A low-cost control system for BLDC motors applied to teaching

Abstract

In this paper, the process carried out to design and manufacture the hardware of a low-cost control system for brushless direct current motors based on a ATmega64M1 is described. The proposed control system, applied to teaching, consists of the controller presented in this paper and a C library specially created for this project. Three types of different control systems are detailed. The first is the basic system, which can be used for teaching microcontroller programming within the scope of brushless motors. The second system presented is used to monitor and manage electric vehicles powered by a 6-phase brushless motor. This system offers the possibility to be used as a practice teaching module for electromechanical students. Finally, we detail a system that enables the control of remotely operated vehicles. This configuration can also be oriented to the control of any type of robotic vehicle powered by brushless motors. These three systems use the controller proposed in this article. The difference between them is the number of controllers that are required for their operation and how the system components are interconnected.