Development and implementation of an FPGA based fractional order controller for a DC motor

Fractional calculus has been gaining more and more popularity in control engineering in numerous fields, including mechatronic applications. One of the most common applications in all mechatronic domains is the control of DC motors. Several control algorithms have been proposed for such motors, ranging from traditional PID algorithms, to the more sophisticated advanced methods, including fractional order controllers. Nevertheless, very little information regarding the implementation problems of such fractional algorithms exists today. The paper proposes a simple approach for designing a fractional order PI controller for controlling the speed of a DC motor. The resulting controller is implemented on an FPGA target and its performance is compared to other possible benchmarks. The experimental results show the efficiency of the designed fractional order PI controller. Beside the initial DC motor, two other different DC motors are also used in the experiments to demonstrate the robustness of the controller. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.