Velocity Regulation in Switched Reluctance Motors under Magnetic Flux Saturation Conditions

We propose a controller for velocity regulation in switched reluctance motors under magnetic flux saturation conditions. Both hysteresis and proportional control are employed in the internal electric current loops. A classical PI velocity controller is employed in the external loop. Our control law is the simplest one proposed in the literature but provided with a formal stability proof. We prove that the state is bounded having an ultimate bound which can be rendered arbitrarily small by a suitable selection of controller gains. Furthermore, this result stands when starting from any initial condition within a radius which can be arbitrarily enlarged using suitable controller gains. We present a simulation study where even convergence to zero of velocity error is observed as well as a good performance when regulating velocity in the presence of unknown step changes in external torque disturbances.