Feedback Linearizing Speed Control Strategy for Electric Vehicle Traction Motor drives

Electric vehicles (EV) are the solution that can provide a sustainable transportation alternative to reduce carbon footprints. The design of a battery-powered DC traction motor system for an electric vehicle is presented in this study. The proposed EV system consists of a battery energy source, bidirectional DC-DC converter, and traction motor. The accurate mathematical modelling of the PI-controlled bi-directional DC-DC converter is incorporated in this work to provide the desired voltage at the motor side and to maintain the power flow under steady-state and dynamic conditions. In view of the demand of explicit speed control attribute of the EV and non-linear characteristics of traction motor with overall system unpredictable disturbances, this paper also illustrates the design and modelling of feedback linearizing control with disturbance observer for the speed control of traction motor. The MATLAB/Simulink simulation model of the proposed system is developed to examine the performance of the proposed system under various operating conditions. The simulation is performed with calculated load torque with the exact velocity and acceleration rate at the traction motor which represents the exact EV dynamics. The simulation results indicate that the designed battery-powered EV with the proposed non-linear controller can follow the speed and load torque thoroughly.