2017 Participants
Alvaro Eduardo Vemba Marques
The brushless dc motor (BDCM) as its name indicates is a motor which is not comprised with brushes in its structure. In a DC motor brushes are normally used to energize the rotor through mechanical commutators to make it work. However, with development in power electronics, the BDCM became a reality, replacing the basic DC motor in many applications. The basic idea behind BDCM is that the coils in the stator of the motor are energized by an electronic controller which provides some DC power, and a sensor is used to determine the position of the rotor.
The sustainability of the motor applications is increased by improving the performance of the power convertor. So, it will be built a low power BDCM drive using a PIC microcontroller for motor control, and will be examined a software-based control which reduces power convertor and motor losses to maximize efficiency.
Funding source: Newcastle University
Supervisor: Dr David Atkinson