2016 IEEE 6th International Conference on System Engineering and Technology (ICSET)
Oktober 3-4, 2016 Bandung – Indonesia
Controls of BLDC Motors in
Electric Vehicle Testing Simulator
Hanif F. Prasetyo1,Arief S. Rohman2, Farkhad I. Hariadi3, Hilwadi Hindersah4
School of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, Institut TeknologiBandung, Indonesia
hanif_f_prasetyo@students.itb.ac.id1,arief@stei.itb.ac.id2,hariadi@ic-proc.paume.itb.ac.id3,
hilwadi@stei.itb.ac.id4
Abstract— Brushless direct current (BLDC) motor is one of
the popular motors in theindustry and automotive. In
automotive, this motor is often used in anelectric vehicle (EV)
due to its high efficiency. As part of the EV testing phase, EV
Testing Simulator is built here by employing two BLDC motors
that are mechanically coupled through their axis. One motor
simulates an electric motor that drivesthe EV and the other
simulatesthe mechanical loads on the driving motor such as
frictional, drag, and gravitational forces in the downhill and
uphill conditions. A control module of BLDC motor is devised
and consists of two sub-modules, namely test-motor control sub-
moduleand load-motor control sub-module. Thefirstsub-
modulecontrols the speed of the test-motor (i.e. the driving motor
of the EV)to simulate a prescribed EV driving cycle. Meanwhile,
the second sub-module controls the torque or current of the load-
motorto simulate the loading effects on the test-motor. Both sub-
moduleshaveBLDC driverswith fixed Direct Torque Control
(DTC) and closed loop schemes are therefore required especially
for speed control of test-motor control sub-module. When
simulating uphill road in which load-motor acts as a
generator,load-motor sub-module performs closed loop torque
control with a feedback obtained froma simple steady-state
estimation of electric torque of the load-motor. Experiment
results show thatthe test-motor sub-moduleproduces relatively
small speed oscillation around the reference value with a
maximum speed of 1800 RPM.The load-motor sub-modulecan
simulate load disturbance which generates10-18 A load current
for uphill mode and about 9A for downhill mode.
Keywords—BLDC motor, Speed Control, Current Control, Test-
motor, Load-motor, DTC
I. INTRODUCTION
BLDC motor is widely used in many applications due to its
advantages like need less maintenance, have smaller structure
compare to another motor with the same power rating, high
efficiency and low losses due to the use of permanent magnet
in the rotor and faster response due to low rotor inertia [1] –
[3]. The disadvantage of this motor is the need of anelectronic
driver to commutate the motor and make the BLDC motor
system become expensive. Nevertheless, if efficiency is
essential then the BLDC motor system is inexpensive
considering many advantages which can be obtained. This is
the reason why many EV (electric vehicle) developers use
BLDC motor as the propulsion system.
In this project, BLDC motor control module being designed
is a part of an electric vehicle testing simulator which consists
of graphical user interface (GUI) module, data communication
978-1-5090-5089-5/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE 173
module and energy management module. In this simulator,
BLDC motor control module is divided into two sub-module.
The first sub-module is test-motor control sub-module which
used to simulate the performance of the electric motor of EV
and the other sub-module is load-motor control sub-module
which is used to simulate loading effects due to the contour of
the road as well as the friction force. To realize this then, speed
control is used in test-motor control sub-module and current
control is used in load-motor control sub-module. The overall
system of BLDC motor control module is shown in Figure 1.
The BLDC motor control module uses two sensors which are
current sensor and speed sensor. Tachogenerator which
hasKtcgconstant of 0,0251is used for the speed sensor.
Iactual
ADC Current Sensor
Ireff Ierror
+- Load
Current
Control
PWM
Motor Driver Motor
Arduino
ωreff
+-
ωerror Speed BLDC
Throttle PWM
Motor Driver
Control Motor
ADC
ωactual
Tachogenerator
Arduino
Figure 1. Overall Diagram of BLDC Motor Control Module
Rotor position feedback is needed to determine which
phase of the stator is needed to be activated sequentially to
commutate the motor [2]-[3]. This process to drive the motor is
done by an electronic driver. Common BLDC driver motor
usesan electronic pedal as the reference input to control the
speedof themotor and this kind of driver can be called to work
in speed mode. For this project, the BLDC driver being used
work in torque mode which makes the reference input from the
pedal can only control the maximum torque of the motor while
motor’s speed become maximum when the reference input is at
active input range. So, in open loop control, this driver works
as if a switch. That is why a closed loop control is needed to
control either speed or current of the motor.
II. BLDC MOTOR MODEL
In control system design, a mathematical model of the
system is needed tounderstand the system behavior as well as
predicting the response of the system due to the control system
being designed. To simplify the calculation in control system gets reference speed from theelectronic pedal and produces the
design, it is common to use first order approach and assume speed of the motor based on the reference. the other sub-
the system to be linear. To realize this project, module is load-motor control sub-module which gets reference
themathematical model of 3-phase BLDC motor system being current from the derivation of torque due to thecontour of road
used is needed. and friction force based on the google map data and
Ra La configuration of simulated EV represented and computed by
Va theGUI module and produce load-motor with the current close
to the reference current to give the test-motor a loading effect.
Vbe,a
Rb Lb
A. Design of Speed Control of Test-motor Control Sub-
Vb
Module
Rc Lc Vbe,b BLDC motor which is used in this project is 3000W 48V
Vc Vbe,c BLDC motor with resistance Ra = 9.6 mOhm, inductance La =
Figure 2. Schematic Diagram of BLDC Motor
112 uH, and torque constant Kt = 0.105 Nm/A. By experiment,
it can be found that the back-emf constant (Ke) is 0.055261
The configuration of 3-phase BLDC motor is shown in Figure N.m/A, motor inertia is (J) is 0,00348 Kg.m2 and the friction
2. BLDC motor driver sequentially gives potential voltage in coefficient (B) is 0.004794 N.m.s.
one of the phase either Va, Vb or Vc and another phase is To simplify the analysis, some assumptions is used. The
grounded according to rotor position. This sequencemakes the system is assumed to be linear, is assumed to be zero since
mathematical model of BLDC motor can be approached as DC it is generally small so the value of J ≈ 0, then since >>
Motor[4]. So, the mechanical and electrical equation of BLDC so + ≈ J and . is assumed to be zero since it is
motor can be written as follows [5], quite small. Using these assumptions and approach the system
to first order system then equation (8) can be simplified as,

− = + (1)
( )
= (10)
( ) +1
= . + + (2)
With Y(s) is output from the system, U(s) is input to the
with, system, K is the DC gain of the system which is equal to
Kpwm*Kfilter*Kc(driver)*Km*Ktcg and is the time constant of the
= ∗ (3) system which is the time needed by the system to reach 63%
of the final value.
= . (4)
From the experiment, it can be found that the time constant
= 0 ( ) (5) of the test-motor control sub-module is 0.726 seconds and
the DC gain of the system is unity or K = 1. Then, by
In Laplace, equation (1) and (2) can be written as follows, substituting those value to equation (10), the transfer function
of the system can be written as follows,
∗ = ( + ) (6)
1 1.377
= = (11)
0.726 + 1 + 1.377
=( + ) + . (7)
The transfer function in equation (11) is used next to
Based on equation (6) and (7). it can be derived a determine the transfer function of closed loop speed control of
mathematical model of BLDC motor with voltage Vm as input test-motor system.
and speed output also current output as follows, PID control is used for speed control of test-motor since it
is most common closed loop control mechanism[6]- [8]. The
combination of proportional,integral, and differential control is
= (8) used because proportional control is needed to quicken the
+( + ) + + .
system response, integral control is used to minimize or even
omit the steady state error and also differential control is
+ needed to minimize the oscillation.
= (9)
+( + ) + + . Vreff + Verr Vtcg
Vm
H(S) G(S)
Equation (8) is the mathematical model of speed-output
_
BLDC motor system while equation (9) is the mathematical
model of current-output BLDC motor system.
Vactual
III. BLDC MOTOR CONTROL
Figure 3Diagram of PID Closed loop Control
BLDC motor control module consists of two sub-modules.
The first sub-module is test-motor control sub-module which

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From the closed loop diagram in Figure 3, we can get the
overall speed control function. H(s) is PID control function of IL 0.01494 s + 4.482 s + 9.86
the system which can be written into equation below, = (15)
VLref 1.015 s + 5.976 s + 9.86

( ) = + + (12) The final transfer function in equation (15) above have

stable poles, i.e. S1 = -2.9439 + 1.0239i and S2 = -2.9439 -
The final system is desired to have overshoot <15% and 1.0239i and the designed downhill current control system can
settling time < 3 seconds. PI controller results in output then be applied to the load-motor control sub-module for
oscillations while PD controller gives decreased oscillation but downhill mode.
with slower response. PID controller is then chosen with the
followingcomputed PID constants to meet the desired response, b. Uphill Mode
i.e. Kp = 3.357298475; Ki = 10.77044516; Kd = 0.75. In this mode, load-motor act as agenerator due to the
Theclosed loop transfer function for speed control therefore different direction of the speed and the torque of the load-
canbe written as motor [5]. Also, in this mode, Equation (9) can not be used to
derive the mathematical model of this system since the test-
motor is active. From the experiment, Figure 4 shows the
1.033 + 4.623 + 14.83 relation of the current produced by load-motor (IL), the
= (13) current produced by test-motor(IT) and the speed of the motor
2.033 + 6 + 14.83
in the form of tachogenerator voltage (Vtach) to input voltage
of the load motor (VL).
The final transfer function in equation (13) have stable poles,
i.e.s1 = -3.2046 + 2.1934i ands2 = -3.2046 - 2.1934i and the
designed speed control system can then be applied to the test-
motor control sub-module.
B. Design of Current Control of Load-motor Control Sub-
Module
Load-motor control sub-module is divided into two modes
which are downhill mode and uphill mode based on the
contour of the road due to the motor acts in two different
quadrant drive [5]. Load-motor will act as anormal motor
when is used to simulate downhill and will act as agenerator
when used to simulate uphill. This makes the current feedback
data to be obtained in a different way. For the downhill mode,
Figure4 Relation of Vtach (above), IL (middle), IT (below) to VL
the current feedback is obtained from the current sensor of the
load motor while the uphill mode, the current feedback is
From Figure 4, it can be observed that it is difficult to
obtained from the current sensor of the test motor and the
directly find the relation between VL and IL. This happens
speed of the system from the tachogenerator. Hence, makes
because IL, which is sensed by the current sensor, is not the
the transfer function of both modes differ and should be
actual current produced by the load-motor. In anuphill mode
obtained separately.
in which the load-motor acts as agenerator, IL is the
a. Downhill mode
resulting current produced by the test-motor torque going
In this mode, load-motor will act as normal motor since the
against the load-motor torque. To find the actual current
test-motor is made passive to ensure the supercapacitor is
producedby the load-motor (ILact), from the load-motor
charged to simulate the energy management module. Using
point of view, modified mechanical equation in (1) for
the simplified mathematical model in (10) and by the
steady state condition may be used as follows,
experiment of the step response of the load-motor in downhill
mode, the open looptransfer function of downhill mode can be
= − (16)
written in equation (14) below

IL 1 1.49393 In equation (16), Te is the actual electrical torque produced

= = (14)
VL 0.669375 s + 1 s + 1.49393
IL is the current produced by load-motor and VL is voltage
input to the load-motor driver.
In this mode, it is desired to have the final system to have
minimum oscillation, faster response, and minimum or even
zero steady state errorlike the test-motor control system.Then,
PID control is selected for this system. If the final system is
desired to have overshoot <15% and settling time < 3 seconds
then the resulting PID constants are Kp=3; Ki=6.6; Kd=0.01
and the final PID downhill current control transfer function
can be written as follows,
by the load-motorthat is related to the actual current ILact. Tl
is the load torque for the load-motor, which is the electrical
torque produced by the test-motor. The angular speed of the
motor is given in the equation (17) below,
= (17)
From equation (16), the actual electrical torque (which is
proportional to current) produced by the load-motormaybe
obtained using the knowledge of both the electrical torque
produced by the test-motor and the speed of the motor. By

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 substituting equation (3) and (17) into equation (16), with Te
= ILact*Kt and Tl = IT*Kt, the actual current produced by the
load-motor canthen be computed using equation (18) below.
∗ and actual is thecurrent calculated by equation (18) for uphill
= −
∗
The relation of ILact and VL is presented in Figure5.
Figure5. Relation curve of actual current produced by the load-motor (ILact)
and reference voltage input to load-motor driver (VL)
From Figure 5, it can be observed that current is not
produced in certain deadzone range which is around 0 to 0.5 V
due to the characteristic of the motor driver being used. The
data inFigure 5is thenused by the identification
toolboxofMATLAB to obtain possible transfer functions. The
transfer function with the highest best fits, i.e.equation (19), is
then chosen.
IL 21.93
= (19)
VL s + 3.669
Some experiments show thatthe differential-integral
controls can make the motor rotate in adifferent direction and
even make the system unstable.In this mode, only proportional
control is therefore used.To improve the system response, then
it is desired to havea first order system with the time constant
of 0.15. This corresponds to theproportional constant Kpof
2.99 and the final transfer function of proportional uphill
mode control is shown in equation (20) below,
IL 43.86
= (20)
VLref s + 47.53
The final transfer function in equation (20) above havea
stable pole of s = -47.529 and the designed uphill current
control system can then be applied to the load-motor control
sub-module for the uphill mode.
C. PID Control Algorithm
PID control algorithm which is used in BLDC motor
control module is shown in Figure 6. In test-motor control
sub-module, reference is voltage produced by electronic pedal
and actual is thespeed of the motor converted to avoltage by
the tachogenerator. In load-motor control sub-module,
reference is torque or current reference given by GUI module
based on the contour of the road being simulated and actual is
the current read by the current sensor for the downhill mode
(18) mode which consists of test-motor current measured by
current sensor and speed of the motor measured by
tachogenerator.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In this section, the designed speed control and current
control system which implemented in the BLDC motor control
module are tested by giving acertainreference. From this
testing, it is expected to get the output response to be equal or
near-equal the input reference for both sub-modules.
A. Test-motor Control Sub-Module
Testing of this sub-module is done using two-channel
oscilloscope which read the reference voltage value of
electronic pedal and the feedback voltage of tachogenerator
which represent the speed of the motor. The testing result of
this sub-module is presented in Figure 7 and 8.
Start
[Initiation]
Set value of PID Control Constants (Kp, Ki, Kd), set value
of time sampling (ts), reference = 0, actual = 0, error =
0, errorPrev = 0, outP = 0, outI = 0, outD = 0, output = 0
Read actual and reference value
Calculat error
(error = Reference -
actual)
Calculate output of Propotional Control
(outP = Kp*error)
Calculate output of Integral Control
(outI = outI + Ki* error *ts)
Calculate output of Diferential Control
(outD =(Kd/ts)*error - errorPrev
errorPrev = error
Calculate PID Output
(output = outP + outI + outD)
Figure 6. Flowchart of PID System
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 V would rotate into the opposite direction, i.e.the EVwas going
3 backward on the uphill road.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8detik
Figure 7. The result of testing test-motor control sub-module using step
input (yellow– input/reference signal, green – output tachogenerator
signal)

Figure9. The result of testing downhill mode load-motor control sub-module

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 detik
Figure 8. The result of testing test-motor control sub-module using varied
input (yellow– input/reference signal, green – output tachogenerator
signal)

From Figure 7 and 8, it can be observed that there is small

overshoot which can be tolerated. The oscillation also small
due to the use of differential control part in PID control. The
speed of the motor also can be varied according to the
reference speed from the electronic pedal.

B. Load-motorControl Sub-Module
The testing of this sub-module is done separately between
uphill mode and downhill mode. Data of this testing is
obtained using Arduino IDE serial monitor which then
processed by MATLAB to plot the resulting data.
For downhill mode, testing is done by making thetest-
motor passive and give the load-motor control sub-module
varied input. From the resulting testing data of this mode in
Figure 10. The result of testing uphill mode load-motor control sub-
Figure 9,it can be observed that downhill mode has module (blue – reference signal , red – current output signal)with x-axis
manyoscillations. This is apparently due tomeasurement noise is time (seconds) and y-axis is current (Ampere)
in the sensorsince using other PID constants didnot reduce the
oscillation. However, the oscillation is steady and the mean C. Testing of BLDC Motor Control Module
value follows the reference input. In addition, the simulated This testing is conducted by running both sub-modules.
current is only up to around 9 A due to the limiting Firstly, the test-motor control sub-module is run with a
characteristic of the system as shown by the open loop constant speed then the load-motor control sub-module is run
response of the system withthe maximum current of 9 A at no with varied input.Data of this testing is obtained using
load condition. Arduino IDE serial monitor which then processed by
For uphill mode, testing is done by making test-motor MATLAB to plot the resulting data The resulting plot data of
active in maximum speed reference and by giving the load- this testing ispresented in Figure 11.It can be observed that the
motor control sub-module varied input. From the resulting load-motor control sub-module can decrease the speed of test-
testing data of this mode in Figure 10, it can be observed that motor with the increase of reference current input. This case
the oscillation is small and the mean value follows the indicates that the speed control may have been saturated. In
reference signal.In this mode, the simulated current should be fact, when the current reference is decreased, thetest-motor
in the range of 10 to 18 A. This is due to the initial counter control sub-module can make its speed returned to follow the
current of the load-motor is around 10 A and maximum reference.
current the load-motor can produce to avoid the motor to
rotate in the direction of the torque of the test-motor is 18 A. If
the current was increased above 18 A, then the motor system

177
 2013.
[8] R. Shanmugasundram, K. M. Zakariah and N.Yadaiah, "Implementation
and Performance Analysis of Digital Controller for Brushless DC Motor
Drives," IEEE/ASME TRANSACTION ON MECHATRONICS, vol. 19, no.
1, 2014.
[9] K. Ogata, Modern Control Engineering Fifth Edition, New Jersey:
Prentice Hall, 2010.

Figure 11. The result of testing both sub-module with constant reference
speed and varied current reference (blue – reference signal , red – output
signal)with thex-axis is time (seconds) and they-axis is current (Ampere)
for the first plot and speed (Voltage) for the second plot.

From the result of testing both sub-module, it can be seen

that the output signals keeposcillating.The oscillation is
apparently due to the measurementnoise in either current
sensor or tachogenerator. Nevertheless, the response is
considered acceptable in which the oscillation is in steady and
the mean value follows the reference.
V. CONCLUDING REMARKS
BLDC motor control module which consists of test-
motor control sub-module and load-motor control sub-module
is successfully implemented to simulate electric motor which
drives EV as well as the loading effects to the electric motor
due to the contour of the road being simulated. The test-motor
control sub-module can simulate the speed of electric motor of
EV up to around 1800 RPM and load-motor control sub-
module can simulate downhill road with loading current up to
around 9 A and able to simulate uphill road with loading
current around 10 to 18 A. Simple steady-state estimation of
electric torque of the load motor has been used to obtain the
feedback information for closed loop torque control of the
load motor in uphill mode. The control mechanism
maycertainly be improved using the adaptive or intelligent
control to tune the PID constants for reducingthe oscillation of
the output signal.In addition, filtered signals from sensors
would be necessary for improved realization.

REFERENCES

[1] R. D. Four, "Operational Characteristics of Brushless DC Motors," 2007.

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Speed Control of a Sensored Brushless DC Motor Using Intelligent
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[5] M. A. El-Sharkawi, Fundamentalsof Electric Drives, Pacific Grove:
Brooks/Cole, 2000.
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