IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 12, NO.
6, NOVEMBER 1997
Optimal Soft Starting of Voltage-Controller-Fed
IM Drive Based on Voltage Across Thyristor
Venkata V. Sastry, Senior Member, IEEE, M. Rajendra Prasad, and T. V. Sivakumar, Student Member, IEEE
Abstract—AC voltage controllers are used as induction motor
starters in fan or pump drives and the crane hoist drives. This
paper presents a method of identifying the end of soft start of
an ac voltage-controller-fed induction motor (IM) drive based
on the voltage across the nonconducting thyristor through a dy-
namic simulation of the whole drive system. A two point current
minimization technique is adopted to operate the drive system
at the required optimal voltage under all operating conditions.
This minimizes the motor losses. Graphic modeling of the whole
drive system is done in a modular format using Design Star
and dynamic simulation is done using SABER. The dynamic
simulation results of the whole drive system are supported with
experimental data.
I. INTRODUCTION
A C VOLTAGE-controller-based soft starters offer many
advantages over conventional starters like smooth ac-
celeration, ease in implementation of current control, open
circuit transition to line voltage, and also energy savings at
lightly loaded conditions. Energy savings by voltage control
is achieved by reducing the applied voltage if the load torque
requirement can be met with less than rated flux. By this way
the core loss and stator copper losses can be reduced [1].
When current minimization and power factor maximization
concepts were used in combination, the energy saving was
found to be good [2], however, the dynamics of the system
was poor. When the angle load pattern concept was employed,
it gave a better dynamic response [3], [4], but the energy saving
was not satisfactory. To be able to obtain energy efficient
operation and also obtain a good dynamic response, the slip
is to be controlled. This could be achieved using the voltage
across the nonconducting thyristor as a feedback parameter
[5] as it is an indirect index of back electromotive force (emf)
and, hence, speed. Therefore, for identifying the end of soft
start, the voltage across the nonconducting thyristor itself could
be used. In this paper, simulation and experimental results of
such a voltage-controlled drive system as a soft starter are
presented. The optimum point at which the losses are minimum
was found out by a two-point current minimization technique
[6].
Manuscript received June 7, 1996; revised October 24, 1996. This work
was supported in part by Prof. D. Schroder of T. U. Munich and by the
Volkswagen Foundation, Germany. Recommended by Associate Editor, D. A.
Torrey.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian
Institute of Technology, Madras 600 036, India.
Publisher Item Identifier S 0885-8993(97)06408-9.
0885–8993/97$10.00  1997 IEEE
1041
The main sections of the paper are organized as follows. In
Section II, the soft-start and the optimization techniques fol-
lowed are explained. The simulation of “whole drive system”
is discussed in Section III. The various modules developed in
SABER simulator are also briefly explained. In Section IV, the
simulation results are presented and discussed. In Section V,
the experimental setup used for its validation is discussed.
In Section VI, the experimental results of the proposed drive
system are compared with that of the dynamic simulation
results.
II. SOFT START AND OPTIMIZATION
A. Optimal Soft Starting
During soft start, initially the thyristors are fired at an
equal to . When the motor is at standstill, the voltage
across the nonconducting thyristor is measured and stored as
VREF. Then, is decremental by 0.50 /cycle (ALPSTP1)
until reaches 4 . This ensures an initial rise in
motor current. The fundamental component of the line current
drawn is rectified and sampled once in every 30 ms. If the
current is less than the current limit CURLIM for a given
motor, then is decremented by 0.10 /cycle (ALPSTP2) until
the identification of the end of soft start. If current exceeds
the current limit CURLIM, then will not be decremented
until the motor accelerates or the current limit is not seen.
The end of optimal soft start is identified with the fall
of voltage across the nonconducting thyristor to a value
below 75% of the value when the motor is at standstill. The
voltage across the nonconducting thyristor is the difference
between the source voltage and the back emf. The magnitude
and the phase lag of back emf (with regard to the source
voltage) keeps changing as the motor accelerates. As also
keeps changing, it is very difficult to express the voltage
across the nonconducting thyristor through an expression
involving back emf and source voltage. Hence, empiricism
is needed in choosing the value 75%. However, the value
75% is established through experimental tests conducted on
various medium range motors and the latter is verified through
dynamic simulation as presented in this paper.
B. Optimization
After identifying the end of an optimal soft start, a delay
of 30 cycles is provided to allow the flux to settle. Then
the process of optimization is activated by incrementing
by 0.10 /cycle. A two-point current minimization technique is
1042 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 12, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 1997
Fig. 1. The concept behind two-point current minimization.
used for optimization. This technique can be understood from
Fig. 1. This figure shows the variation of current with respect
to . At any sampling instant , the new value of
is calculated based on the difference between two successive
current samples and
(1)
where is the value of at any time instant , is
the value of at time instant , and is the step change
in per cycle.
As long as the difference is positive, the
real time optimization process continues. Once the difference
becomes negative, incrementing of is stopped and this value
of is known as (c.f. Fig. 1). This condition is identified
as the end of optimization routine.
During simulation of the whole system, the end of soft
start and optimization for achieving current minimization are
identified by the module ACCON. This module is explained
in Section III. The flow for soft start and optimization routine
is shown in Fig. 2.
III. SIMULATION OF AC
VOLTAGE-CONTROLLER-FED IM DRIVE
One traditional way of simulating an IM drive is to use an
equivalent circuit model for IM. However, this is not the best
approach when it is needed to study the performance of the
drive during transients. The best approach is to describe the IM
model through differential equations in - model. However,
when it is needed to simulate the IM drive with switching
networks (like ac voltage controller), it is not wise enough to
describe the whole drive system through equations for various
modes of operation. It is better if the switched network is
represented as a circuit. Also, when it is needed to simulate a
large system, it is better to follow a modular approach while
modeling the whole system. The use of modularity in modeling
offers many advantages such as the following:
1) ease of partitioning of the design tasks;
2) ease of reuse in other designs;
3) ease of debugging where ever there is a problem in the
subsystem.
Hence, the modeling of the whole drive system is done in
MAST language of SABER simulator to conform to modular
approach. The block diagram of the whole drive system
formulated according to Design Star (graphic interface) is as
shown in Fig. 3 [7], [8].
Modeling of the Whole Drive System: The whole drive sys-
tem consists of various subsystems: 1) electrical; 2) electro-
mechanical; 3) mechanical; and 4) control. The approach for
modeling of various modules identified under each subsystem
is explained in this section.
1) Electrical System: This system consists of three phase
sources and a three-phase ac voltage-controller module
ACV3PH. The module ACV3PH describes the SCR module
connected back-to-back to form a three phase ac voltage-
controller circuit. The SCR is modeled as a low/high resistance
model for on/off state of the thyristor [7].
2) Induction Motor Model: This system consists of an IM
module INDMAC. The module INDMAC defines the in-
duction machine model in a stationary reference frame. The
differential equations used to describe the dynamics of the
induction motor are given in Appendix A.
3) Mechanical Load: This basically defines a mechanical
load on the shaft of the induction motor. The equation de-
scribing the load on the IM is given by
(2)
where is the speed in rad/s.
The value of is so chosen that at rated speed a load of
2.2 N-m is applied to the motor. This load is 0.155 times the
full load.
4) Control System: This system consists of various mod-
ules such as IFILTER, VAKMES, ACCON, and FIR to im-
plement the soft starting based on the voltage across noncon-
ducting thyristor and optimization. The description of various
submodules used are as follows.
IFILTER: This submodule consists of an active filter and
a diode bridge rectifier with a capacitive filter. This circuit is
shown in Fig. 4. The analogue filter extracts the fundamental
component of ac current. This current is then rectified by a
diode bridge rectifier and filtered using a capacitive filter. This
dc component of the fundamental current is fed to the module
ACCON.
VAKMES: This module is basically a “discrete” block.
This module samples regularly the voltage across the thyristor
with a time lapse of 0.3 ms from the instant the current
through the thyristor is zero. The time lapse of 0.3 ms is
so chosen that at the instant of sampling, neither of the
thyristors in that phase conducts. This information is fed to the
module ACCON. The netlist for this submodule is given in
Appendix B.
ACCON: This module is basically a decision making
module in a sense that this block calculates the value of ,
identifies the end of soft start, and does real-time optimization
based on the inputs it gets from modules VAKMES and
IFILTER. An external clock is used (c.f. Fig. 3) to sample
the rectified fundamental component of the line current. The
new value of during soft starting is calculated as given by
(3).
During optimal soft starting, as long as the current is less
than current limit CURLIM then
(3a)
SASTRY et al.: OPTIMAL SOFT STARTING OF VOLTAGE-CONTROLLER-FED IM DRIVE
Fig. 2. Flow chart for soft start and optimization—module ACCON.
where
(3b)
for all other values of
(3c)
In the present case, ALPSTP1 is 0.50 and ALPSTP2 is 0.10 .
If current is more than current limit CURLIM, then
(4)
The values of ALPSTP1 and ALPSTP2 are chosen based on
various parameters like rating of the motor, machine parameter
values, load on the motor, and chosen soft-start time. During
optimization the new value of is calculated as given in (1).
The netlist for this module (in MAST language) is given
in Appendix C.
FIR: This module generates the necessary gate pulses
of 120 pulse width according to the value of it gets
from the module ACCON. The module generates six sawtooth
waveforms (one for each thyristor), each wave phase shifted
by 60 . The firing pulse at for each thyristor is generated
by comparing with a corresponding sawtooth waveform.
Whenever sawtooth wave is greater than , a positive pulse
1043
is applied to the corresponding thyristor at delay angle (c.f.
Fig. 5).
The interaction between various software modules is shown
in Fig. 6.
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
The simulation results of ac voltage-controller-fed IM drive
are shown in Fig. 7. Fig. 7(a) shows the variation of rectified
component of the fundamental current and the flags used for
identifying end of soft start and optimization. From Fig. 7(a),
the different stages of soft start and optimization can be seen.
During the period “A,” soft start is carried out. This is clearly
seen with an initial rise and fall of current and as well as fall
of voltage across the nonconducting thyristor [c.f. Fig. 7(b)].
During this period it can also be seen from Fig. 7(c) that alpha
is decremented initially at 0.50 /cycle and then at 0.10 /cycle.
At time , the voltage across the thyristor falls below 75%
of VREF and, hence, it is identified as end of soft start. The
flag EOST is set to “one” to indicate the end of soft start.
Period “B” indicates the 30 cycles of delay time provided
to allow the flux to settle down. During this period alpha
remains constant [vide Fig. 7(c)]. The end of the delay is
1044
Fig. 3. The graphic modeling of the drive system using Design Star.
Fig. 4. The analogue filter circuit—module IFILTER.
Fig. 5. The firing module.
indicated by setting the flag EOST to “two.” During the period
“C,” optimization is carried out. This is very clearly seen
with a decrease in current and as well with an increment
in alpha [c.f. Fig. 7(c)]. At time , the end of optimization
is identified and it is indicated by setting the flag FOPT to
“one.” Fig. 7(d) shows the rectified component of the motor
terminal voltage and the supply voltage. From this figure, it
can be clearly seen that the full voltage need not be applied
to the motor at the end of soft starting. Hence, this method of
soft starting is identified as “optimal” soft starting. Fig. 7(e)
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 12, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 1997
and (f) shows the effectiveness of optimization. In Fig. 7(e),
the rectified component of the fundamental current with and
without optimization are presented. It can be seen that the
current with optimization is less than the current without
optimization. In Fig. 7(f), the motor terminal voltage applied
under steady-state condition with and without optimization are
presented. From this figure, it can also be seen that the voltage
applied to the motor after optimization is less than that without
optimization, and the voltage applied to the motor need not be
full supply voltage.
V. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
The whole drive system was developed based on an 8-b
single-chip controller 8751, which consists of built-in timers,
ports, and memory. The whole dedicated system used for the
control of induction machine drive is shown in Fig. 8. A 3-
hp motor is used as a test machine. The nameplate data and
parameters of the test machine are given in Appendix D. Two
ports of the microcontroller are configured as input ports.
One port is used to read the analogue to digital converter.
The other port is used to read the user set parameters like
current limit (CURLIM), (through dual in-line package
switches) and also end of conversion signal from ADC. The
pins T0 and T1 are used for ADC channel selection. Voltage
across the nonconducting thyristor was stepped down using
a potential divider and read through an ADC. The volt-
age across the nonconducting thyristor measurement circuit
is shown in Fig. 9. Line current was measured through a
current transformer. Fundamental component of the current
was rectified, filtered, and read through the same ADC. The
SASTRY et al.: OPTIMAL SOFT STARTING OF VOLTAGE-CONTROLLER-FED IM DRIVE 1045

Fig. 6. The interaction between various software modules under SABER simulator.

interrupt INT0 is used to inhibit the firing pulses under VII. CONCLUSIONS
abnormal conditions. The interrupt INT1 is used for R-phase In this paper, a novel method of identifying the end of soft
zero-crossing detection. start of a voltage-controller-fed IM drive using a “new” param-
eter, namely the voltage across the nonconducting thyristor,
is presented. This method is speed feedback less detection
of the end of acceleration of the drive system. Dynamic
VI. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
simulation and experimental results for the whole drive are
The experimental results are as shown in Fig. 10. Fig. 10(a) presented. Simulation of the whole drive system is done
shows the variation of the rectified component of the funda- in Design Star-SABER environment. The various modules
mental current during various stages of soft start and optimiza- are developed in MAST language in a modular format. The
tion. Fig. 10(b) shows the variation of the rectified component newness of this paper lies in identifying the end of soft
of the voltage across the nonconducting thyristor. Fig. 10(c) start based on the voltage across the nonconducting thyris-
shows the variation of speed with time. From Fig. 10(a), it tor through a dynamic simulation of the whole drive sys-
can be seen that when the motor is accelerating, the current tem with modularity in mind using a versatile simulator.
is also increasing. Once the motor accelerates to the rated These ideas are also verified experimentally using an 8-
speed, the current falls [period “A” in Fig. 10(a)]. The voltage b single-chip microcontroller-based voltage-controller-fed IM
across the nonconducting thyristor also falls [c.f. Fig. 10(b)]. drive system.
Then the process of optimization is activated. The period of
optimization is associated with a fall in the current [period
“B” in Fig. 10(a)] and a rise in the voltage across the noncon- APPENDIX A
ducting thyristor. Fig. 10(d) shows the variation of the rectified THE DYNAMIC - MODEL OF INDUCTION
component of fundamental current without optimization. Com- MACHINE IN A STATIONARY REFERENCE FRAME
paring Fig. 10(a) with Fig. 10(d), it can be clearly seen that the
current drawn by the motor with real-time optimization is less
than that without optimization. Fig. 10(e) shows the variation
of the rectified component of the source voltage and the motor
terminal voltage during various stages of soft starting and
optimization. From this figure, it is seen that the full voltage
has not been applied to the motor at the end of soft starting.
Hence, this method of soft starting is called “optimal” soft
starting. where stands for derivative, stands for flux linkages,
From Figs. 7 and 10, it can be observed that simulation and stands for number of pole pairs, and stands for speed in
experimental results are the same except for the difference in rad/s. The relation between flux linkages and currents are as
their time scales. This has been intentional to minimize the follows:
simulation time with reduced moment of inertia on the load.
The motor terminal voltage rise, just before the end of soft
start during simulation [c.f. Fig. 7(f)] is not so fast as it is
observed experimentally [c.f. Fig. 10(e)]. This is mainly due
to the fact that the induction machine model does not include
saturation effect.
1046 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 12, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 1997

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

(e) (f)

Fig. 7. Simulation results for IM drive during soft-start and optimization intervals. (a) Variation of the rectified component of the fundamental current. (b)
Variation of speed and voltage across the nonconducting thyristor. (c) Variation of alpha. (d) Variation of motor voltage and source voltage through various
stages of soft starting and optimization. (e) Variation of rectified component of the fundamental current with and without optimization. (f) Variation of
motor terminal voltage with and without optimization.

and are calculated from the stator phase voltages as follows:

as follows:

The mechanical equation describing system dynamics is as

follows:

The torque in is defined in terms of the - currents

SASTRY et al.: OPTIMAL SOFT STARTING OF VOLTAGE-CONTROLLER-FED IM DRIVE 1047

Fig. 8. 8-b microcontroller-based experimental setup for IM drive system.

state nu flag 0,fsamp,vsamp

var i iout
branch vm1 v(ma1,ma2)
branch vmo v(mo1,neg)
branch vpc v(pc,pref)
when(time step done)
if(abs(vpc) 0.01 & flag 0)
schedule event
(time nstp1, fsamp, 1)
Fig. 9. Circuit for measuring voltage across the nonconducting thyristor. schedule event
(time nstp1 nstp2,
APPENDIX B fsamp, 0)
THE NETLIST FOR MODULE VAKMES flag 1

#Template for vak measurement if(fsamp 1)

#ma1,ma2 voltage across thyristor points vsamp abs(vm1)
#mo1 sampled output
#pc,pref pc and pref are current sampling nodes if(abs(vpc) 0.01 ) flag 0
#neg ground node
#vsamp sampled value of the voltage across equations
nonconducting thyristor i(ma1 ma2) 0
#fsamp Flag to indicate the instant of sampling i(mo1 neg) 0
voltage across nonconducting thyristor i(pc pref) 0
template vakmes ma1 ma2 mo1 pc pref i(mo1 neg) iout
neg nstp1,nstp2 iout:v(mo1)-v(neg) vsamp
electrical ma1,ma2,mo1,pc,pref,neg
number nstp1 0.3m,nstp2 0.05m
1048 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 12, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 1997

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

(e)

Fig. 10. Experimental results for IM drive during soft-start and optimization intervals. (a) Variation of the rectified component of the fundamental current with
optimization. (b) Variation of the voltage across the nonconducting thyristor. (c) Variation of speed with optimization. (d) Variation of the rectified component
of the fundamental current without optimization. (e) Variation of motor voltage and source voltage through various stages of soft starting and optimization.
SASTRY et al.: OPTIMAL SOFT STARTING OF VOLTAGE-CONTROLLER-FED IM DRIVE 1049

APPENDIX C #SAMPLING OF CURRENT

THE NETLIST FOR MODULE ACCON
when(time step done)
newcur vc2
if(vc3 0.0) oldcur newcur
#NETLIST FOR ACCON

template accon cin1 cin2 csam cout1 neg when(dc domain)

imax, alpmax, alpmin, alpstp, fac, fac1, alpold alpmax
tmin, tset,del,dif,dif1 alp alpold

electrical cin1,cin2,csam,cout1,neg
number
#INITIAL SECTION
imax 7.50,alpmax 112,alpmin 90,
alpstp 0.50,fac 0.75,fac1 1.00,tmin 0.07, when(time tmin & fsamp )
tset 0.60,del 20m,dif 0.05,dif1 0.10 volt abs(vc1)
alp alpold dalp
number fact,alpstp1 alpold alp
state nu eost 0,alp,alpold,tst1 eost 0
state nu newcur 0,
oldcur 0,flagalp 0,volt 0
state nu fopt 0,fcur 0,flim 0,ldch 0 #SOFT-START SECTION
state nu flag 0,told 0,fsamp,del1,vref
var i iout1 when(ti me step done & (time tmin) &
val nu dalp eost 0)
parameters if(abs(vc1) abs(fac*volt)) eost 0
fact (1.0-fac)*fac1 else eost 1
alpstp1 alpstp/5.00 if((newcur imax) & eost 0 & fcur 0)
fcur 1
branch vc1 v(cin1,neg) if((newcur imax) & eost 0)
branch vc2 v(cin2,neg) flagalp 0
branch vc3 v(csam,neg) if((newcur imax) & eost 0)
flagalp 1
if(flagalp 0)
#DECEREMENT OF ALPHA SETTING
if( (abs(vc1) abs((1-fact)*volt)))
if(fsamp 1 & flim 0)
when(ti me step done)
alp alpold dalp
del1 del
alpold alp
flim 1
#DELAY (FOR ALPHA) BLOCK
if(alp alpmin) alp alpmin
when(time step done)
if(time told del1 & flag 0) else
schedule event(time 2u, fsamp, 1) alp alpold
schedule event(time 25u, fsamp,0) alpold alp

flag 1
told time if(flagalp 1) alp alpold
if(eost 0)
vref alp
if(fsamp 1) flag 0
tst1 time
if(fsamp 0) flim 0
1050 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 12, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 1997

#END OF SOFT-START SECTION APPENDIX D

#DELAY BLOCK INDUCTION MOTOR PARAMETERS AND NAMEPLATE DATA

when(time step done & eost 1)

if(time (tst1 tset)) eost 2
else
eost 1
alpold vref

#OPTIMISATION BLOCK

when(time step done & eost 2

if(newcur imax) flagalp 0
else flagalp 1
if(flagalp 0 & fopt 0) REFERENCES
if( (newcur oldcur) dif) [1] N. Mohan, “Improvement in energy efficiency of induction motors by
means of voltage control,” IEEE Trans. Power Apparatus Syst., vol.
if(fsamp 1 & flim 0) PAS-99, pp. 1466–1471, July/Aug. 1980.
alp alpold dalp [2] T. M. Rowan and T. A. Lipo, “A quantitative analysis of induction
motor performance improvement by SCR voltage control,” IEEE Trans.
alpold alp Ind. Applicat., vol. IA-19, pp. 545–553, July/Aug. 1983.
flim 1 [3] G. Bhuvaneswari, “An intelligent solid-state induction motor con-
troller,” Ph.D. dissertation, Indian Instit. Technol., Madras, India, Jan.
1992.
[4] R. S. J. Iyengar, “Novel techniques for energy efficient voltage con-
if (alp alpmax) trolled induction motor drives,” Ph.D. dissertation, Indian Instit. Tech-
alp alpmax nol., Madras, India, May 1995.
[5] V. V. Sastry, P. S. Ganesh, and V. Madhavi, “High-performance
induction motor controller using thyristor voltage feedback,” in Proc.
Int. Conf. Power Electron., Drives, Energy Syst. Ind. Growth, New Delhi,
else India, Jan. 1996, pp. 44–47.
[6] V. V. Sastry, P. Oomman, and K. Sundarraman, “Line voltage adap-
fopt 1 tion for lightly loaded induction motors,” in Proc. Int. Conf. Power
alpold alp Conversion Ind. Contr., Singapore, Oct. 1986, pp. 87–91.
[7] V. V. Sastry, D. Metzner, and D. Schroeder, “An integrated approach
to understanding of power electronic circuits and systems,” IMACS-
TC1 Int. Conf. Math. Modeling, Montreal, ON, Canada, 1993, pp. 663–
667.
[8] Saber Ref. Manual, Analogy Inc., Beaverton, OR, 1992.
of(flagalp 1 & fopt 0) alp alpold
if(fopt 1) alp alpold

Venkata V. Sastry (M’69–SM’82) was born in

values Vallaragudaba (A.P.), India, on August 4, 1941.
if(alp (alpmax-4.0)) dalp alpstp He received the B.E. (Hons.) degree from Andhra
University, Visakhapatnam, India, in 1963 and the
if(alp (alpmax-4.0)) M.Tech. and Ph.D. degrees from the Indian Institute
dalp alpstp1 of Technology, Kharagpur, India, in 1965 and 1968,
respectively.
Since 1968, he has been with the Indian Institute
of Technology, Madras, in various capacities. Cur-
rently, he is a Professor of electrical engineering and
equations the Head of the Computer Center. He visited T.U.
Braunschweig and T.U. Munich, F.R. Germany, as an Alexander Van Humbolt
i(cin1 neg) 0 scholar during 1972 to 1973 and again in 1992. He visited the National
i(cin2 neg) 0 University of Singapore for two years from 1982 to 1984 and the University
of Washington, Seattle, WA, for six months in 1993. He has published several
i(cout1 neg) iout1 papers and has six Indian patents. His research interests are in power electronic
iout1:v(cout1)-v(neg) alp systems, electrical machines, modeling and simulation, real-time computer
control, and computer graphics.
Dr. Sastry is a Fellow of the National Academy of Engineers, New
Delhi, India. He has been the recipient of six awards from NRDC, VASVIK
Foundation, and IETE (India).
SASTRY et al.: OPTIMAL SOFT STARTING OF VOLTAGE-CONTROLLER-FED IM DRIVE
M. Rajendra Prasad was born in Vidyanagar
(A.P.), India. He received the B.E. degree from Sri
Venkateswara University, Tirupati, India, in 1993.
He is currently pursuing the M.S. degree from the
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India.
Since 1994 he has been with the Indian Institute
of Technology, Madras, India, as a Research
Scholar. His research interests are in power
electronic systems and hardware systems design
for the real-time control applications.
control.
1051
T. V. Sivakumar (S’97) was born in Karaimadai
(T.N.), India. He received the B.E. degree from
Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, India, and the
M.Tech. degree from Anna University, Madras, In-
dia, in 1993 and 1995, respectively. He is currently
pursuing the Ph.D. degree from the Indian Institute
of Technology, Madras.
Since 1995, he has been with the Indian Institute
of Technology, Madras as a Research Scholar. His
research interests are in power electronic systems,
modeling, and simulation and real-time computer