COTS-Based Real-Time System Development: An Effective Application in Pump Motor Control

George K Adam,Panagiotis A Kontaxis,Tilemachos Stylianos,Nikos Petrellis

doi:10.3390/computers9040097

George K Adam, Panagiotis A Kontaxis + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/computers9040097

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Abstract

The progress of embedded control systems in the last several years has made possible the realization of highly-effective controllers in many domains. It is essential for such systems to provide effective performance at an affordable cost. Furthermore, real-time embedded control systems must have low energy consumption, as well as be reliable and timely. This research investigates primarily the feasibility of implementing an embedded real-time control system, based on a low-cost, commercially off-the-shelf (COTS) microcontroller platform. It explores real-time issues, such as the reliability and timely response, of such a system implementation. This work presents the development and performance evaluation of a novel real-time control architecture, based upon a BeagleBoard microcontroller, and applied into the PWM (pulse width modulation) control of a three-phase induction motor in a suction pump. The approach followed makes minimal use of general-purpose hardware (BeagleBone Black microcontroller board) and open-source software components (including Linux Operating System with PREEMPT_RT real-time support) for building a reliable real-time control system. The applicability of the proposed control system architecture is validated and evaluated in a real case study in manufacturing. The results provide sufficient evidence of the efficiency and reliability of the proposed approach into the development of a real-time control system based upon COTS components.

Highlights

Efficient control approaches and motor controllers have always been used in engineering systems.In the last few decades, advances in microelectronics technology have made it possible to build new devices, which support complete or partial control, based on numerous control architectures and methodologies
The latest progress and achievements show that the majority of such systems for motor speed regulation and control is based upon microprocessors and microcontrollers
We investigated the feasibility of using commercially off-the-shelf (COTS) components to real-time control and the feasibility of applying the proposed control system architecture, through a case study in machine construction

Summary

Introduction

Efficient control approaches and motor controllers have always been used in engineering systems.In the last few decades, advances in microelectronics technology have made it possible to build new devices, which support complete or partial control, based on numerous control architectures and methodologies. Efficient control approaches and motor controllers have always been used in engineering systems. The latest progress and achievements show that the majority of such systems for motor speed regulation and control is based upon microprocessors and microcontrollers. The most efficiently used controllers proved to be the adjustable frequency alternating current (AC) controllers [5,6]. Such controllers include a pulse width modulated (PWM) driver. PWM is one of the primary digital methods for direct current motor control, in which the pulse duration of the motor’s voltage is modulated by varying the duty cycle, which is the fraction of time that the output voltage

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