Design of a PID Controller-Based Permanent Magnet DC Motor Driven Conveyor Belt System for Industrial Automation

Controlling the speed of a conveyor belt for variable loads is crucial for any industrial application. Therefore, in this manuscript, a simulation work of a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller-based DC motor-driven conveyor belt system is presented. The procedure starts with selecting the right conveyor belt model for the designated application. After a specific belt with rollers and other components is selected, drive pull is required to be calculated varying from no object on the belt to the maximum allowable object mass on the belt conditions. Based on these power requirements, the drive motor is selected. A permanent magnet DC motor is chosen for its convenience of use, compliance with PID controllers, and overall reliability. The DC motor is then modeled in MATLAB Simulink software and its step response is observed. Finally, a PID controller is designed using trial-and-error method with optimal parameters to achieve the best possible transient response with minimum overshoot and settling time along with zero steady-state error throughout the load range on the belt. The result shows that less than 6% overshoot is achieved with a settling time of less than one second in both no load and maximum load conditions on the conveyor belt. This work highlights the effectiveness of trial-and-error method to obtain PID controller parameters for an acceptable and usable system response.