A VHDL success story: electric drive system using neural controller

This article describes the successful VHDL design of a digital current control architecture for three phase electric drive systems, based on hardware implemented neural networks. The controller comprises an on-line inductance estimator and a PWM switching pattern generator based on a state space observer. Reconfigurable neural networks implemented with logic gates are involved in both. The complete development of the system has been achieved using VHDL and implemented into a single FPGA chip. The VHDL description of the neural networks has been automatically generated by C++ programs. The VHDL model of the motor controller allows the control over the hardware implementation complexity and therefore it can be readily adapted to the available hardware resources.