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The Ten Commandments of Digital Control (part 1)
Dave (Wisconsin) Wilson
Dec 19 2011 15:09 PM
1
Dave Wilson, Motion Products Evangelist, Texas Instruments
Despite the fact that I now work for the Microcontroller Division of Texas
Instruments; deep down, I still consider myself to be an analog engineer. I
must confess that I didnt always respect digital designers, as I used to
believe their ranks were filled with slacker engineering students who flunked
their Laplace Transform classes. After all, how difficult could it be to do a
digital design? With an LS7400 NAND gate, there are a thousand ways to
hook up the inputs and output, but only one way is correct. With
an LM324 op-amp, there are also a thousand ways to hook up the inputs
and output, and they are ALL correct! So I concluded that analog design
was where the REAL engineers were!
Having said that, you can imagine my dismay as I watched the digital
juggernaut begin devouring my analog motor control playground. One
bastion after another of analog design expertise fell to the relentless
onslaught of the ubiquitous microprocessor. I was inevitably dragged
kicking and screaming into the digital age. But somewhere along the way, I
began to see the microprocessor as a friend rather than an enemy. I soon
realized that digital system design wasnt just a copout for engineers who
couldnt solve differential equations. In fact, when viewed through the prism
of the z-transform, designing digital control systems is just as challenging (if
not more so) as designing an analog controller. Today its hard to imagine
motor control without the microcontroller, as some technologies such as
Field-Oriented-Control would not even be economically possible.
The process of dropping a microcontroller into the heart of a motor control
system is a fairly common practice today. However, there are some
subtleties that are worth mentioning, which I refer to as my Ten
Commandments of Digital Control. I plan to write 5 blogs this week, each
containing two commandments. So without further ado, here they are,
counting down from commandment number 10:
10. Be preparedModel-based code generation is coming!
While this is technically not a commandment, it is certainly a phenomenon!
It wont be long before we will be relying on computers themselves to write
the actual motor control code. Today we use software drivers to abstract
the hardware details of a peripheral from the rest of the software. Soon,
simulation tools will be able to abstract the entire motor control software
effort! Just as I was forced to embrace a different design methodology for
motor control hardware, I predict we will see the same effect play out with
many software engineers who have grown comfortable with writing their
own motor control code. You can read more of my thoughts about this topic
in a previous blog here.
9. Be skepticalGarbage in, garbage out!
Youve probably heard the adage that you can put lipstick on a pig, but its
still a pig. The same statement applies to a beautiful simulation output
which is based on a faulty interpretation of your control system. Simulation
technology already plays a critical role in the motor control design process,
and this trend will continue to increase as discussed above. But while this
shortens the design process, it can also be dangerous if you dont have a
reference point grounded in reality to interpret the simulation results. The
computer can NEVER be used as a replacement for human experience or
intuition. You can read more of my thoughts on this topic in a previous
blog here.
So, there you have the first two. Stay tuned for the rest of the list all this
week. And in the meantime...
Keep those motors spinning!



The Ten Commandments of Digital Control (Part 2)
Dave (Wisconsin) Wilson
Dec 20 2011 10:45 AM
0
Dave Wilson, Motion Products Evangelist, Texas Instruments
This week, we are counting down to the number one commandment of digital
control. Yesterday I discussed more generic issues related to simulation and code
generation. But today I want to turn the spotlight onto the Analog-to-Digital
Converter. The ADC is one of the most critical peripherals in a digital control
application, as it forms the nexus between the analog and digital worlds. It is also
one of the most misunderstood peripherals. When it comes to ADCs, many
engineers are content to just know the number of bits and the conversion speed.
But in digital control applications, we must dig much deeper into the ADC spec if
we want to achieve satisfactory results. So continuing with our countdown, here is
number 8:
8. Sample often.
Unlike an analog control system, a digital controller only gets discrete moments in
time to observe and respond to the systems behavior. This can reduce system
performance if your sampling frequency is too low. Imagine driving your car while
texting, and you only look up once every 10 seconds to sample your surroundings!
The same effect can happen with your motor control processor. If it is too busy
doing other tasks, and not looking at your motor feedback signals frequently
enough, your motor will crash! For position and velocity loops, the minimum
sampling frequency is dictated by the mechanical poles of your system. It is
common to find position and velocity loops running at sampling frequencies of
around 2-5 KHz. However, most motor control designs also include current loops.
The electrical poles are much higher than the mechanical poles, so sampling
frequencies for the current loops are typically between 10-20 KHz. For low
inductance motors, this figure can be even higher! As a general rule of thumb, you
should set the sampling frequency for a particular control loop to be at least one
order of magnitude higher than the unity gain frequency of that control loops
open-loop response. If you do this, the phase lag contribution from the sample and
hold effect will be less than 18 degrees at the unity-gain frequency, as shown
below. This is manageable in most cases. The only downside to higher sampling
frequencies is that it requires more MIPS. But dont worry. Eat all the MIPS you
want! Well make more! :-)


7. Sample simultaneously and synchronously.
Often the controller is required to sample several signals to get the complete picture
of whats happening in the motor. Some of these signals (like the current) can
change very rapidly. To get an accurate picture of whats going on in the motor at
that exact moment, you need to sample all of these signals as closely together as
possible. Imagine trying to capture a football play by photographing different parts
of the field at different times, and then splicing them together. The result will
probably be a very inaccurate portrayal of the actual play. But splicing together
images that were taken at exactly the same time will result in a much better
picture. The same thing applies to a control system with multiple inputs. Thats
why most TI processors designed for digital control contain ADCs with multiple
channels which can be sampled simultaneously. Also, if your system employs an
encoder or resolver, the same requirement applies to it. If you are transforming
your current reading via the Park transform, the captured angle information must be
acquired at exactly the same time as your current readings. If not, a spatial phase
error will exist with the calculated current space vector. This problem is
exacerbated at higher motor speeds.
Now lets discuss why it is so important to sample synchronously. Most motor
control systems utilize PWM signals to drive the motor. This results in your input
signals being contaminated with noise consisting of integral harmonics of the
PWMs carrier frequency. Fortunately, in many cases you can alias out all of
these noise harmonics by judiciously timing your sampling intervals to be
synchronous with the PWM waveform. A common example of this is shown
below, where current waveforms are sampled while using center-aligned PWMs.
Right in the center of either the ON pulse or the OFF pulse of the PWM signals, the
current waveforms will be transitioning through their theoretical average values for
that PWM cycle. To try and exactly time this moment via software is extremely
difficult. Thats why most microcontrollers from TI designed for digital control
applications allow the ADC to be optionally triggered by the PWM module. I will
have more to say about this later in this series.

Tomorrow I have one more VERY important point to make about ADCs before
moving into the digital control algorithm itself. So stay tuned, and in the
meantime
Keep those motors spinning! :-)














The Ten Commandments of Digital Control (Part 3)
Dave (Wisconsin) Wilson
Dec 21 2011 14:36 PM
0
Dave Wilson, Motion Products Evangelist, Texas Instruments
We are now halfway through our countdown of the Ten Commandments of
Digital Control. Yesterday we discussed the Analog-to-Digital Converter, and
more specifically, the timing associated with acquiring input samples. But there is
even a bigger issue looming in the weeds that can bite you if you arent careful.
Once the ADC conversion is complete, what do the results mean? How well do
you really know what the input signal is, based on looking at these bits? How
many bits do you really need, and how many bits can you really trust? So now that
the stage is set, lets continue our countdown with Commandment number 6:
6. Dont confuse accuracy with resolution.
The ADC is a critical part of your digital control system, but it is often
misunderstood. Unfortunately this situation isnt helped much by misleading
claims on some ADC data sheets, where the real number of ADC bits is padded
with marketing bits. According to Dictionary.com, accuracy is defined as the
condition or quality of being true, correct, or exact; freedom from error or defect;
precision or exactness; correctness. However, resolution is defined as the act or
process of resolving or separating into constituent or elementary parts. Clearly
they are not the same thing! When applied to an ADC, accuracy is related to how
closely the digital result can be correlated to the actual input voltage. However,
resolution is related to identifying the constituent or elementary blocks that make
up the digital answer. Ideally this is the LSB value. For example, a 12-bit ADC
will ideally have better resolution than a 10-bit ADC, but the accuracy may or may
not be better, depending on its gain and offset errors.
While both specs are important in a digital control system, I would argue that
resolution is the more important of the two. I have three reasons for saying this:
1. Calibration procedures can be applied to significantly improve the accuracy
of the ADC. However, no amount of calibration can affect the resolution of the
ADC. In some cases, it is possible to improve resolution by averaging multiple
samples, but this is not practical when dealing with rapidly changing signals which
are common in many motor control applications.
2. Inaccuracies in some closed-loop applications can be servoed out. For
example, in a cascaded velocity loop, the output of the velocity controller sets the
commanded value for the current controller. If the converted value of current is off
so that it really doesnt represent the true current, the loop doesnt care. The
velocity loop will just command more or less current until the motor generates the
required torque to fix the velocity error.
3. Finally, it is uncommon for ADC accuracy to be the weak link in the signal
chain anyway. Once you compensate for the overall gain and offset errors in an
ADC, the INL spec is what determines accuracy. Using the ADC on TIs 2803x
devices as an example, the INL error is only +/- 2 LSB! This corresponds to a
0.05% tolerance of a full-scale analog signal applied to the input of the ADC! In
most cases, by the time you add up the worst-case inaccuracies of all the
components in your amplifier circuit, you are probably way over this value to begin
with.
But analog circuits do have one significant advantageresolution. The resolution
of an analog signal is theoretically one electron! Clearly the ADC cant compete
with this. If the resolving power of your ADC isnt high enough, you end up with
quantization noise in your waveforms which degrades performance. This can result
in cycle-limit hunting, as the servo loop tries in vain to converge to a value which is
in between two digital ADC values.
Also, I would argue that an ADCs true resolution is limited by the differential
nonlinearity (DNL) spec. If you have missing codes in the specified number of bits
for that ADC, then that ADC simply cannot resolve to that number of bits. Period.
For example, a competitive microcontroller boasts of an integrated 16-bit
converter. But in single-conversion mode, its worst case DNL spec cant even
guarantee no missing codes in a 12-bit word length, let alone a 16 bit word! For
further discussion about accuracy vs. resolution, read Jose Quinones blog on
stepper motors here.
5. Use IIR filters instead of FIR filters in closed-loop applications.
OK, lets shift gears for a moment and move into the digital control algorithm
itself.
Sometimes it seems like the whole world is conspiring against you in an attempt to
make your control loop burst into oscillation! But you can take control of the
situation by doing a good stability analysis of your system. I like the bode-plot
method best because it just seems more intuitive to me. Using this technique, it is
easy to see why IIR filters are preferred in closed-loop structures to FIR filters. For
example, below is a bode-plot of the frequency response of an N-point-averager
(which is in fact an FIR filter), compared to a single-pole IIR filter designed to
have roughly the same filtering capability. In particular, notice the phase lag
generated by the FIR filter compared to the IIR filter. This is important because
phase lag is your enemy when it comes to designing a stable system. Also notice
that the filter changes the polarity of the signal each time its frequency passes
through a zero in the magnitude plot, as indicated by the 180 degree discontinuities
in the phase plot. If the open-loop unity-gain frequency of your control system
happens to be close to one of these zeros, you may find that the operation of the
loop changes radically with small changes in the power supply voltage or
temperature.
Finally, FIR filters take more memory and also more MIPs (one MAC instruction
for each tap in the filter) than their IIR counterparts. But they do possess one
significant advantagetheir transfer function contains only zeros. This is because
an FIR filter doesnt have any feedback paths, which means it will always be
stable. However, an IIR filter does contain feedback paths that create poles in its
transfer function. You must be very careful where you place these poles, or the
filter will become unstable. And once any component in your control loop is
unstable, the whole loop will be unstable.

Tomorrow we will continue our stroll through the digital control loop, and explore
another structure which can not only improve stability, but improve dynamic
response as well! In the meantime
Keep those motors spinning! :-)
he Ten Commandments of Digital Control (Part 4)
Dave (Wisconsin) Wilson
Dec 22 2011 09:25 AM
0
Dave Wilson, Motion Products Evangelist, Texas Instruments
This week we are counting down the Ten Commandments of Digital Control, and
we are only one day away from the NUMBER ONE Commandment. Before
discussing todays Commandments, Lets review the first six:
10. Be preparedModel-based code generation is coming!
9. Be skepticalGarbage in, garbage out!
8. Sample often.
7. Sample simultaneously and synchronously.
6. Dont confuse accuracy with resolution.
5. Use IIR filters instead of FIR filters in closed-loop applications.
Yesterday I mentioned a control structure that can not only improve stability, but
can improve the dynamic response of your system as well. This leads to
Commandment number 4:
4. Use feed-forward structures to supplement feedback structures
whenever possible.
When I took control theory in the late 70s, we never learned about feedforward
systems. Everything was based on feedback and G/(1+GH). If I wanted a stiff
response out of my control loop, the only thing I knew to do was to jack up my gain
until my system was just shy of oscillation! But then I read an article by Curtis
Wilson (no relation) in the mid 90s about feedforward control, and it changed the
way I think about control systems. As an example of how feedforward works,
consider that you have a motor where you want to control its current. The feedback
approach would involve sampling the motor current, comparing it to your desired
current to generate an error signal, and then feeding that error signal into a control
structure to drive the motors voltage. But the feedforward approach would ask,
what is the equation for motor voltage v(t)as a function of current i(t)? Once the
equation is defined, you simply set i(t) in the equation equal to your commanded
current, and solve for the voltage v(t) required to achieve this current. Assuming
your transfer function is correct, if you then apply that voltage waveform to the
motor winding, you should get the desired current waveform.
Feedforward structures are much faster than feedback structures in most cases.
This is because a feedback structure has to first develop an error between the
commanded and feedback values before it can generate a response. But the
feedforward structure doesnt work on the principle of error. It simply calculates
the theoretical value which needs to be applied to your plants input (e.g., voltage)
to make its output equal to the commanded input value (e.g., current). And it does
this without affecting the stability of your system at all, since it does not utilize a
feedback loop!
While feedforward structures are great for designing control systems that respond
quickly to input changes, they dont do so well with unpredictable changes in the
load or plant. However, this is an area that feedback structures do very well. So,
the ultimate solution is a hybrid approach where you use a feed-forward structure to
do the heavy lifting to improve transient response when the input changes quickly,
and then use feedback to correct for drifting and other unpredictable low frequency
effects. In order for the feedback loop to do this, its gain can be set to a fraction of
what it would have to be if it was also responsible for the transient response. And
lower gains equal better stability! An example of a hybrid feedback/feed-forward
controller is shown below.

3. Use observers to snoop on shy signals.
Many times you need access to a reclusive signal that you cant directly measure,
such as the back-EMF signal inside a motor, or the angle of the rotor flux.
However, if this signal has a well defined relationship to other signals that you DO
have access to, you can use something called an OBSERVER to squeeze the
missing signal out of the other signals! I continue to be amazed at how well this
works! These little filters are incredibly clever, and can seemingly pull a signal out
of thin air. By the way, an observer is an example of a feedback structure working
in tandem with a feed-forward structure, just like we talked about in the previous
section.
There are many different types of observerstoo numerous to cover here. Below
is an example of a velocity observer typical of what you might find in a digital
control system utilizing an encoder. Trying to squeeze velocity information out of
an encoder can be daunting, especially if the encoder is moving very slowly. If you
simply measure the difference between encoder counts at each sampling update,
you end up with a very quantized velocity signal at low motor speeds. On the other
hand, if you measure the time between encoder edge transitions, you have lots of
numerical resolution, but your velocity sampling frequency gets trashed at low
motor speeds. However, an observer can run at the same sampling frequency as the
rest of your control loop, and it creates a velocity signal with as much resolution as
you want. The feedforward current input signal allows the observer to estimate the
velocity signal with zero or near zero phase lag! This is really cool stuff!

Weve now made it through eight of the Ten Commandments for digital control,
but weve managed to steer clear of perhaps the most important single peripheral in
a digital control applicationthe PWM module. Tomorrow we will take aim at
this module in an attempt to unlock its digital control secrets. In the meantime
Keep those motors spinning! :-)






The Ten Commandments of Digital Control (Part 5)
Dave (Wisconsin) Wilson
Dec 23 2011 11:18 AM
0
Dave Wilson, Motion Products Evangelist, Texas Instruments
For those of you just joining our discussion, we have been counting down the Ten
Commandments of Digital Control all this week, leading up to the number one
commandment today. But before we get to numero uno, there is another very
important aspect of digital control that we need to look at; and that is the PWM
process. Just as the ADC is the nexus between the analog and digital worlds, the
PWM module does the same function back into the analog world. Considering its
strategic contribution to the performance of your control loop, it is only fitting that
we devote some time discussing it. So, heres rule number two:
2. RememberAll PWMs are NOT created equal!
The concept of modulating a control signal on top of a high frequency carrier seems
simple enough. But as someone who has designed several different PWM
modules, I can attest to the fact that there are many subtleties which can either
make or break your control systems performance. I recall earlier in my career
being asked to evaluate a processor for the motor control market. Everything about
it was great, exceptthere was one feature missing in the PWM module that killed
its prospects for motor control. A single trigger signal between the PWM module
and the ADC converter, because it wasnt there, made all the difference!
When selecting a PWM module for your digital control application, here are a few
features you might want to check out first:
a. PWM resolution. Just as resolution was important with the ADC, so it is
also important with your PWM signal. I once designed a servo system using a
processor with only 8-bits of PWM resolution, and immediately ran into problems
with position dithering. With most PWM modules that use a digital counter to
generate the carrier, you end up trading off maximum PWM frequency for
resolution, which is dependent on your counter clock frequency. For digital power
applications, this can really be a BIG problem. That is why the PWM modules on
many of TIs Piccolo
TM
family have a high resolution mode which allows 150 pS
of resolution! (Thats rightp as in Pico-Seconds!)
b. Dead-time. Most PWM modules designed for digital control are capable of
directly driving a top and bottom transistor in a totem-pole configuration. This
means that each pair of PWM outputs includes a programmable dead-time that is
inserted between the turn-off of one PWM signal, and the turn-on of the
complementary PWM signal. For most applications, a single dead-time value for
all of the transistors is good enough. But in more advanced PWM modules, each
complimentary PWM pair can have its OWN dead-time value, and in some cases,
even different dead-times for the top and bottom transistors.
c. PWM channel alignment. This is too big of a topic to cover all of it here,
but suffice it to say that how your PWM signals are aligned from phase to phase
(e.g., center-aligned, edge-aligned, asymmetrical alignment) has a HUGE impact
on the harmonic content of the PWM signals as seen by the motor. Make sure your
selected PWM module can generate the alignment modes that will give you the best
performance for your application.
d. PWM update rate. Most PWM modules have double-buffered PWM value
registers, meaning that the PWM values from the software are loaded to an outer
set of registers, and then this data is transferred to the active PWM registers at the
start of the PWM cycle. However, what many engineers fail to remember is that
this adds phase delay to your control system, and must be considered in any
stability analysis of your system. While the data is sitting in these outer registers, it
is becoming stale. Many PWM modules (such as the ones on our Piccolo family of
processors) have the ability to be updated TWICE during each PWM cycle. This
not only improves your phase margin a bit, but it allows your system sampling
frequency to actually be twice the PWM frequency. This is also a very useful
feature with Space Vector Modulated (SVM) systems, since there are two SVM
periods for each PWM period.
e. ADC triggering. As discussed in part 2 of this series, the PWM module and
ADC module must be intimately linked in order to remove the PWM harmonics in
the ADC input samples. As illustrated in that blog, you want to sample motor
currents at exactly the center point of the ON and OFF pulses to achieve this.
Ideally this point occurs when the digital counter reaches its maximum and
minimum count values when programmed for up/down operation, which is why
many PWM modules generate a trigger signal during these moments to use with the
ADC. However, depending on how the dead-time is implemented, this can delay
the centers of the pulses by a small amount. As a result, some advanced PWM
modules (once again, like the one on the Piccolo :-) ) can make use of any unused
PWM channel to generate the ADC trigger pulse. This allows the ADC to be
triggered literally anywhere within the PWM cycle.
f. Fault Processing. In many motor control applications, safety requirements
dictate the necessity to be able to bring your PWMs off-line via hardware the
moment a problem is detected. PWM modules designed for digital control usually
contain one or more hardware fault inputs for this purpose. On many of the
advanced PWM modules, the fault signals can be supplied by an on-board analog
comparator, which can directly monitor the level of a hardware signal and
automatically generate a fault if the signal goes above or below a software specified
voltage level. The PWMs on the Piccolo 2803x processors contain three analog
comparators on-board which can be used for this purpose.
There are other features that you will want to check out as well, but these are the
main ones to focus on. Be prepared to become intimate with the PWM module of
whatever processor you use in your digital control design.


And now, (drum-roll please)the Number One Commandment of Digital Control!
1. You cant go wrong with TI!
Now before you write this whole series off as a giant sales pitch, please consider
what Im about to say here, because I wouldnt say it if I didnt totally believe it!
In the middle of the last century, there was a saying that you will never be fired for
designing in an IBM computer. As a young engineer evaluating DSPs for a six-
axis controller for a scanning electron microscope, I still remember my boss telling
me the same thing about TI! and he was right! Texas Instruments has a rich
history of innovation and early pioneering in motor control. Many features that we
take for granted today in the motor control industry were developed and introduced
by TI. And the innovation continues. At TI, motor control is not just something
we do, it is part of who we are! We are currently making breakthroughs on new
hardware features for motor control processors, as well as unbelievable new
algorithms to drive your motors. I wish I could tell you more, but suffice it to say
that 2012 is going to be a GREAT year for TI in motor control! So stay tuned
Heres wishing you and yours a happy and prosperous new year in 2012! I hope
the prospects for you personally are as enriching and exciting as I believe they will
be for us Motor-heads here at TI! And of course
Keep those motors spinning! :-)
See you next year