Optimization and control problems in the design of a variable reluctance motor drive

A prototype robust controller for variable reluctance motor is proposed. A three-level cascade control structure is adopted for this highly nonlinear system. The three control levels are all described but a particular emphasis is put on the torque-sharing compensator, designed with nonlinear optimization techniques to resolve redundancy in the torque generation of VR motor. The proposed controller is first verified by means of extensive simulation experiments. The architecture of the laboratory prototype controller is presented and experimental results on NSK-Megatorque motor are reported too. Presented results prove feasibility and good performance of the proposed controller, suitable for a very simple and rather inexpensive fully hardware implementation.