Introduction

The purpose of this project will be to design an electric vehicle regeneration braking system using a dynamometer (for motor control and feedback) and a Brushless DC (BLDC) motor. A dynamometer will be used as a varying load on the motor to simulate different road conditions (like hills or bumps). Specific sensors (3 Hall Sensors) for a BLDC motor will provide position feedback to the controller; position information of rotor is necessary to control a BLDC motor . For the BLDC motor, when it is coasting or braking, the controller system will provide regenerative braking to increase overall efficiency of input power/output power. To do so, the braking energy will be stored into a capacitor bank (connected externally to DSP interface). Once the energy stored in the capacitor comes to maximum potential, the excess energy can be burned out through the dynamic braking resistor. Then, when the motor needs to start again, the stored energy in the capacitor will dissipate, effectively restoring some of the input power back into the system.

Goals

The main project goal will be to construct an operational BLDC motor control system and a dynamometer control system to model a BLDC motor with varying load conditions set by the dynamometer system.