FPGA-based fuzzy sliding-mode control for a linear

induction motor drive

F.-J. Lin, D.-H. Wang and P.-K. Huang

Abstract: A field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-based fuzzy sliding-mode controller, which

combines both the merits of fuzzy control and sliding-mode control, is proposed to control the
mover position of a linear induction motor (LIM) drive to compensate the uncertainties including
the frictional force. First, the dynamic model of an indirect field-oriented LIM drive is derived.
Next, a sliding-mode controller with an integral-operation switching surface is designed. The
uncertainties are lumped in the sliding-mode controller, and the upper bound of the lumped
uncertainty is necessary in the design of the sliding-mode controller. However, the upper bound of
the lumped uncertainty is difficult to obtain in advance in practical applications. Therefore, a fuzzy
sliding-mode controller is investigated, in which a simple fuzzy inference mechanism is utilised to
estimate the upper bound of the lumped uncertainty. With the fuzzy sliding-mode controller, the
mover of the LIM drive possesses the advantages of a good transient control performance and
robustness to uncertainties in the tracking of periodic reference trajectories. A FPGA chip is
adopted to implement the indirect field-oriented mechanism and the developed control algorithms
for possible low-cost and high-performance industrial applications. The effectiveness of the
proposed control scheme is verified by experimental results.

1 Introduction mode or fuzzy controllers can be found in the high-

A field programmable gate array (FPGA) incorporates the
architecture of a gate arrays and the programmability of a
programmable logic device. It consists of thousands of logic
gates, some of which are combined together to form a
configurable logic block (CLB) thereby simplifying high-
level circuit design. Interconnections between logic gates
using software are externally defined through SRAM and
ROM, which will provide flexibility in modifying the
designed circuit without altering the hardware. Moreover,
concurrent operation, simplicity, programmability, a com-
paratively low cost and rapid prototyping make it the
favourite choice for prototyping an application specific
integrated circuit (ASIC) [1, 2]. Furthermore, all the internal
logic elements and therefore all the control procedures of
the FPGA are executed continuously and simultaneously.
The circuits and algorithms can be developed in the VHSIC
hardware description language (VHDL) [1, 2]. This method
is as flexible as any software solution. Another important
advantage of VHDL is that it is technology independent.
The same algorithm can be synthesised into any FPGA and
even has a direct path to an ASIC, opening interesting
possibilities in industrial applications in terms of perfor-
mance and cost.
The major disadvantage of a FPGA-based system for
hardware implementation is the limited capacity of available
cells. Therefore, only research on FPGA-based sliding-
r IEE, 2005
IEE Proceedings online no. 20050205
doi:10.1049/ip-epa:20050205
Paper first received 24th May and in final revised form 15th June 2005
The authors are with Department of Electrical Engineering, National Dong
Hwa University, Hualien 974, Taiwan
E-mail: linfj@mail.ndhu.edu.tw
performance control application literature [3–5]. Chen and
Tang [3] proposed a FPGA-based sliding-mode control
scheme that used an improved equivalent control method
without complicated computations for pulse-width modula-
tion (PWM) brushless DC motor drives. A fixed-frequency
quasi-sliding control algorithm based on switching-surface
zero-averaged dynamics is reported in [4]. This FPGA-
based system is applied to the control of a buck-based
inverter. Kim [5] proposed the implementation of a fuzzy
logic controller to a FPGA system. The fuzzy logic
controller is partitioned into many temporally independent
function modules. Then, the FPGA chip is subsequently
reconfigured one module at a time by using the run-time
reconfiguration method. FPGA-based applications of
various motor drives can be found in [6–8]. A digital
wheel-chair controller is presented in [6]. The control
process consists in command decoding, speed estimation,
and speed serving. Through proper partitioning to con-
current blocks, the design complexity is reduced significantly
for FPGAs. The concepts of car maneuvers, fuzzy logic
control (FLC), and sensor-based behaviours are merged to
implement human-like driving skills by an autonomous car-
like mobile robot in [7]. Four kinds of FLCs are synthesised
to accomplish the autonomous fuzzy behaviour control.
The implementation of the proposed control on a FPGA
chip is addressed. In [8], a sensorless control system for
induction motors, which is realised on a fixed-point digital
signal processor (DSP) and FPGAs, is presented. An
observer system was developed to estimate the state
variables of the motor drive.
A linear induction motor (LIM) has many desirable
performance features including a high-starting thrust force,
no need for a gear between the motor and motion devices,
the reduction of mechanical losses and the size of motion
devices, a high-speed operation, silence, and so on [9, 10].

IEE Proc.-Electr. Power Appl., Vol. 152, No. 5, September 2005 1137
Due to these advantages LIMs have been widely used in Moreover, the developed VHDL code can be easily
industrial processes and also in transportation applications modified and implemented to control any type of AC
[11, 12]. The driving principles of a LIM are similar to those motors as well.
of a traditional rotary induction motor (RIM), but its
control characteristics are more complicated than for a 2 Indirect field-oriented linear induction motor
RIM, and the motor parameters are time-varying due to drive
changes in the operating conditions, such as the speed of the
mover, temperature and rail configuration. Moreover, there The primary (mover) of the adopted three-phase LIM is
are significant parameter variations in the reaction rail simply a cut open and rolled flat rotary-motor primary. The
resistivity, the dynamics of the airgap, slip frequency, phase secondary usually consists of a sheet conductor using
unbalance, saturation of the magnetising inductance, and aluminium with an iron back for the return path of the
end-effects [10, 11]. Therefore, its mathematical model is magnetic flux. The primary and secondary form a single-
difficult to derive completely. Considerable research has sided LIM. Moreover, a simple linear encoder is adopted
been performed on creating models of the dynamic for the feedback of the mover position.
performance of a LIM which have taken many of the The dynamic model of the LIM is modified from the
significant variations into consideration [9–13]. However, traditional model of a three-phase, Y-connected induction
there still exist uncertainties, including of unpredictable motor in a synchronous rotating reference frame and can be
plant parameter variations, external load disturbances, described by the following differential equations [10, 13]:
unmodelled and nonlinear dynamics observed in the

p Rs 1
s np Lm p
practical application of a LIM that need to be considered. i_qs ¼
ve ids
þ iqs
vldr
h sLs sTr sLs Lr h
Furthermore, since the operation of a LIM involves two
contacting bodies, a frictional force is inevitably among the Lm 1
þ lqr þ Vqs ð1Þ
forces of motion. In addition, this friction characteristic sLs Lr Tr sLs
may be easily varied due to changes in normal forces

in contact, and also the temperature and humidity. In a Rs 1
s p Lm
closed-loop control system, the frictional force results in a i_ds ¼
þ ids þ ve iqs þ ldr
sLs sTr h sLs Lr Tr
steady-state error, a limit cycle and a low bandwidth
[14, 15]. Unfortunately, friction is a natural phenomenon np Lm p 1
þ vlqr þ Vds ð2Þ
that is quite difficult to model, and it is not completely sLs Lr h sLs
understood. Therefore, it is impossible to obtain a precise p
Lm p  1
friction model for practical applications. However, a l_ qr ¼ iqs
ve
np v ldr
lqr ð3Þ
dynamic model of a LIM can be obtained by modifying Tr h h Tr
the dynamic model of a RIM at certain low speeds since a p
Lm 1 p 
LIM can be visualised as an unrolled RIM. Thus, field- l_ dr ¼ ids
ldr þ ve
np v lqr ð4Þ
oriented control [13, 16] can be adopted to decouple the Tr Tr h h
dynamics of the thrust force and the flux amplitude of the
Fe ¼ Kf ðldr iqs
lqr ids Þ ¼ M v_ þ Dv þ FL ð5Þ
LIM.
There have been many studies that have investigated the where Tr ¼ Lr/Rr, s ¼ 1
ðL2m =Ls Lm Þ,
Kf ¼ 3np pLm =ð2hLr Þ
relationship between sliding-mode control and fuzzy control and Rs is the winding resistance per phase, Rr is
in an attempt to combine these two techniques. Yager and the secondary resistance per phase referred primary, Lm is
Filev [17] determined fuzzy rules for sliding-mode condi- the magnetising inductance per phase, Lr is the secondary
tions. Wu and Liu [18] used the sliding modes to determine inductance per phase, Ls is the primary inductance per
the best values for parameters in fuzzy control rules that phase, ve is the synchronous linear velocity, v is the mover
were used to improve the robustness of the fuzzy control. linear velocity, ldr, lqr are the d-axis and q-axis secondary
A Lyapunov function and a boundary layer have been flux, ids, iqs are the d-axis and q-axis primary current, Vqs,
employed to satisfy the reaching condition and to avoid Vds are the d-axis and q-axis primary voltage, Tr is the
chattering, respectively. Liu and Lin [19] used a fuzzy secondary time-constant, s is the leakage coefficient, Fe
controller to adjust the sliding surface of a sliding-mode is the electromagnetic force, Kf is the force constant, FL is
controller. A fuzzy sliding-mode controller is investigated in the external force disturbance, M is the total mass of the
Lin and Chiu [20] in which a simple fuzzy inference moving element, D is the viscous friction and iron-loss
mechanism is used to estimate the upper bound on the coefficient, h is the pole pitch and np is the number of pole
uncertainties for the position control of a permanent- pairs.
magnet synchronous motor. In an ideally decoupled induction motor, the secondary
The motivation of this study is to design a suitable flux linkage axis is forced to align with the d-axis. It follows
control scheme to confront the uncertainties that exist in a that:
LIM drive including the frictional force using a FPGA chip
to allow possible low-cost and high-performance industrial lqr ¼ 0; l_ qr ¼ 0 ð6Þ
applications. Due to its robustness and case of implimenta- Using (6), the desired secondary flux linkage in terms of ids
tion, a fuzzy sliding-mode position controller is adopted in can be found from (4) as:
this study to control the mover position of an indirect field-
oriented control LIM drive. The proposed control algo- Lm =Tr
ldr ¼ ids ð7Þ
rithms are realised on a 24 MHz FPGA (XC2V1000) with a s þ 1=Tr
1000 000 gate count and 10 240 flip-flops from Xilinx, Inc where s is the Laplace operator. Moreover, using (3) the
using VHDL. The design and implementation of the feedforward slip velocity signal can be estimated using ldr
FPGA-based control IC will be described in detail. shown in (7) and iqs as follows:
Compared with a DSP or a PC-based fuzzy controller,
the merits of the FPGA-based fuzzy controller are a parallel Lm
vsl ¼ iqs ð8Þ
processing and small size in addition to a low cost. Tr ldr

1138 IEE Proc.-Electr. Power Appl., Vol. 152, No. 5, September 2005
The block diagram of an indirect field-oriented LIM system smaller than the mechanical time-constant, the electromag-
is shown in Fig. 1, where d is the position of the mover; d  is netic force shown in (5) can be reasonably represented by
the position command; v is the velocity command; ids is the the following equations:
command of flux current; ids is the control effort. The
indirect field-oriented LIM system consists of an LIM, a Fe ¼ KF iqs ð10Þ
ramp comparison current-controlled PWM voltage source
inverter (VSI), an indirect field-oriented mechanism, a 3 p L2
coordinate translator, cos ye and sin ye generator, where ye is KF ¼ np m ids ð11Þ
2 h Lr
the position of the secondary flux, a speed control loop, and
a position control loop. Three-phase current commands, A curve fitting technique based on a step response is applied
ia ; ib and ic are generated from the coordinate translator to find the drive model off-line at the nominal case (FL ¼ 0).
for the ramp comparison current controller. The LIM used The results are (on a scale of 14.9717 (m/s)/V)
in this drive system is a three-phase Y-connected two-pole
3 KW 60 Hz 180 V/14.2 A type. The detailed parameters of KF ¼ 33:73 N=A; M ¼ 2:78 kg ¼ 41:6213 Ns=V;
the LIM are: D ¼ 36:0455 kg=s ¼ 539:6624 N=V ð12Þ
ids ¼ 2:35 A; Rs ¼ 5:3685O; Rr ¼ 3:5315 O; h ¼ 0:027 m The ‘F’ symbol represents the system parameters in the
Lm ¼ 0:024 19 H; Ls ¼ 0:028 46 H; Lr ¼ 0:028 46 H ð9Þ nominal condition. Although the electromagnetic force
can be simplified as (10) via the field-oriented control,
By use of the indirect field-oriented control technique and considering the variations of system parameters and
with the fact that the electrical time-constant is much external nonlinear and time-varying disturbance including

+
three-phase
220 V L PWM
rectifier C LIM
inverter
60 Hz

−
encoder

Ta Tb Tc

ia
ramp encoder
comparison signal
current
control ib

ia* ib* ic*

coordinate
limiter translator

+ + i*qs
d* position v* speed i*qs cos
e + i*ds sin
e
∑ ∑
controller controller
− −
d v
− 1 (i*qs cos
e + i*d s sin
e ) − √3 (−i*qs sin
e + i*d s cos
e )
2 2

− 1 (i*qs cos
e + i*d s sin
e ) + √3 (−i*qs sin
e + i*d s cos
e )

2 2

sin
e
cos
e

e generator

Lm vsl + ve  e
e
i*ds ∑ integrator
Tr  d r h sin/cos
+ table

npv sin
e & cos
e

np generator

v
encoder
d interface

Fig. 1 System configuration of the LIM drive

IEE Proc.-Electr. Power Appl., Vol. 152, No. 5, September 2005 1139
frictional force, the LIM drive system is a nonlinear time- and B for the sliding-mode position controller as follows
varying system in practical applications. [20]:
 Z t 
3 Fuzzy sliding-mode control system SðtÞ ¼ C X ðtÞ
ðA þ BKÞX ðtÞdt ¼ 0 ð21Þ
0

The proposed sliding-mode position controller is shown in where C is set as a positive constant matrix, and K is a
Fig. 2. The state variables are defined as follows: state-feedback gain matrix.
From (21), if the state trajectory of system (19) is trapped
x1 ðtÞ ¼ d 
d ð13Þ _ ¼ 0, then
on the switching surface (21), namely SðtÞ ¼ SðtÞ
 
x_ 1 ðtÞ ¼ d_
d_ ¼ d_
x2 ðtÞ ð14Þ the equivalent dynamic of system (19) is governed by the
following equation:
where x2 ðtÞ ¼ d_ ¼ v. Then a LIM drive system can be
represented in the following state-space form: X_ ðtÞ ¼ ðA þ BKÞX ðtÞ ð22Þ
      
x_ 1 ðtÞ 0
1 x1 ðtÞ 0 It is obvious that the position error x1(t) will converge to
¼ þ i ðtÞ
x_ 2 ðtÞ 0
D=M x2 ðtÞ KF =M q zero exponentially if the pole of system (22) is strategically
    located on the left-hand plane. Thus, the overshoot
0 1 _
þ F þ d ð15Þ phenomenon will not occur, and the system dynamic will

1=M L 0
behave as a state-feedback control system. Based on the
The above equation can be represented as: developed switching surface, a switching control law which
 satisfies the hitting condition and guarantees the existence of
X_ ðtÞ ¼ AX ðtÞ þ BU ðtÞ þ CFL þ Gd_ ð16Þ the sliding-mode is then designed. Now a position controller
where is proposed in the following [20]:
     
0
1 0 0
A¼ ;B¼ ;C¼ ; U ðtÞ ¼ KX ðtÞ
f sgnðSðtÞÞ ð23Þ
0
D=M K F =M
1=M
  where sgn(  ) is a sign function and f is defined as 7E(t)7r f.
1
G¼ ; U ðtÞ ¼ iqs ðtÞ In the general sliding-mode control, the upper bound of
0 the uncertainties, which includes parameter variations and
Consider (15) with uncertainties: external load disturbances, must be available. However, the
bound of the uncertainties is difficult to obtain in advance
X_ ðtÞ ¼ ðA þ DAÞX ðtÞ þ ðB þ DBÞU ðtÞ for practical applications. Therefore, a fuzzy sliding-mode

þ CðFL þ ff ðvÞÞ þ G d_ ð17Þ controller is proposed here, in which a fuzzy inference
mechanism is used to estimate the upper bound of the
where DA and DB are denoted as the uncertainties lumped uncertainty. The fuzzy inference mechanism can
introduced by system parameters M and D. Moreover, construct the estimation model of the upper bound of
ff(v) is the frictional force. Considering Coulomb friction, the lumped uncertainty. Compared with a conventional
viscous friction and the Stribeck effect, the frictional force estimator, the fuzzy inference mechanism uses prior
can be formulated as follows [14, 15]: expert knowledge to accomplish the control object more
2
ff ðvÞ ¼ FC sgnðvÞ þ ðFS
FC Þe
ðv=vs Þ sgnðvÞ þ Kv v ð18Þ efficiently.
Replace f by Kf in (23), the following equation can be
where FC is the Coulomb friction; FS is the static friction; vS obtained:
is the Stribeck velocity parameter; Kv is the coefficient of
viscous friction; sgn(  ) is a sign function. Reformulate (17), U ðtÞ ¼ KX ðtÞ
Kf sgnðSðtÞÞ ð24Þ
then: where Kf is estimated by a fuzzy inference mechanism.
X_ ðtÞ ¼ AX ðtÞ þ BðU ðtÞ þ EðtÞÞ ð19Þ Because the data manipulated in the fuzzy inference
mechanism is based on fuzzy set theory, the associated
where E(t) is call the lumped uncertainty and is defined by fuzzy sets involved in the fuzzy control rules are defined as
EðtÞ ¼ B þ DAX ðtÞB þ DBU ðtÞ follows:
 N: negative Z: zero P: positive
þ Bþ C½FL þ ff ðvÞ þ Bþ G d_ ð20Þ NH: negative huge NB: negative big NM: negative medium
and B+ (BTB)
1BT is the pseudo-inverse. According to NS: negative small Z: zero PS: positive small
(19), an integral-operation switching surface is designed PM: positive medium PB: positive big PH: positive huge
directly from the nominal values of system parameters A Since only three fuzzy sets, N, Z and P, are defined for S
and S,_ the fuzzy inference mechanism only contains nine
rules. The resulting fuzzy inference rules are as follows
S(t )
[20]:
fuzzy inference
mechanism ⋅
S(t ) Rule 1: IF S is P and S_ is P THEN Kf is NH
Kf Rule 2: IF S is P and S_ is Z THEN Kf is NB
+ i *qs d
Rule 3: IF S is P and S_ is N THEN Kf is NM
d* sliding-mode
_
Σ
position controller
field-oriented control LIM Rule 4: IF S is Z and S_ is P THEN Kf is NS
d v Rule 5: IF S is Z and S_ is Z THEN Kf is ZE
s Rule 6: IF S is Z and S_ is N THEN Kf is PS
Rule 7: IF S is N and S_ is P THEN Kf is PM
Rule 8: IF S is N and S_ is Z THEN Kf is PB
Fig. 2 Fuzzy sliding-mode control system Rule 9: IF S is N and S_ is N THEN Kf is PH
1140 IEE Proc.-Electr. Power Appl., Vol. 152, No. 5, September 2005
 The fuzzy output Kf can be calculated by the centre of between the FPGA and D/A converter. Multiplexing is
area defuzzification as: implemented in the data bus to form the 12 bits of data. The
2 3 12 bits of data are divided into a least significant 8-bit latch
w1
6 . 7 and a most significant 4-bit latch. The 4-bit control bus
P9 ½ c1 . . . c9 4 .. 5 controls the loading of data to the input latches of the D/A
wi ci
w9 converter. The entire I/O port for this chip includes two pins
Kf ¼ i¼19 ¼ ¼ tT W ð25Þ for the input ports and 36 pins for the output port.
P P9
wi wi Moreover, 8281 out of 10 240 flip-flops (80%) have been
i¼1 i¼1 used in the FPGA chip.
where t ¼ ½c1 ; . . . ; c9 , c1 through c9 are the centre of the
membership functions of Kf; and
4.1 Encoder interface module
½ w1 ; . . . ; w9  A block diagram of the encoder interface is shown in
W¼
P9 Fig. 4a, which consists of the timing control, two digital
wi filters, a decoder, an up-down counter, two clock (CLK)
i¼1
generators, a register, a command generator and two
is a firing strength vector. adders. The function of the encoder interface is to obtain the
position and speed values of the mover. The resolutions of
4 Circuit design on a FPGA chip the encoder are 0.1 m¼2000 digital value and 1.5915 m/s ¼ 44
digital value at a sampling frequency of 732 Hz. The scaling
The block diagram of the FPGA-based control system for a 1 V ¼ 14.9717 m/s is obtained since the specification is
LIM drive using a current-controlled technique is shown in designed as 1 V ¼ 409 digital value. The pulse count signal
Fig. 3. The current-controlled PWM VSI is implemented by PLS and the rotating direction signal DIR are obtained
an IPM switching component (MUBW30-06A7) manufac- using the A, B pulse input signals from the decoder through
tured by IXYS Co. with a switching frequency of 15 KHz. two digital filters. The position signal d can be obtained
The timing control module, encoder interface module, the using the PLS and DIR signals through the up-down
field-oriented control module and the fuzzy sliding-mode counter. Moreover, the command generator includes
control module are realised on the FPGA chip. Three-phase periodic sinusoidal intellectual property (IP) and periodic
current commands, ia ; ib and ic are generated from the step IP in order to generate the position command d  . The
coordinate translator and sent to three D/A converters for x1 signal results from the difference between the position
the ramp comparison current control. The adopted D/A command d  and the position signal d. Furthermore, the x2
converters are 12 bits in size with an output voltage of signal is the velocity signal v, and results from the difference
75 V. There are a 4-bit control bus and an 8-bit data bus between the position signal d and the time delay of d, ddelay.

+
three- phase
220 V L PWM
rectifier inverter LIM
60 Hz
− C
encoder

FPGA Ta Tb Tc

timing control module ia

ramp
comparison
current
field-oriented control module ib
control
i *ds ia* encoder
24 MHz 12
12 sin (
e ) & cos (
e ) signal
CLK generator i *b data & D/A ia* i *b ic*
12

ic* controller
12
36
12 v
e coordinate D/A
generator translator converter

data & D/A

control signal

12
x1 ⋅
S 12
command x1 12
x2 integral switching surface
2
generator generator 12
S 12
Kf 12
fuzzy inference
mechanism
encoder
12
x1 i *qs
interface sliding-mode
x2
12 position controller

encoder interface module

fuzzy sliding-mode control module

Fig. 3 Block diagram of the FPGA-based control system

IEE Proc.-Electr. Power Appl., Vol. 152, No. 5, September 2005 1141
4.2 Field-oriented control module and five adders, and sent to three D/A converters for the
The field-oriented control mechanism shown in Fig. 4b is ramp comparison current controller. Each D/A converter
composed of a ye generator, a coordinate translator, a cos ye needs 12 pins in the output port.
and sin ye generator and timing control. The ye is obtained
using the estimated slip velocity signal vsl based on (8), the 4.3 Integral switching surface module
control effort signal iqs , the velocity signal v and an A block diagram of the integral switching surface is shown
integrator. Then, sin ye and cos ye signals are obtained in Fig. 4c. First define:
through the cos ye and sin ye generator. Moreover, three-  T  T
phase current commands, ia ; ib and ic are generated from g1 k
C¼ ; K¼ 1 ð26Þ
the coordinate translator, which consists of six multipliers g2 k2

timing control
encoder interface module
x 1 generator

command 12 d*
+
generator
x1
encoder interface 12
adder

d
12
−
A pulse digital
filter DQ

>C DIR

d delay
encoder B pulse digital up-down 12
d
12
signals filter DQ decoder counter register −
2
PLS
>C
v x2
12
adder

24 MHz CLK 375 kHz CLK

12 d
generator +

732 Hz CLK
generator

timing control
field- oriented control module

coordinate
i *qs 12 i *qs cos
e

e generator translator 12
12
multiplier
cos
e
v n v i *qs sin
e
v
12
12 p sin
e & cos
e generator i *qs 12
12 multiplier + ve e 12
multiplier 12

12 sin
e
12 adder 12
np multiplier +
e sin
e
+ sin/cos 12 i *ds 12 i *ds cos
e
integrator 12
12 cos
e multiplier
i *qs  table 12
cos
e
12

h +
12 12
i *ds 12
i *ds sin
e
12

12
multiplier 12
sin
e
i *qs
12
v sl i *qs cos
e 12
i *qs cos
e 12 + i *a
T 12
i *ds r 12 divider
12
adder
i *ds sin
e +
>
i *qs sin
e 12 12
24 MHz i *qs cos
e + − i *b
12
CLK adder adder 12
i *ds sin
e
12
+ 12 multiplier 12
−
i *ds cos
e 12 1/2
12
− i *c
i *qs sin
e − 12 12
adder adder
12 multiplier
i *ds cos
e
12
+
12
+
i *ds sin
e 12
3/2

b
Fig. 4 Circuits designed on the FPGA
a Encoder interface module
b Field-oriented control module
c Integral switching surface module
d Sliding-mode position control module
e Membership functions of the fuzzy sets
f Fuzzy inference mechanism module

1142 IEE Proc.-Electr. Power Appl., Vol. 152, No. 5, September 2005
 timing control

integral switching surface module

1 12
1 x 1
12
12 multiplier +
x1 adder
+

12
2 12 2 x 2 12
12
multiplier
x2 + S
adder
−

12 2 12 12 12
x1
multiplier
x1 12

2 x 1 12 Sdelay
register

1 +
12
1 x 2 12 12
x2 12
multiplier +
x2 12
12
− adder
integrator
+ + − ·
adder S 12

12 +

3 12 3 x 2
12
multiplier
x2 12

timing control

sliding-mode position control module

4 12
multiplier 12
x1 12

+ 12
adder
+
4 x 1 + k 2 x 2 i *qs
k2 12 + 12
x1 12
adder
12 x2 12 multiplier −
S (t)
f
x2 S(t) + 
12  12

comparator or
S S
12 S (t) 12
12 Kf
0 12  S(t) + 
f or K f
multiplexer
12 S 0 12
12 absolute 12
value 12
+ S +
adder
+ 12

12 divider
multiplier 24 MHz
12 >
f or K f CLK

Fig. 4 Continued

For the purpose of scaling (1 V ¼ 14.9717 m ¼ 409 digital 4.4 Sliding-mode position control module
value), x1 should be divided by 732. Then, define a ¼ 1/732, A block diagram of the sliding-mode position control is
and (21) can be rewritten as follows: shown in Fig. 4d. First, (23) is rewritten as follows:
Z t
U ¼ b4 x1 þ k2 x2
f sgnðSðtÞÞ ð28Þ
SðtÞ ¼ b1 x1 þ g2 x2
ðb2 x1
g1 x2 þ b3 x2 Þdt ð27Þ
0
where b4 ¼ ak1. Then, to avoid the chattering phenomena,
where b1 ¼ ag1, b2 ¼ ag2 k1 K F =M and b3 ¼ g2 ðk2 K F
DÞ=M. the sign function in the sliding-mode control is replaced by
Therefore, five multipliers, four adders, an integrator and a the following function:
register are needed to implement (27). Moreover, the S_
SðtÞ
signal can be obtained using the difference between signal S ð29Þ
and its delay Sdelay. jSðtÞj þ d

IEE Proc.-Electr. Power Appl., Vol. 152, No. 5, September 2005 1143
 S , S

N Z 2047 P

−2047 0 2047 ·
S,S
K
f

NH NB NM NS ZE PS PM PB PH

c1 c2 c3 c4 c5 c6 c7 c8 c9 K
f
−2047 0 2047
e

timing control

fuzzy inference mechanism module

defuzzification
firing strength calculation c
w1 12 1 12 multiplier 12 +
vP1 12 c
12
w1 w2 12 2 12 12
fuzzification vP2 min multiplier +
12
vP1 c
12 vN1
12 w w3 12 3 12 12
vZ2 min 12 2 multiplier +
12 c
12 S v vP1 w4 12 4 12 12
12 Z1 12 w3 multiplier +
vN2 12 min 12 c
v vZ1 w5 12 5 12 12 + 12
12 P1 12 multiplier
w4 c Kf
vP2 min 12
w6 12 6 12 adder
12 12 + divider 12
· 12 vN2 vZ1 multiplier
12 w5 c
12 S >
vZ2 min 12 w7 12 7 12
12 vZ2
12 multiplier 12 +
vZ1 12 c
w6 w8 12 8 12
vN2 min 12 multiplier 12 +
12 vP2 12
c 24 MHz
vN1 12 w9 12 9 12 12 CLK
12
w7 multiplier +
vP2 12 min w1 12
vN1 w2 12 +
12 w8
vZ2 12 w3 12 +
min
12
w4 12 +
vN1 12 +
w9 w5 12
vN2 min 12 + adder 12
12 w6 12
w7 12 +
w8 12 +
w9 12 +
3 × 3 rule table +

Fig. 4 Continued

where  mS, mS_ and mKf are the respective membership grades. The
0; jSðtÞj  Z membership functions are designed as a symmetrically
d¼
d0 ; jSðtÞjoZ triangular form and c1 through c9 are the centre of the
membership functions of Kf. Their universe of discourses
and d0 and Z are positive constants. Moreover, the control are all assigned to be [
2047, 2047] and the membership
effort iqs ðtÞ can be obtained using (28) and (29). grades of mS and mS_ are assigned as [0, 2047]. A block
diagram of the fuzzy inference mechanism is shown in
4.5 Fuzzy inference mechanism module Fig. 4f including the timing control, fuzzification, firing
The membership functions for the fuzzy sets corresponding strength calculation and defuzzification circuits. The
to the switching surface S, its derivative S_ and upper bound membership grades of the membership functions of S and
of the lumped uncertainty Kf are defined in Fig. 4e where S_ can be obtained using the fuzzification circuit. The vN1,

1144 IEE Proc.-Electr. Power Appl., Vol. 152, No. 5, September 2005
vZ1 and vP1 represent the membership grades of the fuzzy
sets N, Z and P of S, respectively. Moreover, vN2, vZ2 and
vP2 represent the membership grades of the fuzzy sets N, Z
_ respectively. Furthermore, the firing strengths of
and P of S,
the linguistic rules w1 to w9 are obtained according to the
min operator, which is mainly consists of the comparator.
In addition, Kf is resulted using the defuzzification circuit
with w1 to w9 as the inputs. The defuzzification method is
based on (25). Therefore, the defuzzification circuit includes
nine multipliers, two adders and one divider.
5 Experimental results
The parameters of the sliding-mode controller are given as
follows:
k1 ¼ 900; k2 ¼
180; g1 ¼ 2; g2 ¼ 2 ð30Þ
These parameters are chosen to achieve the best transient
control performance in the experimentation considering the
requirement of stability and possible operating conditions.
The control objective is to control the mover to move
periodically according to reference trajectories. Two test
conditions are provided, which are the nominal condition
and the parameter variation condition. In the experimenta-
tion, the parameter variation condition is the addition of
one iron disk with a 8.34 kg weight to the mass of the
mover.
Some experimental results are provided to demonstrate
the effectiveness of the proposed FPGA-based control
system. First, the experimental results of the sliding-mode
control system are depicted in Figs. 5 and 6. The tracking
responses due to a periodic step command at the nominal
condition and parameter variation condition are depicted in

position
0.1 m
mover command
position 0.05 m

0m 0m
position mover
command position −0.05 m

1s 2s
a a

0A
0A

2A 1s 2A 2s
b b

position
0.1 m command
mover
position 0.05 m

0m position 0 m mover
command position −0.05 m

1s 2s
c c

0A 0A

2A 1s 2A 2s
d d

Fig. 5 Experimental results for the sliding-mode control system
for a periodic step command
a Mover position at the nominal condition
b Control effort at the nominal condition
c Mover position at the parameter variation condition
d Control effort at the parameter variation condition
Fig. 6 Experimental results for the sliding-mode control system
for a periodic sinusoidal command
a Mover position at the nominal condition
b Control effort at the nominal condition
c Mover position at the parameter variation condition
d Control effort at the parameter variation condition

IEE Proc.-Electr. Power Appl., Vol. 152, No. 5, September 2005 1145
 0.1 m 0.1 m
mover mover
position position

0m 0m position
position
command command

1s 1s

a d

0A 0A

2A 1s 2A 1s
b e

0V 0V

2V 1s 2V 1s
c f

Fig. 7 Experimental results for the fuzzy sliding-mode control system for a periodic step command
a Mover position at the nominal condition
b Control effort at the nominal condition
c Estimated upper bound of the lumped uncertainty at the nominal condition
d Mover position at the parameter variation condition
e Control effort at the parameter variation condition
f Estimated upper bound of the lumped uncertainty at the parameter variation condition

Figs. 5a and 5c; the associated control efforts are depicted in
Figs. 5b and 5d. Moreover, the tracking responses due to a
periodic sinusoidal command at the nominal condition and
parameter variation condition are depicted in Figs. 6a and
6c; the associated control efforts are depicted in Figs. 6b
and 6d. From the experimental results, the degraded
tracking responses shown in Figs. 5c and 6c are induced
by the inappropriate selection of the lumped uncertainty
bound. Although a large bound value of the lumped
uncertainty can be selected to confront the uncertainties
that exist in practical applications; it will result in a large
chattering phenomena in the control effort. Now, the fuzzy
sliding-mode control system is implemented to control the
mover position of the LIM drive. The experimental results
of the tracking responses, control efforts and estimation of
the upper bound of the lumped uncertainty due to periodic
step and sinusoidal commands at the nominal condition
and parameter variation condition are depicted in Figs. 7
and 8. Compared with the experimental results of the
sliding-mode control system shown in Figs. 5c and 6c, the
degraded tracking responses are improved as shown in
Figs. 7d and 8d using the fuzzy sliding-mode control scheme
at the parameter variation condition. Moreover, the
1146
nonzero values of the estimated upper bound of the lumped
uncertainty at the nominal condition shown in Fig. 7c are
induced by the friction force and unmodelled uncertainty in
practical applications. From the experimental results, the
robust control performance of the proposed FPGA-based
fuzzy sliding-mode control system under the occurrence of
parameter variations at different trajectories are obvious
owing to the on-line adjustment of the upper bound of the
lumped uncertainty.
Since the three-phase coil of the adopted LIM is very
prone to over-heating, from 251C at the beginning of the
experiment to 771C after 20 min of operation, the primary
and secondary resistances inevitably change during the
experiments. To test the control performance of the
proposed FPGA-based fuzzy sliding-mode controller due
to the changes in the resistances due to heating at a three-
phase coil temperature at 771C, the experimental results of
the tracking responses, control efforts and estimation of the
upper bound of the lumped uncertainty due to periodic
sinusoidal command at the nominal condition and para-
meter variation condition are depicted in Fig. 9. From the
experimental results, the control efforts shown in Figs. 9b
and 9e are larger than the control efforts shown in Figs. 8b
IEE Proc.-Electr. Power Appl., Vol. 152, No. 5, September 2005
 mover mover
position position
0.05 m 0.05 m

0m 0m
position position
command − 0.05 m command −0.05 m

2s 2s
a d

0A 0A

2A 2s 2A
2s
b e

0V 0V

2V 2V
2s 2s
c f

Fig. 8 Experimental results for the fuzzy sliding-mode control system for a periodic sinusoidal command
a Mover position at the nominal condition
b Control effort at the nominal condition
c Estimated upper bound of the lumped uncertainty at the nominal condition
d Mover position at the parameter variation condition
e Control effort at the parameter variation condition
f Estimated upper bound of the lumped uncertainty at the parameter variation condition

and 8e, which are the experimental results at a three-phase
coil temperature at 251C, due to the changes of the primary
and secondary resistances. However, the tracking responses
are still robust considering the change of electrical
parameters.
6 Conclusions
This study has successfully demonstrated the design and
implementation of a FPGA-based fuzzy sliding-mode
control system for the position control of the mover of a
LIM drive system. First, the dynamic model of an indirect
field-oriented LIM drive was introduced. Then, a sliding-
mode control technique was designed. However, the upper
bound of the lumped uncertainty is necessary in the design
of the sliding-mode controller. To relax the requirement for
the upper bound of the lumped uncertainty, a fuzzy sliding-
mode controller with a fuzzy inference mechanism to adapt
the lumped uncertainty in real-time was proposed. The
proposed FPGA-based fuzzy sliding-mode control system is
robust for parameter variations, external force disturbances
and frictional forces at different trajectories. Finally, the
effectiveness of the proposed low-cost high-performance
FPGA-based LIM drive has been confirmed by experi-
mental results.
The major contributions of this study are: (i) the
successful derivation of the fuzzy sliding-mode control law
for the LIM drive system; (ii) the successful implementation
of the indirect field-oriented mechanism and fuzzy sliding-
mode controller in an FPGA chip; and (iii) the successful
application of the FPGA-based controller to control the
mover position of an LIM with robust control perfor-
mance.
7 Acknowledgment
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial
support of the National Science Council of Taiwan, ROC
under grant NSC 93-2213-E-259-025.

IEE Proc.-Electr. Power Appl., Vol. 152, No. 5, September 2005 1147
 mover
position
0.05 m
0m
position
command − 0.05 m
2s
a d
0A
2A 2s
b e
0V
2V
2s
c f
Fig. 9 Experimental results for the fuzzy sliding-mode control system for a periodic sinusoidal command at a higher three-phase coil
temperature
a Mover position at the nominal condition
b Control effort at the nominal condition
c Estimated upper bound of the lumped uncertainty at the nominal condition
d Mover position at the parameter variation condition
e Control effort at the parameter variation condition
f Estimated upper bound of the lumped uncertainty at the parameter variation condition
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