Control Strategies for DC Motor Drive Systems
Summary
The direct current (DC) motor has long been a mainstay of industrial and consumer applications, from robotics and electric vehicles to precision instrumentation. Central to its performance is the drive system, which converts electrical energy into controlled mechanical motion. Modern control strategies for DC motor drives address the dual challenges of high dynamic precision and robust operation under variable loads. Classical schemes such as proportional–integral (PI) regulators remain widespread for their simplicity, while advanced methods—sliding mode control, sensorless algorithms, and differential flatness approaches—offer enhanced disturbance rejection and trajectory-tracking capabilities. Power electronic interfaces, including buck converters and inverters, play a crucial role in shaping voltage and current waveforms, often implemented with pulse-width modulation to balance efficiency and switching losses. Contemporary research focuses on integrating renewable energy sources, reducing reliance on mechanical sensors and improving fault tolerance in real-world environments.
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Control Strategies for DC Motor Drive Systems publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in control strategies for dc motor drive systems across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
DC Motor Drive System: An arrangement comprising a DC motor and its associated power electronic converters and control algorithms to regulate speed, torque and position.
Buck Converter: A power electronics topology that steps down voltage, commonly used to regulate DC supply levels for motors.
Inverter: A device that converts DC to AC or bipolar voltage waveforms, enabling bidirectional motor operation.
Sliding Mode Control: A robust control technique that forces system trajectories to “slide” along a predefined manifold, ensuring disturbance rejection.
Proportional–Integral (PI) Control: A classical feedback method combining proportional and integral actions to eliminate steady-state error and shape dynamic response.
Sensorless Control: Algorithms that estimate motor states such as speed and position from electrical measurements alone, eliminating the need for physical sensors.
Differential Flatness: A property of certain nonlinear systems where all system states and inputs can be algebraically expressed in terms of a flat output and its derivatives, enabling systematic trajectory planning and control.
References
- A Robust Sliding Mode and PI-Based Tracking Control for the MIMO “DC/DC Buck Converter–Inverter–DC Motor” System. IEEE Access (2023).
- Sensorless Tracking Control Based on Sliding Mode for the “Full-Bridge Buck Inverter–DC Motor” System Fed by PV Panel. Sustainability (2023).
- Hierarchical Velocity Control Based on Differential Flatness for a DC/DC Buck Converter‐DC Motor System. Mathematical Problems in Engineering (2014).
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