Arduino-Based Control of Brushless DC Motor for Electric Vehicles

Due to environmental issues and diminished conventional energy sources, Electric Vehicles (EVs) have gained a lot of attention to replace internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) as a part of the solution. In-wheel motor (IWM) drive is the new trend in the EV industry as it eliminates the need for a mechanical transmission system between the motor and the wheel which increases the efficiency of the EV drive system. This paper presents an overview of various types of motors being used as IWMs such as induction motor (IM), permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM), switched reluctance motor (SRM), and brushless DC motors (BLDC) and choosing the outer rotor surface mounted PM BLDC motor as the most suitable motor for lightweight EV applications. To perform speed control of the BLDC motor which makes the drive system characterized by a fast response, a stable dynamic performance, and low cost and compact size hardware setup, varying input voltage technique is implemented by PI controller with six-step commutation operation of BLDC motor. The drive system is modeled and simulated using Matlab/Simulink. The PI controller parameters are tuned to three different sets of values. The effect of changing PI controller parameters on the drive system response is analyzed and the system is exposed to speed change to validate the analysis result. An experimental setup is implanted to verify the simulation results.