FrD1.

2010 8th IEEE International Conference on

Control and Automation

Xiamen, China, June 9-11, 2010

MATLAB and LabVIEW in Modeling, Analysis and Real Time

Control of a Motion Control System
Raziye Tekin

Abstract-This

paper

presents

usage

of

two

software

programs, MATLAB and LabVIEW, for designing a motion

II. BRUSH TYPE DC MOTOR MODELING WITH MAT LAB

control system designe r' s level. Firstly, mathematical m odeling

A.

control system
and

and provides a brief look on the issue from the

controller

for

motion

control

system

including

permanent magnet brush type direct current motor and gear

head is given with MATLAB and then suitable hardware for

specific purposes is mentioned. A fterwards, real time control of

the system is presented with LabVIEW FPGA and LabVIEW

RT (real time).

Modeling

The mathematical model of the pennanent magnet DC

motor can be found very often in the literature [4], [5], and
[6]. Here, it will be explained briefly.
The motor torque Tm is proportional to the magnetic flux,
which is proportional to the annature current
Tm = Kml

I.

(I)

where Km is the motor torque constant.

INTRODUCfION

There are many motion control applications for industrial,

medical and military applications where time, precision and
accuracy is very critical. Motion control system which is
precise and part of a full automation system needs a
challenging modeling and control effort to match the model
as possible as the physical system. Also, hardware selection
is a critical issue, too. System must be modular to
accommodate new needs, and must be reliable.
There are also many tools for analysis, modeling and real
time control. The two important software programs in this
area are MATLAB and LabVIEW. MATLAB is a powerful,
flexible design and analysis tool for engineering
applications. Another powerful and simulation tool is
LabVIEW which is sometimes used instead of MATLAB or
in addition to MATLAB. Both of them are used in motion
control area with various purposes. Efficient usage of these
two programs depends on firstly application properties and
secondly of course designer's desire. There are a number of
studies increasing in literature that uses both of them in a
single application such as [I], [2], and [3].
In this study, usage of MATLAB and LabVIEW will be
seen for different purposes. Modeling of the brush type dc
motor and a gear head, controller design for this system and
its perfonnance analysis will be conducted with MATLAB.
Hardware design will be explained as a function system's
needs. As a result of these, a real time application software
will be programmed with LabVIEW, with special emphasis
on LabVIEW FPGA.

Due to the motor shaft rotation, there is induced back

electromotor force E in the rotor coils. Back electromotor
force is proportional to the rotor angular velocity w :
E Kew
(2)
=

where Ke is the motor electrical constant. The torque and

motor electric constant are so close to each other in
datasheets. They are equal to each other for an ideal motor.
Voltage equation of the rotor circuitry is:
dl
U Rl +L-+E
(3)
dt
where R is annature resistance, while L is annature
inductance.
Combining (I) and (3) yields
!:..dTm +T.m Km m
U -Kew
(4)
R
Rdt
ratio L/ R defines motor electrical time constant Te '
=

The moments of inertia of Jm and Jg are equivalent

moments of inertia of the rotating motor and gear head,

respectively. The following differential equations describe
the dynamics of the rotating motor:
dw
J -= T.m T./
(5)
dt
where:
(6)
J;;;;;Jm+Jg
-

is the total moment of inertia and

Raziye Tekin is a system algorithms' developer engineer at Roketsan

Missiles Inc., Ankara, Turkey, (e-mail: rtekin@roketsan.com.tr).

978-1-4244-5196-8/10/$26.00 @2010 IEEE

I :

2077

1i is the load torque.

FrD1.4
Let 8m be the angle of the motor shaft rotation, then the

B. Controller Design

following can be written:

a dc motor, as in many industrial

control applications, will be a proportional
derivative (PD) controller. Controller design process is
briefly illustrated as controller design is not the main
purpose of this paper.
T he d esign of the PD controller is bas ed on the continuous
transfer function of the system as [5]:

d8m

--

dt

Position controller for

={J)m'

position

(7)

In this study, load is considered as a function of deflection

angle 0 thus
,

=o

00

8(s)

w here

= max

(9)

omax

Equation (I)-(9) are used to develop nonlinear simulation

model of an electromechanical system including permanent
magnet dc motor and gear box, as given in Fig. I.

P\VM

v.. -alC

(10)

s(ls(Ls+ R)+ K2)

In this transfer function, load is considered as a disturbance

and its effect will be compensated by the controller.
Controller is designed by Root Locus method according to
the design parameters below:
Overshoot: < % 10,
Settling T ime : < 0.5 sn
Steady State Error: O.
Syn thesis of PD controller
u(t) = Kpe(t) +

Y.

Fig.

....r1i.JI Lood
R

OV,up

U(s)

(II)

KDi;(t)

has been done using MATLABI Simulink environment.

Designed controller's performance can be seen under the
defined load in Fig. 3.

I. Electrical and mechanical models of brush DC motor

{'I

20

MATLAB/Simulink model is seen at Fig. 2. Load model

is im p lemented by a look up table but it still processes the

'5
'0

same form mentioned previously.

f,

I "

I \\
jI \

/ \

/'

Posillon Graph

i,

,I
I

,;

I
I
I

f ,[ \\!I \ I /'

'O
20

DC m otor and gear head specifi cations are pr esented in

Table I.

SYMBOL

Ke=Km
1m
19
N

Tamax

Omax
L

TABLE I
MODEL PARAMETERS
QUANTITY
37.7

UNIT

41

gcnt

1.2

43:1

gcnt

10

Nm

20

270.10-6
1.63

pH
ohm

I
\ I
\t ,I
\ I

;I'

\1
' _I
2

I!

,
/

t
'

'
I

.J"

i
\
!
"

/'

J.

i;I}

_ \:

3
Time

[snJ

\ I
I I I
I \

i !

I
!
!
I
j.
,

desired position

\
I

,.
I

\, /I"

Fig 3. System response under load.

.

II. REAL TIME CONTROL

mN/amp

1- I
\'
\

'5

Fig. 2. Simulink block diagram of DC m otor and gear head.

ff\\ Yi\- aclual/POSiti

-----

Real time control is a very popular working area of

control. There are many definitions of real time concept but
the following definition is appropriate to be cited:
A real time system is one in which the correctness of a result

not only depends on the logical correctness of the

calculation but also upon the time at which the result is
made available [7].

So the, real time control hardware configuration is one of

control where high
time precisi on and hig h p erfor mance is needed. There ar e
different ways of hardware selecti on options with su pported
software. Some programs such as MA TLAB xPC Target,
LabVIEW RT and LabVIEW FPGA support some hardware
the most important subjects of real time

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FrD1.4
component. Hardware is supplied according to needs and
purposes which mean selecting hardware and deciding the
software for this hardware is a closed loop system.
If motion control software is going to work synchronized
with some other systems and if an operator is going to use
the software in the end, indicating that the designed system
becomes a part of a full automation system for factories or
laboratories, LabVIEW is preferable with its more efficient
virtuality, wide options for hardware selection and help for
implementation of graphical user interface. MA TLAB may
also be enough in design phase but in real time application
phase such as a part of full automation system it is much
more difficult work with because of some reasons like
limited hardware options, less compactness, harness in
graphical user interface programming and difficulty in
having high sample times (e.g. 70 kHz), which of all means
MA TLAB is less useful as an automation software. So that,
LabVIEW and National Instruments have been preferred for
real time application of motion control system design. As a
real time controller, NI Real Time Embedded Controller and
Chassis (NI cRIO) which includes, real time controller,
chassis mounted signal conditioning modules (see Fig. 4)
has been chosen. Compact RIO is a small rugged industrial
control acquisition system powered by reconfigurable 1/0
FPGA technology for also reliable for stand alone
applications.

Driver, amplifier and digital or analog input for feedback

sensor are also other hardware components of motion
control. The possible hardware modules are NI 94 11 (6
channel, 5, 24V digital input module), NI 9205 (32
channel, 200mV to 10V, analog input module) and NI
940 I (8 channel, 5V TTL, high speed, bidirectional digital
input/output). Additionally, an amplifier is needed that
supplies the desired current limit. These modules can work
with both LabVIEW RT and LabVIEW FPGA. However,
instead of using distributed hardware for encoder decoding,
Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) and amplifier, there is
practical module that does all supplies all those things. This
module is NI 9505. NI 9505 is for Compact RIO and it is a
full H-bridge servo motor drive for direct connectivity to
motors, actuators (up to 300 W at 40 degree) [9]. This
module also includes a built in encoder interface for single
ended or differential inputs for position feedback from a
quadrature encoder. The Fig. 6 shows the total hardware
architecture of the system with NI 9505.

O_ed.Time
...
PWM

;---'

.'

Input
Real TIme Controller

Reconfigurable Chasls

Encoder
NI950S

DC Motor

Fig. 6. Architecture of the system with NI 9505.

Fig. 4. Compact RIO.

As seen in Fig. 5, FPGA is an intermediate processor
between the RT and 110 modules, ethernet interface and
shared variable engine. The important point of this Compact
RIO is the FPGA unit which can run multiple, simultaneous
process. The FPGA unit has a maximum clock frequency of
40 MHz and one important point of is that; it is programmed
with LabVIEW not VHDL [8].

If a brief look from the software side is given, desired

software loops for this hardware configuration can be
programmed with two options. One is Soft Motion, a tool of
LabVIEW for motion control; the other is programming all
of the parts such as PWM, Encoder, Controller, Signal
Generator and Data Transfer loops etc.
The preferred direction in this study is the second one,
namely one by one implementation of all the program parts.
As seen from Fig. 6, LabVIEW FPGA has to be used for
NI 9505, so a description of programs is needed. The
dataflow of the LabVIEW control software is depicted in
Fig. 7. The software consists of three independently running
parts. The first part is the Host-VI (Virtual Instrument),
which provides a user interface on a PC or laptop for an
operator. It communicates with the RT-VI on the real time
controller, which regulates the position of the motor,
calculates the next position in dependence of the desired
position, and evaluates the motor feedback signals from the
FPGA-VI. The FPGA-VI generates the motor pulse-width
modulation (PWM) and pulse generator signals, evaluates
the switch, status, encoder, limit data.

Fig. 5. Compact RIO architecture.

2079

FrD1.4
counterclockwise rotation. When an Index (Phase Z) is
detected, the index position is recorded, but Index is not a
must parameter to be used in calculating the position of the
motor.

User Interface

(-----------------------------------;;;---------------------------------'.

_edmotOf

po

cooeol motor po
stalUS, etc

motor PWM ratio, rotation,

R.alllme(Rn
motor control

dlrecUon. pOIIUon

--t>
<J---

FPGA

control & pwm loop.

data processing

motor position. limit

switch S1atus

\_---------------------------------------------------------------------------------,'

Fig. 7.LabVIEW control software architecture.

Fig. 8. shows status of NI 9505 like drive fault, drive
status, supply voltage existence, cause of drive fault and
enable/disable option for the drive. These characteristics can
be seen and changed from Host-VI if needed.

...

N19505
Dnve Fait
Drrve StabJs
ENbIe E-5too
VsupPr6ent
Ove" Terroeraue

FaUt

ftrnlDnve Fait
--I'r....,1Drtve Status

!'IDIVli;Pr...., tl

[]

(D :OverTabseFMAtl

ill

Fig. 10. Encoder decoding program with LabVIEW FPGA.

These routines (Fig. 9 and Fig. 10) are parts of the FPGA
program. Real time program done with LabVIEW RT calls
FPGA program, transfers the desired signal, PO parameters
found in modeling phase, data transfer loop rates, etc to the
FPGA program. The third program is for operator and
operator only sees the desired signal, actual response.
Operator only selects motion profile and pushes the trigger
button to start the motion which is seen as a trigger signal.
After motion is over, real time program saves the response
and desired command in date-time order in jpeg and text
format in a specified folder.
Fig. II shows the response of the system to I Hz, 20
degree position command. As seen, PO controller's
performance under load is good as expected from
MATLAB/Simulink model analysis.

Fig. 8. LabVIEW FPGA program for NI 9505 properties.

_ ......

Fig. 9. shows the loop to create a PWM frequency of 20

kHz. The duty cycle input control is used to create the
appropriate pulse width; in general, the duty cycle input is
decided by control algorithm.

I.

IpWM Generationl

Fig. II. Real time response graph under load.

I!El

!II

III.

Fig. 9. PWM generation program with LabVIEW FPGA.

Fig. 10 shows decoding position data from quadrature
encoder signals on NI 9505. It decodes the Encoder Phase
A and Encoder Phase B signals for position and counts up
for
clockwise
rotation
and
counts
down
for

CONCLUSION

This paper presented a design process of a motion control

system, starting from modeling and control to hardware
selection and finally real time control. Two kinds of
software programs are used depending on the desired
application. Modeling, controller design and analysis phase
of the study is presented with MATLAB. MATLAB is

2080

FrD1.4
preferred because of the reasons mentioned for modeling
and analyzing the system. Furthermore. LabVIEW FPGA
and RT are used for the real time application. LabVlEW has
wide hardware alternatives and some advantages duri ng real
time programming and user interface design. Additionally to
the application, National Instruments embedded controller
for real time applications is introduced and some alternative
modules for the system is given. PWM generation encoder
decoding and Nl 9505 properties is shown with LabVIEW
FPGA. A result is shared which shows the control
effectiveness of the system under load.
,

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[I)
(2)

[3]

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"

[5]

(6)
(7)
[8]

[9]

"

2081