2010 International Conference on Electrical and Control Engineering

Active-disturbance Rejection Control of Brushless

DC motor Based on BP Neural Network
Zhi Liu, Hong Guo, Dayu Wang, Zhiyong Wu, Jinquan Xu
School of Automation Science and Electrical Engineering
Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Beijing, China
benbenzhi2008@163.com
AbstractBrushless DC motor speed servo system is
multivariable, nonlinear and strong coupling. Its performance is
easily influenced by the parameter variation, the cogging torque
and the load disturbance. To solve the deficiency, the paper
represents the algorithm of active-disturbance rejection control
(ADRC) based on back-propagation (BP) neural network. The
ADRC is independent of accurate system and its extended-state
observer can estimate the disturbance of the system accurately.
However, the parameters of Nonlinear Feedback (NF) in ADRC
are difficult to obtain. In this paper, these parameters are selfturned by the BP neural network. The simulation results indicate
that the ADRC based on BP neural network can improve the
performances of the servo system in rapidity, control accuracy,
adaptability and robustness.
Keywords: brushless DC motor (BLDCM); BP (back
propagation algorithms); ADRC (active-disturbance rejection
control); parameters self-turning.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Up to now, over 90% of the controllers are PI(Proportional

and Integral) and PID(Proportional, Integral and Derivative)
controllers, Brushless DC motor while using PID control has
the advantages of simple structure, high reliability and easy to
engineering achieves, so it is still widely used. And traditional
speed control system for brushless DC adopts motor usually
used PID control. Brushless DC motor speed servo system is a
multivariable, nonlinear, varying system. PID is a common
method, but it cant gain expected result to nonlinear object
with the complex mission and accurate goals. In recent years,
many modern control methods of speed regulation have been
proposed in these fields: adaptive control [1], Kalman filter [2],
variable structure control [3], fuzzy control [4], neural network
control [5].The variable PID control is designed along the
linear structure model. Due to the nonlinear and time-varying
feature of the system, PID control is difficult to provide a stable
dynamic characteristic.
The theory of auto-disturbance rejection control (ADRC)
proposed these years is a simple and practical method. It was
invented by Professor Han Jingqing who serves in Chinese
Academy of Sciences. This method does not depend on a
precise mathematical model of controlled object. It can
estimate and compensate the influences of all internal and
external disturbances in real time when system is activated.
The control has the advantage of simple algorithm, strong
978-0-7695-4031-3/10 $26.00 2010 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/iCECE.2010.794

robustness, fast system response and high anti-interference

ability. At present, this method has been applied to a number of
fields of frontier science and technology, such as robotics,
satellite attitude control, missile flight control, the fire control
of tank and the inertia navigation. However, the parameters of
ADRC need to be set in these occasions. The study of the
parameters self-turning is only at an exploratory stage at home
and abroad.
BP neural network has the capability of approaching to any
nonlinear function, and its structure and learning algorithm is
simple and clear, which is not dependent on the controlled
object model.
In this paper, through self-learning network, the nonlinear
feedback (NF) parameters in ADRC under a particular optimal
control law can be found. The simulation results indicate that
the ADRC based on BP neural network can improve the
performances of the servo system in response speed, control
accuracy, adaptability and robustness.
II.

MATHEMATIC MODEL OF THE BLDCM MODEL

The BLDCM produces a trapezoidal back electromotive

force (EMF), and the applied current waveform is rectangularshaped. The self-inductance is L, and the mutual inductance is
M. Hence the three-phase stator voltage balance equation can
be expressed by the following state equation.

0
0 ia ea
ua R 0 0 ia L M



LM
0 p ib + eb
ub = 0 R 0 ib + 0
u 0 0 R i 0
0
L M ic ec
c
c

(1)
Where, ua , ub , uc are the phase voltage of three-phase
windings; ia , ib , ic are the phase current of three-phase
windings; ea , eb , ec are the phase back EMF; p is differential
operator.
The electromagnetic torque of BLDCM is generated by the
interaction of the current in stator windings and the magnetic
field in rotor magnet. The electromagnetic torque equation is

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Te =

(ea ia + eb ib + ec ic ) =

4 Pm N
n

e = v1 v0
fh = fhan(e, v , r , h )

2 0

v1 = v1 + h v2
v2 = v2 + h fh

(2)

Where, Pm is pole numbers; N is total conductor numbers;

is mechanical angular velocity of motor.

III.

(3)
Where, v0 is the control objective, v1 is the track signal

BLDCM SERVO SYSTEM

of v0 , fhan() is a time optimal integrated function, which

detailed expression is described as equation (4).

d = r h, d 0 = r d , y = x1 + h x2

2
a0 = d + 8r y

(a d )
x2 + 0
sign( y ), y > d 0

2
a =

y
x2 + , y d 0

r sign( a ), a > d
fhan =
a

r ,a d

Figure 1.Schematic of BLDCM Speed Control System

As is shown in Figure 1, a double looped control with

cascade connection has been adopted in the system. The inner
loop is current loop which limits the ultimate current and
ensures the stability of the servo system. The outer loop is
designed to improve the static and dynamic performances of
the BLDCM servo system. The output of speed loop is given as
the set current signal of the current loop.

(4)

2) Extended-State Observer (ESO)

e = z1 y

z1 = z1 + h ( z2 1e)
z = z + h ( fal (e, 0.5, ) + b u )
2 2
2
0

In this paper, the speed loop uses the algorithm of ADRC

based on BP neural network (ADRC* in Figure.1).The
structure of ADRC based on BP neural network control system
is shown in Fig 2.

Where, h is the control cycle.

(5)

3) Output of Nonlinear Feedback (NF)

e1 = v1 z1 , e2 = v2 ,

u0 = 01 fal (e1 , 1 , ) + 02 fal ( e1dt , 2 , )

+ 03 fal (e2 , 3 , )

sgn( ), >
fal ( , , ) =
/ 1 ,

(6)

(7)
Where, the sgn( ) is the symbolic function. And the other
parameters can be found in [6].
B. Parameters turned by BP neural network
The parameters self-turning ADRC can be established
using the BP neural network. Three parameters 01 , 02 , 03 , in
NF are made on-line.

Figure 2.Schematic of ADRC based on BP neural network

A. Active-Disturbance Rejection Control

ADRC controller consists of three main parts: Transition
Process Arranged, Nonlinear Feedback and Extended-State
Observer.

Neural network, according to the system running status,

adjust the controller parameters to achieve a certain
performance optimization, It allows the output of neural
network corresponds to auto-disturbance rejection controller in
the three adjustable parameters 01 , 02 , 03 .Through selflearning neural networks, with weighed coefficient of
adjustment ,it make some kind of neural network output
correspond to the parameters under the optimal control rate.

1)Transition Process Arranged

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Three layer BP neural networks structure is designed in

this paper, as shown in Figure 3:

search, and add one to make the search fast convergence of the
global minimum of the inertia term.

w1(3)
i ( k ) =

E ( k )
+ w1(3)
i ( k 1)
w1(3)
i

(15)

Where, is the learning rate and set to 0.3,and

coefficient and set to 0.8.

is

the

The learning algorithm of the output layer is:

(2)
(2) (1)
w1(3)
i ( k ) = wij ( k 1) + i O j ( k )
3

(16)

i(2) = f (neti(2) (k )) l(3) wli3 (k )

Figure 3. The structure of BP Neural Network

i =1

The inputs of the input layer are:

O(1)
j = x ( j ) j = 1, 2M

(8)
Where, M depends on the numbers of the input which is set
to 2 in this paper. They are the speed command and the speed
feedback.
The inputs and the outputs are:
M

neti(2) (k ) = wij(2) O j (1)

(9)

j =0

O j (2) (k ) = f (neti(2) (k )) i = (1,...Q)

(i = 1, 2...Q)
Where, rin(k) and yout(k) are speed command and the
speed feedback.

IV.

In this paper, the simulation model of servo system for

brushless DC motor has been established in MATLAB/Simulink. The actual parameters used for brushless DC
motor can be taken reference for simulation ones, as shown in
table 1.

(10)

wij

are the weighting coefficients of the hidden

Where,
layer. Upper numbers are the input, output, and the hidden
layer. In the paper, the node of the hidden layer is set to 3.

f ( x ) = tanh( x ) =

e e
e x + e x

MOTOR PARAMETERS

Rated Speed
EMF Coefficient

The activation function of the hidden layer neuron uses the

symmetric sigmoid function with positive and negative feature.
x

SIMULATION AND ANALYSIS

Winding Resistance

(11)

The input and the output of the output layer are:

3000r / min
0.114V / ( rad / s )

Self-inductance

2.1mH

Mutual Inductance

0.7mH

Rotation inertia

2.5 10 5 kg m 2

(3) (2)
net (3)
j ( k ) = wij Oi ( k )
i =0

Oi(3) (k ) = g (neti3 (k ))
O1(3) (k ) = 01

(12)

O2(3) (k ) = 02
O3(3) (k ) = 03

A. The rapidity of the system

When the system has no load, the simulation of three
controlling methods is activated. The given speed is
3000r / min (the rated running state). The simulation results are
shown in Figure 4. The results show that the ADRC based on
BP neural network system has the fastest performance when
the system has no overshoot.

The output nodes of the output layer are three adjustable

parameters 01 , 02 , 03 . The activation function of the output

layer neuron uses the sigmoid function with positive feature.
1
ex
g ( x ) = (1 + tanh( x)) = x x
2
e +e
The performance index function is:

(13)

1
(14)
( rin( k ) yout ( k )) 2
2
In accordance with the gradient descent method to amend
the network function of the weight function. The negative
coefficient of the function by a weighted gradient direction
E (k ) =

Figure 4.Simulation curves in the rated running state

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B. The stability of the system against load disturbance

When the load suddenly changes to 0.25N m at time
0.07s, the velocity curves are shown in Figure 4. The
simulation results show that the ADRC based on BP neural
network system has the highest stability.

(b)ADRC due to variable inertia

(c)ADRC based on BP neural network due to variable inertia

Figure.6 The speed response curve due to variable rotation inertia

V.

Figure.5 The speed response curve due to variable load

C. The robustness of the system against the variation of the
parameters of the motor
When the rotation inertia doubles, the velocity curves are
shown in Figure 5. The simulation results show that the ADRC
based on BP neural network has the strongest robustness. An
overshoot can be clearly observed in Figure 5(a).

CONCLUSION

The paper uses ADRC based on BP neural network as the

speed controller of the BLDCM servo system. By comparison
with PID controller and ADRC controller, the simulation
results testify that the system with the proposed algorithm has
fast response, small overshoot. And the algorithm realizes the
self-turning of the parameters in ADRC. Meanwhile, the whole
control system has a high stability against load disturbance and
strong robustness against the variation of the parameters of the
motor model.
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