Development of a framework for drive control on FPGAs

Abstract

Modern robotic systems contain a steadily increasing number of application-specific electric drives to actuate them. Due to requirements such as low inertia, high dynamics, and small form factors with high torque, Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (PMSMs) are used almost exclusively. For the control of PMSMs, the Field-Oriented Control (FOC) algorithm is commonly used. However, previous implementations of the control algorithm at the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics (RM) of the German Aerospace Center (DLR e.V.) are application-specific. To handle the increasing development effort, modern engineering methods are used at the institute to pursue a modularization of the drives and drive controllers. For this Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) provide a suitable platform for implementing and developing generic and modular drive controllers. This thesis deals with the task of developing a generic and modular drive controller framework based on FOC and FPGAs. The development of a generic field-oriented controller in Very High Speed Integrated Circuit Hardware Description Language (VHDL) is presented and synthesized for an example application. The development of the generic controller is supported by a series of simulation testbenches. The testbenches thus form an elemental part of the overall framework. In a final evaluation, the simulation results are compared with corresponding measurements of the example application.