Sensorless 3-Phase PMSM Motor Control
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VisSim is used to develop control systems for AC, BLDC and PMSM motors. Here is a complete example of a VisSim diagram that generates C-code to control a Texas Instruments sensorless PMSM motor control board. If you are signed in, you may download the working source code at the bottom of this page. The VisSim diagram controls a 3-phase brushless permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM). The board consists of a logic section with the F28035 Piccolo controlCARD (the socket will fit any of TI's C2000 controlCARD series), an on-board USB to XDS100 JTAG, a 15VAC to 25V DC 2-phase interleaved boost PFC circuit that is rated at 90% efficiency, followed by 2 DRV8402 4-phase 40W MOSFET inverter units. In addition, there are high precision op-amps tied to current sensors on the ground leg of each output phase, as well as the DC bus. Each op-amp is wired to ADC channels on the C2000 controlCARD to allow accurate phase current measurements.
VisSim Diagram Controls the Hardware
The Visual Solutions Technical Services group has created VisSim diagrams to drive the TI "Sensorless" Motor Control Kit based on the F28035 Piccolo low-cost controlCARD. The controller is called sensorless because there is no direct rotor position sensor. Instead, rotor position is inferred from the back EMF on the stator windings using current sensors on the inverter board. The current sensor readings are used by a sliding mode observer rotor position estimator block. The diagram was assembled using standard VisSim/Embedded Controls Developer (VisSim/ECD) blocks such as configurable PWM blocks wired to pre-built subsystems, like fixed-point Park and Clarke transforms, PI controllers, ADC inputs, GPIOs and logic to control the operating mode of the inverter (open-loop ramp driven vs closed-loop sensorless). An intermediate debug cycle ensured correct settings and configuration, but it was done at high level, so bugs due to C syntax and missing libraries were not a factor.
Simple Creation of Low-Speed Background Task
With a CTRL+right click on a subsystem, you can configure it to execute at any rate. You can also set it to run as a background task at that rate. The background task will run at the specified rate but is preempted by the main control task. Any blocks placed in the subsystem will run at the specified rate. Typically, supervisory commands on a CAN or UART bus are transmitted and received here. In this case, the motor control method selection logic (open-loop ramp speed vs closed-loop sliding mode observer regulated speed) are placed in the subsystem. In the attached motor control diagram the main control sample rate is 10kHz and one background task is set to run at 100Hz.
From Diagram to Code with the Click of a Mouse
In VisSim, the classic PMSM motor control loop is constructed from standard fixed-point blocks coupled with blocks in the Digital Motor Control block set. The phase currents feed a Clarke and Park transform, with PID control on the Park D commanded to zero, and Park Q output (torque) commanded by the outer velocity PID loop output. This is seen in the VisSim diagram to the right. These blocks are placed inside a compound block with edge connectors for the values supplied from VisSim running on the PC while the compiled control runs on the Piccolo target. In this case, a button input is supplied to select between three modes of operation: motor off, motor in open-loop mode, and motor in sensorless closed-velocity-loop mode. There are also input pins to vary the gain on the second harmonic space vector waveform generators feeding the PWMs and to vary settings of SMO gains.
To generate code and compile, click to the top level, select the encapsulated compound block, and invoke the Tools > Codegen dialog. Clicking the Compile button generates the code and runs the linker to create an .OUT file for the F28035 target.
Interactive Download and Debug
Debugging takes place in the debug diagram. This diagram corresponds to the "source code" diagram from above; however, the compound block containing the motor control is substituted with a DSPInterface block. The DSPInterface block is initialized with the path to the .OUT file generated above and will automatically download the .OUT file and begin communication with the target on simulation start. This diagram is run in real time (using the Simulate > Simulation Properties command) at around 100Hz since the JTAG cannot support a communication rate much faster. By convention, the debug diagram shares the same name as the source code diagram, but has a "-d" suffix.
Synchronize ADC with PWM Waveform
Another important consideration is to synchronize the ADC unit with the PWM waveform on the power device being measured. In this kit, the phase current sensors for motor 1 are wired to ADCA0 and ADCA1. Motor 2 Ia is wired to ADCA4 and Ib to ADCB0.
The F28035 Piccolo processor has an updated ADC architecture from the F280x series that allows each ADC channel to select any of the individual PWM events as a start of conversion signal. This is set up in the VisSim/DSP > F280X > ADC Config dialog. PWM units driving the DRV8402 are set to send a start-of-conversion signal (SOC) when TBCTR=PRD (period match). Since the PWM is set for up/down count, the measurement will be made in the center of the off portion of the PWM duty cycle. This works because the PWM is used to drive the high side of each phase leg, the current sensor is on the low side, and the DRV8402 automatically activates the low side when the the PWM driving the high side is off. So we have set ADCA0 to trigger from PWM1-SOCA, and ADCA1 from PWM1-SOCB. For motor 2, we trigger ADCA4 from PWM3-SOCA, and ADCB0 from PWM3-SOCB.
Waveform Capture for Debugging
For debugging, the estimated rotor position - given by the Sliding Mode Observer Position Estimator and phase currents ia and ib - is written to a 200-element buffer at the 10kHz control sample rate, giving a 50ms window. The buffer acquisition is triggered by a positive cross at .01 on the estimated rotor position waveform. The waveform data is sent to VisSim via the JTAG link and is updated in a digital scope in VisSim on the PC at about 20Hz.
Download VisSim Diagram
The diagram shown here to drive motor 1, along with the debug diagram used to display the waveforms on the target and send parameter values to the target, can be downloaded below. You must sign in or create an account to see the files.