Adaptive backstepping control of Separately Excited DC Motor

with Uncertainties
Jianguo Zhou, Youyi Wang and Rujing Zhou
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Nanyang Technological University
Nanyang Avenue, Republic of Singapore
Singapore, 639798

Abstract: In this paper, a nonlinear adaptive backstepping based

speed controller is designed for the field weakening area of a
separately excited DC motor. The nonlinear dynamic model of the
motor is firstly derived, in which the parameter uncertainties such as
the inertia and load torque are considered. Then by using linear
reference model to design the transient performance and through
suitable nonlinear change of coordinates, a nonlinear adaptive
backstepping control algorithm is derived step by step and the
stability analysis is also carried out. The mechanical speed and the
back EMF tracking objectives are satisfied. Simulation results
clearly show that the proposed controller is of good performance
and robust to the parameter uncertainties.
Keywords: nonlinear control, adaptive backstepping, robustness,
separately excited DC motor.
I. INTRODUCTION
Over the past century many kinds of electic machines
have been widely used in the field of electric dnve and servo
control systems [I]. Of these machines, such as DC motor,
induction motor, permanent magnetic brushless DC motor,
although the AC motor became more and more popular in the
past two decades, DC motor is still the most common choice
if wide range of adjustable speed drive operation is specified.
Of the three kinds of DC motors, such as series, shunt and
separately excited DC motors, Separately excited DC motors
has two winding circuits, one is field circuit, which is used to
establish a magnetic field with the motor, another is armature
circuit, containing a current, which interacts with the
magnetic field produced by the field circuit to produce the
electic torque resulting in the mechanical rotation. The
magnitude of the torque and the motor speed depend on the
armature current and the strength of the magnetic field.
Different speed can be obtained by changing the armature
current and the field current. The significant feature of
separately excited DC motor configuration is its ability to
produce high starting torque at low operation speed [2].
Although the conventional cascade PID technique is widely
used in DC motor speed and position control, it isnt suitable
for the high performance cases, because of the low robustness
of PID controller. Many researches have been studying the
various new control techniques in order to improve the
system performance [3-lo].
In recently years, feedback linearization approach have
been used to design the nonlinear controller by changing the
original nonlinear dynamics into linear one, thus all the

0-7803-6338-8/00/$10.00(~)2000IEEE

standard linear control techniques can be used [Il-121. But

the performance of feedback linearization approach may
deteriorate because of the parameter variation and the load
disturbance. Some other researchers have employed sliding
mode variable structure control technique to electrical drive
systems to obtain the robust control of motor speed and
position [13-141. However, the main disadvantage of VSC is
that it results in chattering, which is often unacceptable in
high performance drive systems.
The separately excited DC motor has nonlinear dynamic
model in the field weakening area. It is known that the
normal SISO nonlinear output feedback linearization has zero
dynamic unstable problem [12]. Even more, although the
ordinary state feedback linearization method is feasible to
linearize the nonlinear dynamic model of DC motor in field
weakening area, the transformed output is the function of
armature induction, inertia and motor speed [12]. Thus the
speed may become sensitive to the uncertainty of the
parameter J . Therefore in practical application, this method
may not be very acceptable When the back EMF is added as
another output, the resulted dynamic model can be of no zero
dynamic unstable problem [IS].
Backstepping is a newly developed nonlinear control
technique. The most appealing aspect of the backstepping
design method is that this approach provides a systematic
procedure to design stabilizing controllers, following a stepby-step algorithm [ 16-20].

In this paper, Backstepping control theory has been used to

design a nonlinear controller to obtain high speed field
weakening operation. It clearly shown that the general
dynamic model of the motor is highly nonlinear. Even more,
the parametic uncertainties will significantly affect the
dynamic performance and the stability for practical
application. Thus we have to design a nonlinear robust
controller, which can compensate the nonlinearities and the
uncertainties simultaneously. In this paper, the uncertainties
we considered are the inertia and load torque, which are the
major concerns in high performance electric drive systems.
By using linear reference model to design the transient
performance and through suitable nonlinear change of
coordinates, a nonlinear adaptive backstepping control
algorithm is derived step by step and the stability analysis is
also carried out. The mechanical speed and the back EMF

91

traclung objectives are satisfied. Simulation results clearly

show that the proposed controller is of good performance and
robust to the parameter uncertainties.
ILDYMAMIC MODEL
Separately excited DC motors has two winding circuits.
The winding on the rotor is referred to as the armature circuit
while the winding on the stator is referred to as field circuit.
The field and armature circuits have independent voltage
sources. That is to say both of the two voltages can be used as
the control inputs.
If the field flux is of no saturation, the flux bf is directly
proportional to i f , i.e. qjf = L i

. [21]. Then the motor's

term k b w is the product of motor speed w and field flux

If

and the term kbfi, is the product of filed flux

bf

and

armature current i, . Therefore, a nonlinear controller should

be designed to compensate the nonlinearity.
111. NONLINEAR CONTROLLER DESIGN
Equations (1) to (3) can be written in the compact form as

where x = [x, x2 x3] = [io if

r .

03

dynamic equations can be written as:

di,
dt

-= -(ua
La

- E - Raia)

E = K i p , Te = K i f i , , K
where,
w

=af.

if

Motor angular velocity

Current in the armature circuit
Field current

4f

Flux in the field windings

Inertia of motor
Damping constant of motor
Electromachnical transduction constant
Electric torque generated by the motor
Mechanical load torque
The motor constant
Resistance of the armature winding
Resistance of the field winding

ia

k
e'

TL
K
Ra

Rf
La

Lf
Ua

The system parameters may deviate from the nominal

values, especially the inertia and load torque.
TL
Let a = - 1, b=--,then
J
J
a = a , + A a , b=b,+Ab
where
a, and b, represent the nominal values of parameters a and
b, while Aa and Ab represent the errors fiom their nominal
values respectively.
Taking into account these uncertainties, the dnve system
(4) can be changed as:

where j ( x ) and Af(x)are the nominal and uncertain

matrices of f (x) respectively.

Armature inductance
Field inductance
Voltage applied to armature winding (a control

--ifR f

variable)
u.f

variable)

Lf
a , ( K i , i f -Bw)-b,

Voltage applied to field winding (a control

,

Remarkl: In this section, fiom the electrical and

mechanical characteristics of the separately excited DC
motor, the general model of separately excited DC motor is
derived. The resulted model includes both the armature and
the field circuit voltages as the control inputs. It clearly
shown that the general dynamic model of the motor is highly
nonlinear. It can be seen from equation (1) to (3) that the

92

0
Aa(iaif - Bw) - Ab
Since the control objective is to make the motor speed
track the desired reference speed command, we should select

the motor speed as one of the output variable. Further more,

because in the field weakening area, the motor should works
in the constant power mode, we should also choose the back
EMF as another output variable. Therefore choosing the
outputs variable of the motor drive system as

The following notation is used for the Lie derivative of a

function
h ( x ) : R + R
along a vector field

( x ) = ( f i (x), ...> f n (x)) [111

=-

a, K i f
Lrl (-Kifu-R,i,)--

-a, B[u, (Ki,if - B w ) - b,

a, K i f i ,
Lf
Rf

(7)

Iteratively, we define the following notation

L>h(x) = L f (L?-h)

In order to decouple the two control inputs, we construct

the new control inputs as follows:

Then the dynamic model of the DC motor in the new

coordmate is given by

Thus the error-tracking model of the system can be written

as

where
ah1 L j h , = -f = a , (Ki,if - B w ) - b,

ax

ax

LAf hl = ah1 Af = Aa(i,if - Bw)- Ab

Because adaptive backstepping control theory requires that

the uncertainties in the system must have linear forms, we
have to change the uncertain items in (1 1) to the following
forms:

L h --g,=O
ah1
g, 1

ax

ah1
Lg,hl = x g f

=o

ah2 Lf- h 2 -- F f
- --E

Rf +a,Kif(Ki,if -Bw)-b,Kij

Lf
ah
LAf h2 = 2Af = AaKif (Ki,if - B o ) - AbKif
ax

Thus we obtain the compact form of the error-tracking

model as follows

i = [ Z ( x ) + A A ( x ) ] + B(x)C

(15)

93

For the first two dynamic equations of (16), we define the

virtual control Q for ez2 to stabilize the first equation as
follows

where k , > 0, and i1is the estimate of 0, .

The derivatives of the two new variables with respect to
time then become as
If we look at the structural property of the equations (1 1)
carefully, we can find out that the error-tracking model of DC
motor contains two decoupled subsystems. The first
subsystem consists of the first two equations and is controlled
by iia ;the second subsystem is the third equation and U as
its control input. This structure allows us to conveniently use
adaptive backstepping design technique to obtain the desired
controller.

Step 2: Define the first control Lyapunov function

v d q , w $ ) as

In order to obtain good transient performance, a linear

reference model is defined as [22]
The derivative of VI (e,,Z2

SI) is
1-2-

PI(el,e2 e, ) = z1Z, + e2g2 + -o1el

)

Y1

where

-[

=-k,Zf +e1 E242 +Z1q+

alm,a2m, and a3mare designed constants.

The tracking error ez between the reference model and the

output of the system is defined as

+ klZ24, +-el
Y1

+Z2[Z1 +L2-hl
f +4p2+Za + k 1 ( Z 2- k , ? ) + p l ~ l ]

(25)

Step 3: For the h d dynamic equations of (16), the new

equation becomes as
$3 = ~

+e,p3 ( x )

7 ( x )~+Zf2

(26)

Then the error dynamics becomes as follows:

We can easily define the control input for Uf as

e, = A ( x ) + A A ( x ) + B U

(18)

where

Now, adaptive backstepping control method can be used to

derive the nonlinear controllers for the above system
systematically step by step.
Step 1: Define new variables as

94

(27)

i7f =-k3E3 + L f h z ( x ) - & l p 3 ( ~ )

where k , > 0, and
is the estimate of
equation.
Then equation (26) can be written as

Z3 = 4 3 ~ -3$ 1 ~ 3( X I

el

in the third

(28)

Define the Lyapunov function V2(Z3,&) for the third

equation of ( 16) as

~2 ( 3 , $1

The derivative of

Z
:

Now, lets integrate (33) and we can have

1
+5;

(29)

2Y2

V2 ( 4 , q ) is as

follows:

(39)

&

Since V ( E l , Z 2 , Z 3 , gl, ) is positive definite, we can

obtain the following result:
=-k3E:

1 -

+gl(Z3p3 +-$I)
Y2

(30)
Step 4: To design the final adaptive backstepping nonlinear
control for the system, we define the augmented Lyapunov
~ ,2 , ~ 3 , 5ti&1 , as:
function v ( z ~

The derivative of V(E1,3 ,Z 3 , 5 1 ,

lim
t+m

M ( T ) ~ TI

v(z(o),g1(01, g1(0)) < m

(41)

Via Barbalats Lemma [ 18][23], it can be obtained that

M ( t ) -+0 as t

+m .

Therefore we can conclude that all the error variables are

bounded and converge to zero asymptotically. Further, since
the motor speed and the back EMF tracking objectives are
equivalent to that the error variable el and e 3 converge to
zero, We can draw the conclusion that the design objectives
have been satisfied.

& ) is computed as

V.SIMULATION RESULTS

In this section, some simulations have been carried out in

MatlabJSimulink to evaluate the proposed nonlinear adaptive
backstepping feedback controller for the field weakening
operation of the separately excited DC motor.
The nominal values of the motor parameters are shown in
the table below.
Rated Power
Rated speed
Field voltage
Armature resistance
Field resistance

3.73kW
183.26 Rads
240V
1.20

IV. STABILITY ANALYSIS

We consider the fact that

V(El,Z2,E3

,F],

) is positive

&,

definite, and v ( E l , E 2 , E 3 , 51 ) is semi-defite. That is to

say all the error variables are bounded.
Define the following new function:
M ( t )= k l Z f + k 2 E ; +k3E: 2 0

(38)

Rated field current

4A

The controller gains k , ,k , , k3 and the adaptation gains

y l , y 2 are chosen as follows:
k, = 100, k , =200,
k3 = 200

95

In order to test the robustness of the controller to the change

of the system parameters, the inertia and the load torque is
changed to J = 2JnOm and TL =
respectively.
The step speed command changed from the base speed
183.26 rads to 220 rads and then to 240 rads and finally to
260 rads at time instant 2 second, 4 second and 6 second
respectively. The results are showed $Fig. 1 and Fig. 2. We
can also see that the system speed can quickly follow the step
command, and no steady error can be observed. Further, the
field current satisfies the field weakening theory.

Fig. 1. Dynamic response of motor speed

4.2 I

I
t

93.8A

3.6-

a 3.40

Q)
.U

3.23-

2.8

Fig. 2. Field current response

VI. CONCLUSION
A nonlinear adaptive backstepping based speed controller is
designed for the field weakening area of a separately excited
DC motor. Firstly the nonlinear model of the system is
derived, at the same time the parameter uncertainties such as
the inertia and load torque are considered. Then by using
linear reference model to design the transient performance
and through suitable nonlinear change of coordinates, a
nonlinear adaptive backstepping control algorithm is
designed systematically and the stability analysis is also

96

carried out. Simulation results clearly show that the proposed

controller is of good performance and robust to the parameter
uncertainties.
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