Edinburgh Napier University

  This paper presents the application of several control algorithms for speed control of a vector-controlled induction machine in the presence of non-linear load dynamics. Special attention is given to sliding mode control techniques. These techniques provide robustness properties such as external disturbance rejection and good performance with system uncertainty. In order to test the effectiveness of the controllers, several load configurations are used. It is not practical to have a large variety of physical loads. Therefore, the loads are emulated via a particular load emulation technique. The non-linear load under consideration is a single-link robotic arm model with non-linear friction dynamic terms. Three sliding mode control algorithms and a proportional-integral controller are employed for speed tracking control and performance comparison.