BLDC Motor control using FPGA and LABVIEW

Motivation

Gabriel ZSURZSAN2/12

Motors – a basic component of our livesFPGA – challenging but extremely flexibleLabVIEW – powerful and intuitive

development platformWii Remote – adds a much-needed fun factor

and freedom of control to the project

The Hardware Platform

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Hurst BLDC motor

Motor Driver (partial

schematic)

Spartan 3E Starter Kit

Nintendo Wii Remote

The Software Platform

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LabVIEW 2009 provides a comprehensive development environment allowing access to all the resources necessary in order to implement the present project, either in its standard form or through one of its modules

FPGA ModulePID Module

The Software Platform

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LabVIEW greatly shortens development time

Full project chain

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The WiiMote communicates with the laptop through Bluetooth

LabVIEW uses a .NET framework DLL in order to initialize the remote and interpret the data received

Full project chain

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LabVIEW FPGA module manages the programming of the FPGA, as well as communication between the host and target VIs through USB

Full project chain

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The FPGA generates a PWM signal to drive the motor

The Hall signals generated on the BLDC side are read by the FPGA, determining correct energizing of driver transistors and motor speed for PID loop adjustments

PID feedback loop is implemented on the FPGA

Interface

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StraightforwardIntuitiveEasy to use

Some results

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Observations & Conclusions

Gabriel ZSURZSAN11/12

Hall sensors are really noisyWiiMote accelerometer is very sensitivePID loop manual tuning is difficult and may take

long

WiiMote control is very intuitive, extra visual feedback added by the implemented 3D model

LabVIEW allows for easily interpretable results

PID response follows the setpoint accurately, giving no overshoot but a 10% undershoot

My personal remark:

Gabriel ZSURZSAN12/12