Hardware implementation of interconnection and damping assignment passivity-based control for BLDC motor using microcontroller

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop a generalized observer and controller for brushless direct current (BLDC) motor to make the system more robust for parameter variations, load torque and speed tracking. Design/methodology/approach A robust interconnection and damping assignment passivity-based control (IDA-PBC) technique for BLDC motor is introduced in this paper. The IDA-PBC is used to obtain the reference voltages for pulse width modulation (PWM) control. The immersion and invariance (I&I) observer is used to estimate the load torque and speed of the BLDC motor. At the time of starting, the motor rotates in arbitrary direction, and sometimes, because of the cogging action, it may take a huge current. Therefore, a new start-up method is proposed for the BLDC motor, which maintains the alignment of the rotor. Findings From the simulation and experimental results, it can be seen that the proposed controller and observer satisfactorily work for parameter variations, load torque and speed tracking. Originality/value The authenticity of the proposed technique is tested experimentally on two different BLDC motors using low-cost 32-bit STM32F407VG microcontroller. The response of the proposed technique is evaluated by changing motor parameters such as stator resistance, inductance, flux linkage constant and torque constant.