Discrete time sliding mode control strategies applied to a multiphase brushless DC machine

Book excerpt: Nowadays, environmental issues motivates the replacement of mechanical, hydraulic and pneumatic system by electrical system in the transport sector aiming to reduce emissions generated by burning of fossil fuels in vehicles. The electrical system must ensure high electrical efficiency and should not exceed the weight of the substituted components. To attend these high performance requirements a fault-tolerant multiphase brushless DC machine was chosen for this research. The present work introduces a six-phase 600W brushless DC machine with 8 poles. The main challenge for the control issues of this machine is the mutual magnetic coupling between the phases due to the wave winding machine configuration. In this context, theoretical and practical investigations of different current control strategies based on the sliding mode control approach applied to the six-phase brushless DC machine are presented.