A Note on the Passivity-based Control of Switched Reluctance Motors

In this paper it is shown that a previously reported passivity-based controller for Switched Reluctance Motors can be improved by eliminating the necessity of solving a transcendental equation to compute the desired behavior of stator currents when nonlinear magnetic circuits are considered. This advantage in the controller design is obtained by considering an alternative expression for the nonlinear relationship between fluxes and currents that includes the saturation phenomenon presented in the motor windings. Regarding the controller structure, its main feature lies in the fact that it states the possibility of implementing a passivity control law for a general class of models for this kind of motors. The usefulness of the proposed controller is evaluated by digital simulations comparing it with that obtained when a simplified model is considered.