Dynamic testing of switched reluctance motors for high-bandwidth actuator applications

This paper examines the testing and assessment of high-bandwidth switched reluctance motor torque control for actuator and motion control applications. It is claimed that the torque control is sufficiently fast and accurate and that it does not, in itself, impose any significant limits on the performance of the overall system. To provide proof of concept, an experimental test rig that emulates a motion control application has been designed and built. The quality of torque control permitted the design of conventional velocity and position control loops in a transparent fashion. The paper reports high-performance motion control, in particular, four-quadrant operation, high-bandwidth speed and position control, low- and zero-speed operation in the presence of a load torque, and trapezoidal profiled motion have all been demonstrated through extensive experimental tests.