DC Motor Speed Control using Internal Model Controller: Industrial Transformation Strategy

In developed nations, industries are made to function at control engineering costs via the use of appropriate control schemes for dc motors. This paper introduces the role played by dc motors in industries thereby necessitating the analysis and performance validation of dc motor in Internal Model Control (IMC) scheme as against the Proportional– Integral–Derivative (PID) control schemes that is widely used in most industries. Theories on dc motor model, PID and IMC controller were detailed to paved the way for the methodical approach of getting specifications and transfer function for a typical dc motor (model RMCS-3011). Matlab/Simulink software was then used to tune the PID controller for the purpose of finding the values of PID gains that meets the design requirements to achieve best performance, thereby enabling the simulation of the PID controller. Using Matlab m-file environment, IMC controller transfer function was generated and simulated. The IMC controller transfer function aimed at achieving a unity gain that tracks the set-point was approximately realized. In the realization process, it was obvious that a filter is required. The aim of this work is to evaluate the performance of the IMC controller over PID controller. Simulated plots in Matlab-Simulink using the PID gains for the PID controller, and time constants and filter order for the IMC were presented. The quantitative results of the IMC method when compared with that of PID control provides a commendable performance. However, the performance in terms of rise time is small and preferred with the use of Matlab-Simulink tuned PID controller. Conclusively, IMC controller would be the preferred controller where the robustness and accuracy of the dc motor speed control counts more than faster response