Position Control of Low Cost Brushless DC Motor

using Hall Sensor

Si Young Yun, Ho Joon Lee, Jung Ho Han and Ju Lee

Department of Electrical Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract— This paper concerns the research on position control for valve angle is explained. The motor control for adjusting
of low cost brushless DC (BLDC) motor. Usually BLDC motors the angle of the intake valve depending on engine speed is
are controlled by using the hall-effect sensor in a low cost proceeding. As the motor control is used for the opening and
application. Based on the characteristics of back electromotive closing operation, the system will be better.
force (back EMF), the rotation information of rotor can be
acquired from the hall sensor. During the one electrical cycle, the
motor has six trigger signals for three phases. Speed and position
of the rotor can be calculated by using hall sensor signal. The
motor system has 30:1 gear ratio in experiment. Then, the
number of hall sensor signal per one cycle is 180. Using the
dsPIC33FJMC804 CPU as controller, some experiments were
performed with the prototype which is the surface-mounted
permanent magnet motor. Currently it is being developed for air
intake system of vehicle.

Keywords; BLDC motor, back EMF, position control, PI

(a) (b)
controller, hall-effect sensor, air intake valve system
Figure 1. Air intake valve system (a) Valve close (b) Valve open
I. INTRODUCTION
In this paper, a PI control algorithm is used for position
Because brushless DC (BLDC) motors do not use brushes,
control and described the minimal hardware requirements. The
they have longer operating life and noiseless operation. So,
detailed descriptions of the control algorithm and sensor signal
BLDC motors have been used widely in many applications that
acquisition is presented.
require stable operation and high performance. It has
permanent magnet, so it has high ratio between torque and
motor size and it is suited for applications where space and II. BASIC PRINFIPLE
weight are critical. BLDC motor has higher speed ranges, The commutation of the BLDC motor is done electrically.
better speed and torque than other motors. Low rotor inertia To know the position of rotor is very important for electrical
improves acceleration and deceleration times while shortening commutation. Usually the hall sensors are placed in 120-degree
operating cycles [1]. intervals and the common operation of BLDC motor is
There is two way for control of BLDC motor, sensor achieved by six-section. The back EMF and hall sensor signal
control and sensorless control. Although there have been are presented in Fig. 2.
numerous sensorless approaches proposed in the paper [2]-[3], When the magnet poles of rotor come to hall sensor, the
BLDC motors with the hall sensor are applied to industry and signal is generated. According to six-step in Fig. 2, the
home appliances. In low or medium cost applications, the hall commutation sequence is performed. The motor phases are
sensors are usually utilized for rotor position, speed and supposed to conduct for 120 electrical degrees two times per
switching signals of inverter transistors [4]. cycle [4]. The two phases are only conducted at one time. The
Now in air intake system of automobile, dual duct system hall sensor signal has the rising edge and the falling edge for
has been operated by natural air pressure. But it has a problem; each phase. That is, the six-trigger signals are generated per
incorrect angle of valve opening has low output power and a one cycle. Using these trigger signals, motor control is carried
lot of noise. If a large amount of air than normal is inhaled, big out. The switching sequence for commutation phase is given in
noise will be occurred. And if a small amount of air is taken, it Table I. For forward and reverse direction of rotor, switching
will make reduced output power of engine and restricted sequence is different. A detailed operating principle by hall
efficiency. Therefore, the exact opening angle of intake valve is sensors is well explained in many papers for more detailed
needed for system. The valve control by using motor is description [4]-[5].
presented in Fig. 1. In this paper, the position control of motor

978-1-4673-1335-3/12/$31.00 ©2012 IEEE

 respectively. The subscript x presents a, b, c phase. In upper
voltage equation, inductance L is the difference between self
inductance Ls and mutual inductance Lm. That is, L=Ls - Lm.

2nπ
ex = K w + f (θ e − )ωm (2)
3
The back EMF is related to a function of rotor position. Kw
is back EMF constant of one phase, θ e is the electrical rotor
angle and ωm is the rotor angular velocity. The subscript x
presents a, b, c phase. If x is a, b and c phase, n is 0, 1 and 2.
Unlike the induction motor or synchronous motor control,
phase variables are used directly without any transformation
equation in BLDC motors. The physical properties as current,
flux and back EMF has rectangular forms, so coordinate
transformation is not needed.
Figure 2. Back EMF and hall effect sensor signal
Pe = e a i a + e b i b + e c i c (3)

III. MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF BLDC

Pe eaia + ebib + ec ic
Modeling of BLDC motor is similar to three-phase Te = = (4)
synchronous machine. Since there is a permanent magnet ωm ωm
mounted on the rotor, some dynamic characteristics are Where, Pe is the output power, Te is the torque of motor.
different [6]. Electrical analysis of BLDC motor is presented
by Fig. 3. If motor is operated with two-phase conduction type, the
torque equation is presented newly. In S1 mode as seen in
Table I, current (ia=I, ib=-I, ic=0) and back EMF (ea=E, eb=-E)
are expressed as follow:

ea ia + ebib + ec ic 2 EI (5)
Te = =
ωm ωm
The total output torque is a simple equation of back EMF E
and current I. According to (5), to produce an electromagnetic
torque, the sum of eaia, ebib and ecic has to be constant as far as
a certain speed is concerned. As shown in Fig. 2, this means
Figure 3. Electric circuit of BLDC motor
rectangular phase currents with the corresponding back EMF
which is required.

TABLE I. SWITCHING SEQUENCE IV. HARDWARE

Switching Sector Battery supplies energy to power module and motor. The
Direction
S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 power through voltage regulator is delivered to the CPU and
Forward a+ b - a+ c- b + c- b + a- c+ a- c+ b - the gate driver. In Fig. 4, there are BLDC motor and controller
+ - + - + - + - + -
module used in experiment.
Reverse b a c a c b a b a c b + c-

The voltage equation has components of voltage and

current for A, B, C phases, resistance, inductance and back
EMF. The BLDC motor is operated by a three-phase voltage
source that is converted from DC power supply. The model of
the BLDC motor is expressed as follow:

dix
Vx = Rix + L + ex (1)
dt
Where, Vx is the input voltage, ix is the current, R is the
resistance, L is the inductance and ex is the back EMF, Figure 4. BLDC motor and driver
 The motor is an inner rotor type with two poles. It is very For speed and position control, rotor position must be
small sized driver that is placed in motor case. And motor detected. There are phase detectors as resolver, encoder, and
system has mechanical structure of gear ratio 30:1. The rated hall sensor. The resolver is excellent benefits and a simple
voltage is 12[V], rated current is 1[A] and maximum current is structure, but must be applied to the resolver’s stator winding
5[A]. As seen in Table II, motor parameter is presented. for excitation signal, so hardware has the disadvantage of
complexity. The absolute encoder output directly to a digital
Motor controller is composed of power, controller and signal beam and a digital output signal is proportional to the
drive part. Fig. 5 is a logic diagram of BLDC motor system. rotational speed of the frequency changes. When the digital
controller is designed it is easy to use. The hall sensor is
unsuitable for the high precision control because the three
phase of square wave with 120-degree is generated. But in this
motor test, the hall sensor is used as low precision speed
control can be required.

V. CONTROL
The BLDC motor driver has been operated by 120-degree
or 180-degree turn-on method. The two-phase conduction
method has 120-degree turn-on section and three-phase
conduction method has 180-degree turn-on section. The three-
phase conduction method has more torque ripple than 120-
degree conduction. Then, the three-phase conduction method is
not used generally [7]. Three hall-effect sensors are usually
used to detect the commutation point at every 60 electrical
degrees. In Fig. 6, control sequence is presented block diagram
Figure 5. Logic diagram of BLDC motor of current control, speed control and position control.

TABLE II. SPECIFICATIONS OF BLDC MOTOR

Parameter Description
Motor Type 3ph BLDCM
Weight 226.5 g
Rated Voltage 12 V DC
Rated Speed 7380 rpm Figure 6. Control block diagram of BLDC motor
Rated Current 0.98 A
The interval time for motor speed can be calculated from
Rated Torque 9.9 mNm
the counter of the PWM interrupt. The electrical frequency is
Stall Current 7.01 A acquired from the time as seen in Fig. 7. If the frequency and
Stall Torque 79.5 mNm rotor pole number are known, the motor rpm will be achieved.
Resistance 0.05 Ohm
The rpm of rotor are described in the following equation.
Back EMF 580 mVrms@1000rpm

120 × Fr (6)
Sr =
P
A. Control Part
To drive BLDC motor, the CPU generates three pulse Where, Sr is the rpm and P is the pole number of rotor. Fr is
width modulation (PWM) signals. Average DC input voltage the rotation frequency of rotor and presented calculated by
can be changed with the duty ratio of PWM signal. Then, the 1/Tint. The Tint is the time between triggers of hall sensor signal.
current flowing to the motor will be changed depending on
input voltage. That is, if switching sequence in Table I and
PWM input voltage can be produced, BLDC motor will be
operated. The PWM frequency used in this study is 10 kHz.

B. Input Signal Part Figure 7. Triggers of hall sensor signals and time interval between triggers

For current control, current detecting circuit is required. It The position and speed of rotor can be calculated using
checks the change of current. The signal from sensor is rising and falling edge of hall sensor signals. Thus it is
converted to adjusted signal for CPU. In this paper, the shunt generated 180 signals for one electrical cycle in case of 30:1
resistor was used for inexpensive module. The resistance of 2 geared motor. If rotor has two magnetic poles, rotating angle of
Watt, 0.01ohm is used and measured current is transformed to 2-degree is calculated from first hall sensor trigger signal to
voltage with level of 0.33 volt per 1 Ampere. next. In addition, this angle value is enough for position control
in intake system of automobile. For position control, each TABLE III presents reference angle and result angle. The
trigger point has counter value. That is, 0-degree of rotor is 1st system has always 2-degree angle error because of resolution
point, 2-degree is 2nd point and 90-degree is last point. These of hall sensor. The experiments are processed by using angle
points are used for position control. A closed loop control measurement equipment as seen in Fig. 8.
algorithm with a PI controller is presented as follows.
TABLE III. EXPERIMENTAL DATA OF ROTOR POSITION ANGLE
e = θ r* − θ r (7)
Ref. Experimental Data
(8) Angle
y = K p e + K i ∫ edt SPL #1 SPL #2 SPL #3 SPL #4
0° 0° (0°) 0° (0°) 0° (0°) 0°
y − y0 e − e0 (9) 15° 14° (-1°) 16° (+1°) 15° (0°) 15°
= Kp( ) + Kie
Δt Δt 30° 29° (-1°) 31° (+1°) 31° (+1°) 30.3°
45° 45° (0°) 46° (+1°) 46° (+1°) 45.6°
y = y0 + K p (e − e0 ) + K i e ⋅ Δt (10) 60° 60° (0°) 61° (+1°) 61° (+1°) 60.6°
75° 76° (+1°) 77° (+2°) 76° (+1°) 76°
In this paper, we define the position error e, previous error
90° 91° (+1°) 92° (+2°) 91° (+1°) 91°
e0, reference speed θ r* and measured speed θ r . The y is output
of the PI controller and y0 is previous output and Δt is the
sampling time. Kp and Ki are the proportional and integral gains VII. CONCLUSION
of the PI controller respectively.
This paper has presented a three-phase control technique
for BLDC motor which is used in air intake valve system of
VI. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS automotive and described system hardware requirements. And
The intake valve moves only between 0 and 90-degree. control performance was verified by experiments.
First, the response time was tested. From start point 0-degree to
For a low cost control of BLDC motor, hall-effect sensor
end point 90-degree, the motor driver has average value of
was used and position information from sensor signal was
120ms response time for several test in Fig. 8.
acquired for motor control. Although air intake system has
insignificant position error for operation, it is negligible for
normal operation. Rather the response time is more important
than the accurate position.

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Figure 9. (a) Position contol for reference angle 0 and 90-degree (b) Position
control for reference angle 0, 30, 60 and 90-degree