Energy Conversion and Management 86 (2014) 701–708

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Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Switched reluctance machines control with a minimized sampling

frequency
Xavier Rain a, Mickaël Hilairet b, Antoni Arias c,⇑
a
Laboratoire de Génie Electrique de Paris (LGEP)/SPEE-Labs, CNRS UMR 8507, SUPELEC, Université Pierre et Marie Curie P6, Université Paris-Sud, 11 rue Joliot Curie,
Plateau de Moulon, F 91192 Gif sur Yvette CEDEX, France
b
FEMTO-ST, CNRS UMR 6174, University of Franche-Comte, F-90010 Belfort, France
c
Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Colom 1, 08222 Terrassa, Catalonia, Spain

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper is focused on reducing the Switched Reluctance Machines (SRMs) control sampling frequency
Received 13 December 2013 in order to save processor real time resources, while keeping the stability and also the performance, in
Accepted 8 May 2014 terms of average torque and torque ripple. Reducing the CPU cost either by implementing the control
Available online 3 July 2014
algorithm in a less performing CPU or more importantly reducing the percentage of the CPU demand
is an attractive goal, especially for the electrical vehicle industry from where the SRM used in this
Keywords: research has been designed for. Once low sampling periods are applied in the current loop, a strong deg-
Switched reluctance machine
radation in the averaged torque and torque ripple arises. Such problem degenerates with the speed,
Torque ripple
Sampling frequency
becoming unbearable at high speeds and eventually making the control unstable. In this paper two solu-
Computational economy tions are proposed. The first one, which is just software feasible, consists on anticipating the voltage sup-
ply in order to tackle the noncoincident calculated turn on and off angles and the actual sampling
instants. The second solution, which must be implemented at a very low hardware level, uses a basic
function to allow the process to emulate continuous control and therefore independent of the sampling
instants. Finally, experimental results on a 8/6 SRM illustrate the validity of the novel strategies in terms
of average torque performance and torque ripple minimization.
Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction torque ripple reduction [20,24,25] and power losses minimization

Research efforts have been devoted over the last years to
Switched Reluctance Machines (SRMs) because they possess inher-
ently fault tolerant characteristics, high robustness and reliability
and their manufacturer process is simpler and inexpensive due
to the lack of windings and permanent magnets on the rotor
[1–5]. Thanks to the advances in power electronics and computer
science, the SRM performance has been enhanced to a point where
they are serious candidates for state of the art applications such as
electric vehicle propulsion [6–11], automotive starter-generators
[1,2], aerospace applications [12–15], wind turbines [16] and bear-
ingless for magnetic levitation [17]. The reduction of acoustic noise
[18,19], torque ripple minimization [20,21], and its nonlinearities
are challenges to be solved in order to penetrate further in the
industrial potential market. Likewise than all other machines, the
achievement of a high performance sensorless control [22,23],
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: xavier.rain@lgep.supelec.fr (X. Rain), mickael.hilairet@
univ-fcomte.fr (M. Hilairet), antoni.arias@upc.edu (A. Arias).
[26] are still hot topics of research; sometimes addressed from the
very beginning when the machine it is initially designed [27].
Despite all these issues, SRMs are under consideration in many
industrial drives and academic research projects. Therewith for
cost reasons, manufacturers usually try to use economic control
processor units (CPU) for the controller implementation such as
Digital Signal Processors (DSP) or microcontrollers.
Nevertheless, expensive and powerful control platforms such as
Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD), Field Programmable
Gate Array (FPGA) and Applications Specific Integrated Circuit
(ASIC) are used for torque control of AC machines due to the high
speed computation. Special attention deserves FPGAs based drives
systems since their use has been increased for the last 15 years
[28–30].
The fact of the reduced cost of the SRM has to be in agreement
with the rest of the drive in order to keep them as an attractive
choice for the market. Therefore, reducing the CPU cost either by
implementing the control algorithm in a less performing CPU or
reducing the percentage of the CPU demand is an attractive goal,
especially for the electrical vehicle industry from where the SRM

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2014.05.056
0196-8904/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
702 X. Rain et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 86 (2014) 701–708

Fig. 1. Original SRM average torque control scheme.

used in this research has been designed for. Once low sampling 80
periods are applied, a strong degradation in the torque ripple

phase current (A)

response arises because of the difference between calculated turn

Instantaneous
60
on and turn off magnetizing angles and their applications in a dis-
crete time context. Such problem degenerates linearly with the 40
speed, becoming unbearable at high speeds. In order to tackle
the described problem, two different solutions are proposed to 20
enhance the original Average Torque Control (ATC) [31]. The first
one requires only software implementation while the second is 0
0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03
hardware based and it can be claimed as a first step towards a full
FPGA-based controller implementation for SRM drive [32].
Instantaneous electromagnetic

Similarly to [33], in section 2, the paper illustrates the influence 10

of the sampling frequency on the SRM performance. In the next 8

section, two improvements in the switch control system block
torque (N.m)

are fully described, which overcome the undesirable effects of 6

the sampling period enlargement. Finally in section 4, the main 4

contributions are experimentally corroborated on a 6/8 SRM and
compared with the original ATC [31]. 2

0
0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03
2. SRM control t (s)

Fig. 2. Phase current and instantaneous electromagnetic torque at X ¼ 3000 rpm

2.1. SRM average torque control strategy and T em ¼ 3:8 N m  T s ¼ 50 ls with the original ATC.

Three different methods exist for torque control of SRM

[4,5,31,34]. The first one is called instantaneous torque control
where the phase current references are computed at each sample
time according to the desired torque and the rotor position. The
second one is called Average Torque Control (ATC) where square
wave current references are imposed over one excitation period,
and finally, the last one is based on direct torque control with or
without fixed frequency as in others AC machines [35–37].
Building on previous research, this paper enhances the original
ATC strategy shown in Fig. 1, where the capabilities of the motor
are fully utilized in a wide speed operating range [31,34]. The
SRM’s control consists on a speed control and an open loop torque
control. As with any type of electrical machine, the speed control-
ler’s (Integral-Proportional) output provides the electromagnetic
required torque T em . The sampling speed period T sX can have a high
value (i.e. 1 ms), while the switch control system generator and
current control must have a sampling period Ts of lower value
(i.e. 50 ls), since the electrical dynamics is higher than the
mechanical one.
In the so called ATC, the torque set point value corresponds to
the mean torque for one electrical period of the rotor and it is
achieved by means of the current set point I , turn-on angle hon ,
and turn-off angle hoff , as shown in Fig. 1. Since in the ATC the cur-
rent set point remains unchanged during the whole period, such
control is also known as ‘‘square wave control’’. Several options
of the previously mentioned three variables (I ; hon and hoff ) are
possible. Efficiency maximization or torque ripple reduction
[31,34] are possible optimum criteria to choose the previously
mentioned three variables. Finite Element Models are widely used
to find all required values which usually are stored in a 3D-look-up
table [38] as it is shown in Fig. 1, whose inputs are the speed X and
the average reference torque T em .
The switch control system generator defines the incoming and
outgoing phases according the instantaneous position he and the
optimum angles hon and hoff . It computes four boolean variables
pulsei , so that pulsei ði 2 ½1; 4, case of a 8/6 SRM) is set to one when
the phase is active.
The current controller implemented on the test bench is an
‘‘hybrid’’ one [39], which is composed by an ON–OFF controller,
to initially achieve high dynamics and robustness, and an IP (Inte-
gral-Proportional) one, to lower the torque and current oscillations
at steady state.
2.2. Sampling period influence on the SRM performance
Fig. 2 illustrates the torque and current values when the 8/6
SRM (see Table 1 for all data) is rotating at 3000 rpm and its torque
is 3.8 N m.
The PWM switching period and sampling period T s of the inner-
loops are set to 50 ls. At high speeds, such as 3000 rpm, the back-
emf is so high that the current cannot achieve its set point. Under
these circumstances, the controller reacts supplying the maximum
voltage and the parameters (I ; hon ; hoff ) are set to optimize the
efficiency [31,34]. Fig. 3 shows the torque and current for the same
 X. Rain et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 86 (2014) 701–708 703

Table 1 1.5
SRM characteristics. Ideal pulse

Pulses
1 Real pulse
Geometric parameters
Number of stator poles 8 Stator pole arc 19.8° 0.5
Number of rotor poles 6 Rotor pole arc 20.65°
0
Stator outer diameter 143 mm Airgap length 0.8 mm t
on t 6 6.5 7 7.5 tr off 8 8.5 9 9.5 10
Rotor outer diameter 68 mm Active length 125 mm r on t −3
off x 10

Instantaneous phase Instantaneous phase

Electrical parameters
Number of phases 4 Nominal speed 3000 rpm 20

voltage (V)
Nominal power 1.2 kW Nominal voltage 24 V
Phase resistance 50 mX Maximal current 100 A 0

−20

6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5 9 9.5 10

−3
x 10
80
60

current (A)
phase current (A)

60
Instantaneous

40

40 20

0
20 6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5 9 9.5 10
t (s) −3
x 10

0
0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 Fig. 4. Phase current, variables ‘pulse’ and ‘ideal pulse’, X ¼ 3000 rpm and
T em ¼ 3:8 N m  T s ¼ 300 ls with the original ATC.
Intantaneous electromagnetic

10
3. Improvement of switch control system generator
8
torque (N.m)

6 3.1. Introduction
4
The sampling of the switch control system generator introduces
2 a variable time lag between the target values t on ; toff and the real
ones t ron ; troff as shown in Fig. 4. The higher the sampling rate,
0
0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 the smaller the time lag and thus stability of the whole system is
t (s)
improved. In practice, the maximum time lag is equal to one sam-
Fig. 3. Phase current and instantaneous electromagnetic torque at X ¼ 3000 rpm pling period T s , that is equivalent to an electrical position lag equal
and T em ¼ 3:8 N m  T s ¼ 300 ls with the original ATC. to Dhe-max ¼ N r XT s , where N r and X are respectively the number of
rotor pole and the mechanical speed. At high speed (3000 rpm) the
electrical position lag could be equal to 32.4° with a sampling per-
iod T s set at 300 ls. In such a context, the performance is degraded
Table 2
Performance evaluation according to the strategy.
as already pointed before. In order to solve this difficulty, two
alternative implementations are detailed in this paper and dis-
Original ATC Original ATC Software solution Hardware solution
cussed in the next section.
Ts (ls) 50 300 300 300
X ¼ 1000 rpm and T em ¼ 17 N m 3.2. Software solution
Tem 16.84 15.68 16.93 17.01
DTem (%) 46.6 63.2 47.8 47.4 In the case of the software implementation, the incoming phase
X ¼ 2000 rpm and T em ¼ 7:5 N m is generally activated just after hon , i.e. he ½k þ 1 as shown in Fig. 5.
Tem 7.50 6.93 7.36 7.44 To deal with the position lag, an enhanced software solution is
DTem (%) 112.7 133.4 113.5 111.1
proposed without extra hardware. At he ½k (i.e. before hon ), the
X ¼ 3000 rpm and T em ¼ 3:8 N m
Tem 3.64 3.47 3.65 3.74
DTem (%) 150.9 213.6 156.4 150.5

speed and torque SRM values but for a sampling period T s2 of

300 ls. As expected, the mean torque is reduced below its set point
value and considerable ripples in both current and torque appear.
At 3000 rpm, which is high speed for this SRM, the torque ripple is
caused by the difference between the set point turn on (hon ) and
turn off (hoff ) angles and the actual ones.
Table 2 shows, on the left columns labelled as ‘‘original ATC’’,
the deterioration effect caused to the mean torque and torque rip-
ple for three different operating points when the sampling period
is enlarged from 50 ls to 300 ls. In order to keep the torque per-
formance regardless of the sampling period, a modification must
be done in the switch control system generator and current control Fig. 5. Principle of the software solution for the switch control signal generator
blocks. anticipation – switch on (left) and switch off (right) processes.
704 X. Rain et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 86 (2014) 701–708

incoming phase is activated to ensure that the phase current Table 3

reached comparable value as if it was enable at the optimum angle Parameters, inputs and outputs of the software based solution algorithm.

hon as shown in Fig. 5. Thus, the following equation must be Process Inputs Output
verified: Parameters: N r ; T s ; U dc
Magnetizing (switch on) hon , X, he ½k U m
ihe ½kþ1  ihe ½k ¼ ihe ½kþ1  ihon ð1Þ
Demagnetizing (switch off) hoff , X, he ½k U d
In practice, the SRM operates in discontinuous conduction
mode yielding to a current value and back-emf equal to zero at
the starting time of the incoming phase. Assuming that the resis-
Table 4
tance can be neglected, that the incoming phase is activated nearly Algorithm of the software based solution.
the unaligned position and that the full DC bus voltage U dc is
applied at startup, it follows that the well-known phase Eq. (2) Step 1 measure the mechanical speed X½k
Step 2 estimate of he ½k þ 1 according to Eq. (5)
di @Lðhe ; iÞ he ½k þ 1 ¼ he ½k þ N r X½kT s
u ¼ Ri þ Linc þ iN r X ð2Þ
dt @he Only for the magnetizing (phase current switch on) process
Step 3 if he ½k þ 1 > hon then
can be approximated as follows: calculate U m according to Eq. (4)
ihe ½kþ1  ihon he ½k þ 1  hon U m ¼ U dc he ½kþ1h
N r XT s
on

U dc ffi Linc ; with Dtm ¼ ð3Þ apply U m voltage to the PWM unit for only one period
Dt m Nr X
end if
As a result, the computed desired voltage U m applied within posi- Only for the demagnetizing (phase current switch off) process
tions he ½k and he ½k þ 1 is equal to: Step 3 if he ½k þ 1 > hoff then
calculate Dt d according to Eq. (7)
he ½k þ 1  hon
U m ¼ U dc ð4Þ Dtd ¼
he ½kþ1hoff
Nr X
Nr XT s
calculate U d according to Eq. (9)
where an estimation of the next position he ½k þ 1 is: U d ¼ U  ½k  DTtsd ðU  ½k þ U dc Þ
apply U d voltage to the PWM unit for only one period
he ½k þ 1 ¼ he ½k þ Nr XT s ð5Þ end if

The demagnetization of the phase follows a comparable proce-

dure, as shown in Fig. 5. Fig. 6 represents the software solution where the original ATC
In the ideal case where it occurs at the instant hoff , the reference has been enhanced based on Eqs. (4), (5) and (9). Table 3 points
applied voltage is equal to U dc . The variation of current between out the inputs, output and parameters and Table 4 details the algo-
the angles hoff and he ½k þ 1 is noted DIoff. Always by neglecting the rithm of the software based solution.
term (R.i), the electric equation can be simplified as follows: It can be noticed that the current profile of the software solution
DIoff matches the ideal profile, except in the initial (magnetizing) and
U dc ¼ e þ Linc ð6Þ the final (demagnetizing) transients, labelled as Tsm and Tsd respec-
Dt d
tively in Fig. 7. Such transients have been zoomed in Fig. 8, where it
with can be seen clearly how just one iteration of 300 ls is needed to
he ½k þ 1  hoff copy the ideal profile, as theoretically expected. It follows that
Dt d ¼ ð7Þ the torque ripple is remarkably decreased as it is numerically indi-
Nr X
cated in Table 2 when comparing columns 2 (original ATC) and 3
taking into account that the back-emf e is not equal to zero during (software solution).
the demagnetization of the phase. Between he ½k and he ½k þ 1, the
average reference voltage U d is equal to: 3.3. Hardware solution
DIoff U dc þ e
U d ¼ e þ Linc ¼ e  Dt d ð8Þ The objective of this second solution is to control each phase at
Ts Ts
the ideal instants ton ; toff using a basic function which is executed
Finally, the back-emf is evaluated at he ½k taking into the fact on the hardware. The basic principal consists of two stages:
that the phase current is nearly constant (square wave control).
Based on Eq. (2) and the applied reference voltage U  at the previ-  First stage: At the sample time t½k, the position he ½k þ 1 is pre-
ous sample time, it follows that Eq. (8) becomes: dicted and if the optimum firing angle hon is reached in the
Dt d  interval ½he ½k; he ½k þ 1, then the interval between the optimum
U d ¼ U  ½k  ðU ½k þ U dc Þ ð9Þ firing angle hon and the instantaneous position he ½k is evaluated:
Ts

Fig. 6. SRM average torque control scheme with the new proposed software solution.
 X. Rain et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 86 (2014) 701–708 705

1.5
Ideal pulse

0.5

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
t (s) −3
x 10
Phase voltages (V)

20 Instantaneous
Average
0

−20

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5

t (s) −3
x 10
T T
Phase currents (A)

sm sd
60
Software solution
40 Ideal profile

20

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
t (s) −3
x 10

Fig. 7. Simulation results for the software solution at 2000 rpm, 4 N m and
T s ¼ 300 ls.
Fig. 10. Basic principle of the hardware solution.

equal to a where a boolean variable ‘pulse b’ is set to one. At the ris-

5 25
Software solution Software solution ing edge of ‘pulse b’, the incoming phase is magnetized.
Ideal profile Ideal profile
4.5  Second stage: At the next sample time t½k þ 1, the boolean vari-
24 ables are set to zero and the switched logic system generator
4 works naturally.

23
3.5 These three basics functions (ramp generating, comparator,
switching function and PWM) require a low sampling time in order
Phase currents (A)

Phase currents (A)

3
22 to apply the command without delay. It follows that such logic is
easily designed at a hardware level (e.g. FPGA) to meet the time
2.5
constraints, thus leading to a hardware/software partitioning.
21 A similar procedure is defined for the demagnetization phase.
2
The duty cycle a is calculated as follows:
1.5 20 hoff  he ½k
a¼ ; ð11Þ
1 Nr XT s
19 Fig. 11 represents a simulation for the operating point
0.5
(X = 3000 rpm; T em =3 N m). Optimum angles hon and hoff are
0 18
respected leading to an improvement of the control despite the fact
0 2 4 6
−4
2.6 2.8 3 3.2
−3
the sampling time of the software algorithm is set to 300 ls, as
t (s) x 10 t (s) x 10
indicated on the fourth column of the Table 2.
Fig. 8. Zoom of the portions labelled as T sm and T sd in Fig. 7, which correspond to
This procedure is effective when angles hon and hoff are not
the magnetizing and demagnetizing transients, respectively. included in the same sample time. Thus, Eq. (12) gives the maxi-
mum sampling period which must be always satisfied:
hon  he ½k
a¼ ð10Þ hoff  hon > Nr XT s ð12Þ
Nr XT s
Furthermore, a boolean variable ‘pulse a’ is set to one and trigger a To illustrate such limit, if the magnetization phase is equal to 180°
counter (r) as shown in Figs. 9 and 10. It follows that the optimum and the mechanical speed to 3000 rpm, the theoretical minimal
moment of magnetization t on is estimated when the counter value is sampling frequency fs of the software algorithm must be greater

Fig. 9. SRM average torque control scheme with the new proposed hardware solution.
706 X. Rain et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 86 (2014) 701–708

1.5

Ideal pulse
6
Ideal pulse
4
Pulses

1 Real pulse
2
0.5
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
0 −3
6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5 9 x 10
−3 Real pulse = 1

phase voltage (V)

x 10
phase voltage (V)

Measured
20
Instantaneous

20
0
0
−20
−20 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
−3
x 10
6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5 9

phase current (A)

−3
x 10 60
phase current (A)

Measured
60
Instantaneous

40
40 20

20 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
t (s) −3
x 10
0
6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5 9
t (s) −3
x 10 Fig. 14. Experimental results for the software solution at 2000 rpm, 4 N m and
T s ¼ 300 ls.
Fig. 11. Simulation results for the hardware solution at 3000 rpm, 3 N m and
T s ¼ 300 ls.
6

5.5
Instantantaneous measured torque (N.m)

4.5

3.5

Fig. 12. Asymmetric half bridge converter.

3

than 0.6 Hz. It is obvious than in a practical context this relation is

always fulfilled. 2.5

2
4. Experimental results

An experimental comparison has been carried out to corrobo-
rate the superior performance of the software and hardware solu-
tions proposed. Therefore, three algorithms have been
implemented: (i) the original ATC, (ii) the software based solution
and (iii) the hardware based solution shown in Figs. 1, 6 and 9,
respectively.
4.1. Test bench
All three algorithms have been implemented in the same
hardware platform based on the dSPACE solutions. Actually, the
1.5
4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5
t (s)
Fig. 15. Instantaneous measured torque at 2000 rpm, 4 N m and T s ¼ 300 ls.
Software solution is applied at t = 5.7 s.
configuration used is mainly composed by a DS 1005PPC Board,
which includes a Power PC 750GX at 1 GHz, together with the
FPGA Base Board 5203 composed (among others) by a Xilinx
VirtexÒ-5 LX50T-1C at 10 MHz. For the hardware solution, the
additional blocks are implemented in the FPGA board together
with the PWM unit, having a resolution of 10 ns, which is of an

Fig. 13. SRM test bench.

 X. Rain et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 86 (2014) 701–708 707

enormous precision. On the contrary, for the software solution, the

4.2
additional code is written in the DS1005PPC, which runs with a
sampling time period as low as just 300 ls. On the other hand,
4
the power electronics inverter is composed by four asymmetric
bridges, one per SRM phase, as Fig. 12 illustrates. Further details
3.8

Instantaneous measured torque (N.m)

can be found in [22]. Fig. 13 shows a picture with the set-up
described above which has been used for all the experimentation
3.6
work.
3.4
4.2. Software solution
3.2
Fig. 14 illustrates the experimental results for the software
solution algorithm, detailed in Section 3.2 obtained at 2000 rpm, 3
4 N m with a sampling time equal to 300 ls. In such figure, a volt-
age is supplied to the SRM 300 ls before than the original ATC 2.8

would do and therefore, the current is already different than zero

2.6
once the real pulse arrives. A voltage, whose average is now calcu-
lated with Eq. (9), is also previously supplied during the demagne-
2.4
tizing process. The voltage supplied in both magnetizing and
2.2
6 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035 0.04 0.045 0.05
Ideal pulse

2 Fig. 18. Instantaneous measured torques at 500 rpm, 3.3 N m and T s ¼ 300 ls.
0
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 demagnetizing process is therefore anticipated trying to emulate
−3
x 10 a continuous controller despite the fact of having a discrete con-
Measured phase

troller with a sampling time as large as 300 ls. Such anticipation

20
phenomena and its remarkable torque ripple reduction are clearly
voltage (V)

0 shown in Fig. 15, where at 5.7 s the software solution is activated.

−20
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4.3. Hardware solution
−3
x 10
Fig. 16 illustrates the experimental results for the hardware
Measured phase

60
solution obtained at 3000 rpm, 3 N m with a sampling time equal
current (A)

40 to 300 ls. As stated before, firing angles hon and hoff fall exactly at
20 the right position, thus increasing the stability of the whole control
and improving the performance. Fig. 17 shows the improvement in
0
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 terms of torque ripple when the hardware solution is activated at
t (s) −3
x 10 3.6 s.
Finally, Fig. 18 illustrates that the torque ripple reduction is also
Fig. 16. Experimental results for the hardware solution at 3000 rpm, 3 N m and
T s ¼ 300 ls. achieved at low speed (500 rpm).

5
7
4
3
6
2
Instantaneous measured torque (N.m)

1
0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1
5

3.5

4 3
2.5
2
3
1.5
0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1

2
3.5
3
1 2.5
2
1.5
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1
2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
t (s)

Fig. 17. Instantaneous measured torque at 3000 rpm, 3 N m and T s ¼ 300 ls. Fig. 19. Comparison of the torque ripples between the two strategies at 2000 rpm,
Hardware solution is applied at t = 3.6 s. 2.5 N m and T s ¼ 300 ls.
708 X. Rain et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 86 (2014) 701–708
4.4. Software versus hardware solution
Fig. 19 illustrates a comparison between the original ATC and
the two given solutions at 2000 rpm and 2.5 N m. A ripple reduc-
tion of 45.6% and 52.7% for the software and hardware solutions
respectively, is always achieved. Despite both solutions show a
similar results in terms of torque ripple, the performances of the
software based are degraded slowly at very high speed. Neverthe-
less, the software solution can be claimed as being practically cost
free; while as regards the hardware one, the cost will depend on
the actual hardware PWM unity access, which must be available
for its implementation.
5. Conclusion
Two alternative SRM switching signal system generator blocks
have been designed in order to radically reduce the sampling fre-
quency. Such remarkable frequency reduction opens the possibility
to cut processor real time needs. The first design, which is software
feasible, consists on anticipating the voltage supply in order to
tackle the restriction of the large sampling instants. The second
solution, which must be implemented at a very low hardware level,
uses a basic function to allow the magnetization process to be con-
tinuous and therefore independent of the sampling instants. Exper-
imental results show the validity of the proposed novel strategies,
which not only do not degrade the overall SRM’s performance but
also show a remarkable torque ripple reduction. Despite both solu-
tions bring good results in terms of keeping the performance when
reducing the sampling frequency, the hardware solution presents
always a better performance, especially at high speeds, compared
to the software one. Nevertheless, the software solution can be
claimed as being practically cost free; while as regards the hard-
ware one, the cost will depend on the actual hardware PWM unity
access, which must be available for its implementation.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to acknowledge the ‘‘Servicio de Acci-
ones de Promoción y Movilidad’’ and the ‘‘Ministerio de Economía
y Competitividad’’ from Spain, for supporting Dr Antoni Arias dur-
ing the course of this work under the ENE2012-36871-C02-01 and
DPI2013-41224-P Research Projects.
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