as a whole. In this diagram the microcontroller (PIC16F777)
generates the PWM signals corresponding to the three sinusoidal inputs. The IGBT driver circuit steps up the voltage output of the
three PWM signal inputs, which are received from the microcontroller and generates three additional inverted signals. The driver also
has other important functions such as adding dead time needed by the inverter. These signals are given to the three-phase inverter.
The inverter is powered by a DC voltage source. The output of the three-phase inverter is AC. This AC is fed to the motor. In this
design, the V/f ratio (specifically the frequency) is controlled by means of a potentiometer. This potentiometer is an analog input to
the microcontroller

Pictures of Team Members and Biographies:

Ryan Booth
Is a fourth year electrical engineering student. Ryan has completed three years of
Physics and Mathematics at the University of Windsor before joining the Engineering
programs in 2006. Ryan has done several coop placements. His first placement was at
Essex Power and he later worked at Research In Motion (RIM). He is expected to
graduate at the end of this semester and join RIM in the fall of this year.

Samer Matti
A fourth year Electrical Engineering student at the University of Windsor. He is
expected to graduate at the end of August of 2010. Samer will join Hydro One after
graduating and work in the P&C group for the Windsor division. Samer has completed
seven co-op work terms during his university years. These coops were at Nemak
Canada, Syncrude Canada Ltd. and Hydro One. He has worked in several different
areas during his coop placements dealing with various electrical engineering areas
including controls, communication, and power systems.

Yadollah (Moez) Moradipour

A fourth year engineering student at the University of Windsor. He is expected to
graduate at the end of this year. Prior to starting his final year of University, Yadollah
spent two years working in the field at both Nemak Canada (one year) and Syncrude
Canada Ltd. (one year). Yadollah has experience in robotics, controls, power,
networking, and instrumentation.
References for Capstone Summary:

1. Riley, Robert Q. Alternative Cars in the 21st Century: A New Personal Transportation Paradigm Second Edition. Warrendale, PA:
Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc., 2004. Page 224.

2. "Emission Regulations". Industry Canada. June 5, 2010 <://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/auto-auto.nsf/eng/am01205.html>.

3. Fleming, Privott, Dr. Taylor, McDuffie, "Hybrid Electric Vehicles vs. Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles". June 2, 2010
<http://education.uncc.edu/cmste/summer%20ventures/2010%20World%20View%20of%20Math%20and%20Data%20An
alysis/THomas%20Privott-%20Davis%20Fleming.pdf>.

4. Rippel, Wally. Induction Versus DC Brushless Motors. Tesla Motors. July 21, 2010. <http://www.teslamotors.com/blog4/?p=45>

5. Seiffert, Ulrich, and Walzer Peter. Automobile Technology of the Future. Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers,
Inc., 1991. Page 12.

6. "Automotive industry seeking electronic solutions to four main issues". Electro to Auto. June 5, 2010
<http://e2af.com/trend/071210.shtml>.