DC motor control using model reference adaptive control

Abstract

Despite having higher maintenance costs than AC motors, DC motors had been widely employed in the industry due to their outstanding speed control capabilities. This employment increased due to the DC output of some renewable sources recently. This article introduces the speed control of DC motors using model reference adaptive control (MRAC). This control is achieved through regulating the armature voltage at different load changes. A comparison between the proposed adaptive controller and optimized PI controller using the elephant herding optimization (EHO) is presented. The PI controller parameters were optimality adjusted to minimize the integral absolute error, minimum overshoot, and minimum settling time. Computer simulations show that the suggested MRAC is preferable to a traditional optimized PI controller. In addition, the proposed controller is effective in regulating the DC motor over a broad range of operating speeds.