BRUSHLESS DC MOTOR

The Brushless DC (BLDC) motor is the ideal choice for applications that require high
reliability, high efficiency, and high power-to-volume ratio. Generally speaking, a
BLDC motor is considered to be a high performance motor that is capable of
providing large amounts of torque over a vast speed range. BLDC motors are a
derivative of the most commonly used DC motor, the brushed DC motor, and they
share the same torque and speed performance curve characteristics. The major
difference between the two is the use of brushes. BLDC motors do not have brushes
(hence the name brushless DC) and must be electronically commutated.

Commutation is the act of changing the motor phase currents at the appropriate
times to produce rotational torque. In a brush DC motor, the motor assembly
contains a physical commutator which is moved by means of actual brushes in
order to move the rotor. With a BLDC motor, electrical current powers a permanent
magnet that causes the motor to move, so no physical commutator is necessary.

A BLDC motor is highly reliable since it does not have any brushes to wear out and
replace. When operated in rated conditions, the life expectancy is over 10,000
hours. For long term applications, this can be a tremendous benefit. Whenever a
motor breaks down or needs to be replaced, your project, or part of it, must be shut
down. This costs you time and money, perhaps a great deal depending on how long
it takes to replace the worn part or parts and get the application started again.
Although a BLDC motor may cost more than a brushless motor, it will often more
than pay for itself in the amount of work time saved.

Closed loop control process

In a closed-loop control system, information flows around a feedback loop from the
process to the sensor to the transmitter to the controller to the actuator and back to
the process. This measure-decide-actuate sequence-known as closed-loop controlrepeats as often as necessary until the desired process condition is achieved.
Familiar examples include using a thermostat controlling a furnace to maintain the
temperature in a room or cruise control to maintain the speed of a car.

But not all automatic control operations require feedback. A much larger class of
control commands can be executed in an open-loop configuration without

confirmation or further adjustment. Open-loop control is sufficient for predictable

operations such as opening a door, starting a motor, or turning off a pump.

Pulse Width Modulation

Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) uses digital signals to control power applications, as
well as being fairly easy to convert back to analog with a minimum of hardware.
Analog systems, such as linear power supplies, tend to generate a lot of heat since
they are basically variable resistors carrying a lot of current. Digital systems dont
generally generate as much heat. Almost all the heat generated by a switching
device is during the transition (which is done quickly), while the device is neither on
nor off, but in between. This is because power follows the following formula:
P = E I, or Watts = Voltage X Current
If either voltage or current is near zero then power will be near zero. PWM takes full
advantage of this fact.

PWM can have many of the characteristics of an analog control system, in that the
digital signal can be free wheeling. PWM does not have to capture data, although
there are exceptions to this with higher end controllers.
One of the parameters of any square wave is duty cycle. Most square waves are
50%, this is the norm when discussing them, but they dont have to be symmetrical.
The ON time can be varied completely between signal being off to being fully on,
0% to 100%, and all ranges between.

r popular application is motor speed control. Motors as a class require very high
currents to operate. Being able to vary their speed with PWM increases the
efficiency of the total system by quite a bit. PWM is more effective at controlling
motor speeds at low RPM than linear methods.
Duty cycle
A duty cycle is the percentage of one period in which a signal or system is active. A
period is the time it takes for a signal to complete an on-and-off cycle. As a formula,
a duty cycle may be expressed as:

The Duty Cycle of a PWM signal, tells us the amount of work this signal is supposed
to make the component perform. The duty cycle of the signal is always described in
percentage. So, a 10% duty cycle means, that the component is on 10% of the time.
And a 90% duty cycle means the component is on 90% or most of the time.

Opto isolator
In electronics, an opto-isolator, also called an optocoupler, photocoupler, or
optical isolator, is a component that transfers electrical signals between two
isolated circuits by using light.

IR SENSOR
The IR Reflector sensor senses the speed of the DC motor and gives series of on/off
pulses
according to the speed of the DC motor. These signal act as the feedback input for
the PID
controller.
The sensor is made of the infrared reflector LED and a photo resistor, when infrared
rays from
the LED hits the black surface, it absorbs most of the light falls on it so reflection is
less as a
result of which the resistance of the photo diode is high and when the light falls on

the white
surface, it reflect most of the rays falls on it so reflection is more and therefore
resistance of the
photo diode decreases. The infrared reflector has two parts: 1. Emitter emits the light.
2. Detectordetects light for further processing.