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Design and Performance Analysis of Brushless Direct Current (BLDC)

Motor Controller for Electric Scooter
To cite this article: M N Yuniarto et al 2019 IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng. 694 012004

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ISAIME 2019 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 694 (2019) 012004 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/694/1/012004

Design and Performance Analysis of Brushless Direct Current

(BLDC) Motor Controller for Electric Scooter

M N Yuniarto1, Estiko Rijanto2 and Agus Mukhlisin1

1
Center of Excellence for Automotive Control & System, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh
Nopember Surabaya 60111 Indonesia
2
Research Center for Electrical Power and Mechatronics, Indonesian Institute of
Sciences, LIPI, Bandung, Indonesia

E-mail: muhammad.nur3006@gmail.com

Abstract. Electric vehicle is an alternative to substitute internal combustion engine when fuel
availability is difficult to obtain. Electric energy can be obtained from renewable energy and
non-renewable energy. Electric vehicles like electric scooters consist of many parts. The parts
used in an electric scooter have requirements such as reliability, safety, good performance, and
high efficiency. Brushless direct current (BLDC) motor controller is one of the main components
in the electric scooter. This paper presents a design and performance test of the BLDC motor
controller. The controller uses PID current control with six step commutation in a trapezoidal
control. The motor current ripple is eliminated by using a digital isolator. Tests were carried out
using an Eddy Current Dynamometer. The results show that the current ripple is sucessfuly
reduced which makes the controller suitable for electric scooter applications.

1. Introduction
A feed back controller of a brushless direct current (BLDC) motor usually incorporates hall effect
sensors, back electromotive force (BEMF) signals, and current sensors. The quality of the controller is
affected by the accuracy in measuring the feedback signals. Ripple current may occur, but how much
the ripple current can be tolerated. This ripple current issue is important so that the motor can be rotated
properly. Ripple currents can cause a rough motor response. Factors causing the current ripple are the
error reading of the current sensor, load variations in the motor, switching frequency and inductive
interference.
A current measurement method compensated the offset and scaling errors separately [1]. This study
used two current measurements in phases A and phase C. Current measurement error consists of noise
on hall sensors, filter circuits, and analog to digital converters [2]. Errors occur periodically so that they
can be removed by a high pass filter. Ripple torque can be reduced by using a low switching frequency
or constant switching frequency [3,4]. The optimal switching is calculated at each switching cycle to
satisfy the minimum ripple based on the torque slope equations. Three-phase inverters use switching
frequency limited around 0.5–1 kHz to minimize torque ripple [4]. This depends on the design of electric
motor. There are many other methods to reduce the current ripple [5-9].
In this paper, a new current control is proposed which minimizes ripple current measurement using
digital isolator. This method is effective to reduce the inductive effects of a power circuit. The high
voltage ground is separated from the ground of the microcontroller so that the high voltage does not

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ISAIME 2019 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 694 (2019) 012004 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/694/1/012004

affect the performance of the microcontroller. ADUM 1200 can be used to separate the ground. This
paper is organized as follows. The issues arising in a proportional, integral, direvative (PID) current
control technique are described in section II. Design of a BLDC motor controller in an electric scooter
application is presented in Section III. The implementation and evaluation of this control strategy are
presented in Sections IV. Finally, the paper conclusion is in Section V.

2. PID Current Control Method

The current control technique consists of two controls (cascade control) as illustrated in figure 1. The
first level control is speed control which uses the hall effect sensor as speed feedback. A speed reference
is obtained from the throttle position sensor. Speed error is the difference between the speed reference
and the present speed which is then compensated with the PID control technique so that it generates a
reference current (Is_ref). The second level control is the current control technique that uses the current
sensor in phase as feedback. Current error that occurs will be compensated with the PID control. The
PID current control will produce duty cycle and frequency values that will be used in Pulse Width
Modulation (PWM). Next go to the commutation logic with the hall sensor feedback. The Hall sensor
will also provide the position information of the rotor angle so that the commutation can be determined.
Commutation logic can be realized in a PWM signal to activate the gate driver on the 3-phase inverter
so that each phase becomes in an appropriate supply.

Figure 1. Current Control of BLDC Motor [10]

A model of a BLDC motor fed by a three phase inverter can be shown in Figure 2. The inverter
consists of 3 half bridge MOSFETs as a switching phase A, B and C. Each switch Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, Q5
and Q6 will be activated by the gate driver. Commutation logic of each switch is shown in Figure 3.

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ISAIME 2019 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 694 (2019) 012004 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/694/1/012004

Figure 2. Model of BLDC Motor fed by 3 phase inverter

One electrical cycle consists of six-step commutations while one mechanical cycle will be composed
of several electrical cycles. The amount depends on the configuration of pole pairs magnet mounted on
the motor. Figure 3 shows a example of six-step commutation obtained from experiments. The hall
sensor signals H1, H2, and H3 are ploted at the upper side. The commuation logic can be observed from
the switching signals of Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, and Q6. The soft PWM scheme is used where the high leg of
a certain positive phase is switched in PWM mode while the lower leg of the companion negative phase
is kept ON. Notice that the low leg of the same positive phase is switched in the opposite PWM mode
using the PWM complementer. We name it as PWM mode of type (Hp-PWM, Ln-ON, Lp-inverted
PWM), where subscripts p and n denote positive and negative phases of the motor.

H2
H1 H3

Q6
Q4

Q2
Q1
Q3

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6

Figure 3. Six Step Commutation Using PWM Type of (Hp-PWM, Ln-ON, Lp-inverted PWM).

This type of commutation, which uses PWM type of (Hp-PWM, Ln-ON, Lp-inverted PWM), has a
smaller torque ripple compared to (High-ON, Low-PWM) or (High-PWM, Low-PWM) [11]. The results
in figure 3 can be summarized as six-step commutation logic according to table 1.

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ISAIME 2019 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 694 (2019) 012004 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/694/1/012004

Table 1. Truth Table of Six Step Commutation of a BLDC Motor Controller

Step Signal Hall Effect Sensor Phase A Phase B Phase C
H1 H2 H3 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6
1 1 0 1 Open Closed PWM PWM Open Open
inverted
Negative Positive NC/Off
2 1 0 0 Open Closed Open Open PWM PWM
inverted
Negative NC/Off Positive
3 1 1 0 Open Open Open Closed PWM PWM
inverted
NC/Off Negative Positive
4 0 1 0 PWM PWM Open Closed Open Open
inverted
Positive Negative NC/Off
5 0 1 1 PWM PWM Open Open Open Closed
inverted
Positive NC/Off Negative
6 0 0 1 Open Open PWM PWM Open Closed
inverted
NC/Off Positive Negative

This paper uses a 5 KW BLDC Motor operating at 100VDC. The parameter values of the BLDC
motor are listed in table 2.

Table 2. Parameter values of the BLDC motor [12]

Parameter Unit Value
Resistance (R) mΩ 8.005
Inductance (L) µH 158.485
BEMF Constanta (ke) Volt/krpm 16.915
Torque Constanta (kt) N.m/A 0.1616
Time Constant (τm) s 0.1791
Friction Constanta (B) N.m.s 0.0280
2
Moment of Inertia (J) Kg.m 0.0356

3. Design of BLDC Motor Controller

The BLDC motor controller in this paper is illustated by a block diagram in figure 4. An important point
to consider in designing a 3-phase inverter is that HV must be isolated with a microcontroller supply.
This is done to avoid spike interference in the HV which can cause a microcontroller reset. Digital
isolator ADUM1200 is used. HV sensing uses optical operational amplifiers to measure battery voltage
and BEMF. Other sensors such as hall effect sensors and current sensors in phase A and C also use
galvanic isolation.

Figure 4. Diagram of the BLDC Motor Controller

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ISAIME 2019 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 694 (2019) 012004 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/694/1/012004

Overlapping PWM is needed to ensure that PWM channels high and low sides do not meet. To really
protect, certain value of dead time is added. Gate drivers use modules from the manufacturer so that
gate driver optimization has been done well by the manufacturer. It is hoped that the failure mode on
MOSFETs can be avoided. Isolation can also be done by separating between boards, both the controller
board, gate driver board, and the 3-phase inverter board. The designed controller is shown in figure 5.

Gate Driver

Controller module
3-Phase Inverter

Capacitor Link

Figure 5. BLDC Motor Controller

4. Result and Analysis

The BLDC motor controller performance was tested using an Eddy Current Dynamometer as shown in
figure 6. The dynamometer can be used to determine power, torque, and speed (rpm). The signal
measurement is done using an oscilloscope.

Controller

BLDC
Motor

Eddy Current Dynamometer

Figure 6. Experiment Set-up

4.1 Signal Measurement

Figure 7 shows the hall effect sensor and BEMF signals. BEMF signals are trapezoidal so that this
control technique is called trapezoidal control. A signal was found in the fault hall sensor, which was
on the red circle. The signal does not directly affect the commutation logic because the signal does not
reach the digital input level to be low. But of course the problem needs to be formulated a solution.
BEMF signals on blue circle marking can cause switching losses that need to be eliminated. In general
the signal is in accordance with the BLDC motor drive theory.

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ISAIME 2019 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 694 (2019) 012004 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/694/1/012004

H2 H3
H1

eC eB
eA

Figure 7. Measurement of Hall Sensor and Back Electro Motive Force (BEMF)

Figure 8 shows the comparison of current signals of the motor phase A using a digital isolator and
not using a digital isolator. Design without a digital isolator can cause ripple current which can lead to
compensation calculation errors on the PID controller. The ripple also affects the ripple torque so that
the motor rotation is not smooth. Whereas current using digital isolator has less current ripple compared
to not using digital isolator. The author suggests that the BLDC motor controller should be completely
isolated so that external interference from the motor does not directly affect the system control.

ripple
ripple

Reduce
ripple

Figure 8. Ripple Current Elimination Using Digital Isolator

Figure 9 shows current measurements results of each phase. Part a is the phase A current at a full
speed condition while part b measures the current during start-up. By observing these results, we confirm
that the shape of the current signal is in accordance with the BLDC motor drive theory. An interesting
thing that needs to be discussed is that the phase current at start-up is very large. This requires that the
MOSFET 3-phase inverter can handle large currents, further increasing production costs.

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ISAIME 2019 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 694 (2019) 012004 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/694/1/012004

FIGURE 9. Current Measurement: a. Current Phase A , b. Starting Current

4.2 Performance Test Results

Figure 10 shows the BLDC motor controller performance testing results. The testing was done by
rotating the motor until it reached the maximum rotation speed without any load, then new load was
added in stages until the motor rotation was unable to resist the dynamometer load. The results indicate
that the controller can operate at 5000 Watt instantenously with the torque reaching 60 N.m at the speed
of 1000 rpm. This BLDC motor controller can be applied to electric scooters.

FIGURE 10. Performance Test: a. Speed vs Power, b. Speed vs Torque

5. Conclusion
We have designed and tested the 5 kW BLDC motor controller using a PID current control with
trapezoidal commutation technique. The ripple current in the BLDC motor was reduced by a digital
isolator. Performance test results indicate that the controller is suitable for electric scooter applications.

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IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 694 (2019) 012004 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/694/1/012004

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