Design, analysis, and validation of Interface electronics for use in axially coupled 2-DOF brushless motor control system

Abstract

This thesis describes the design, assembly, and (abbreviated) validation of the interface electronics and housings required to drive and receive position feedback from two brushless motors with a National Instruments myRIO embedded real-time evaluation board. Eight LT1167 instrumentation amplifiers are used in combination with four AD790 high speed comparators to appropriately scale, threshold, and isolate the encoder position data and control output commands. The interface board was designed such that it does not require any additional power supplies for operation and can withstand use by students in a laboratory context. The resulting interface board eliminates the possibility of improper connection, which in the past, has resulted in the destruction of several encoder systems. Students utilizing this board can explore a variety of topics including but not limited to modes of brushless motor commutation, sine-cosine encoding, quadrature encoding, and multi-input multi-output (MIMO) control systems.