Reliable speed control of a permanent magnet DC motor using fault-tolerant H-bridge

Abstract

Reliable, smooth, and fault free speed control of a Permanent Magnet (PM) DC motor using an H-bridge is an important need for many industrial applications such as robotics, automotive, and process industry to improve the overall efficiency and productivity. The reliability of H-bridge depends on the semiconductor switches used. The faults in these components can lead to a complete failure of the system. This paper presents a dual redundancy-based fault-tolerant system with a Fault Detection and Isolation (FDI) unit that can detect, isolate, and replace the faulty switch with the standby to prevent the unwanted shut down of the system and support the process continuity thereby increasing reliability. MATLAB/Simulink environment was used for simulation experiments and the results demonstrate the stable operation of the motor in the events of faults while maintaining its speed. The presented work establishes that the dual redundancy-based fault-tolerant H-bridge with the FDI unit is a highly reliable solution for the speed control of a DC motor.