[Editor's Note] As motor control technology is emerging as a key technology in advanced industries such as electric vehicles, smart factories, and robotics, the use of Matlab, Simulink, and various MCU tools is being upgraded. The e4ds Motor Control Technology Conference will be held at COEX in Samseong-dong, Seoul on the 14th. Industry and academic experts will be invited to one place to share the latest technology insights and enhance technical capabilities for engineers and developers.

Before this, we met with CEO Jongsu Lim, who was presenting on 'DC Motor Control Demo and Analysis using Matlab Simulink', and had a brief discussion about motor control and development know-how.

■ Please give a brief introduction of your company.

When I left Analog Devices in the US and started my own business, ‘Sujin’, I focused on precision smoke detectors. We are making smoke detectors based on 485, CAN, and 232 Modbus communication that can measure smoke in real time and then interface digitally while distinguishing between smoke and vapor, as well as electrochemical products that detect hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and various harmful gases used in hydrogen vehicles, and power analysis products such as red-line power meters.

Personally, I work in publishing and mainly develop program software such as ST Microelectronics, Cortex-related MCU embedded coding, development boards for that, and various Windows firmware.

■ There was an episode of trial and error in development during my doctoral studies.

Originally, I worked on FPGA with Samsung Electronics LTE modem for over ten years. Then, I was put in charge of motor control at Analog Devices, but since I didn't know much about that field, I started researching under Professor Won-Chung Hyun of Sungkyunkwan University.

But this (motor) is strong. In the past, there was no concept of isolation. As I did it, the motor exploded, the capacitors started sparking, and the oscilloscope tip just melted for a moment, which surprised me a lot.

■ About the components required to drive the motor

When I worked at Analog Devices, I handled a lot of related parts. MCUs operate at low voltages like 3 volts, but motors operate at very high voltages. In order to transmit signals well between low and high voltages, there are various electronic systems in the middle, such as dedicated gate driver components, chips that isolate low voltages from going to high voltages, various sensing-related amplifiers that sense the position or speed when the motor rotates, ADCs, DACs, and MCUs that can integrate and operate them.

I will also introduce such components in my seminar. Also, the discussion will mainly focus on implementation aspects, such as how to code programs when driven by MCU.

■ About motor simulation trends

In the past, there were several control methods for turning a motor, and many people used to code by hand and run it in C language on an MCU. When turning a traction motor, such as an electric car, humans can make mistakes.

I know that safety, verification, and certification are very strong in the automotive field, unlike other fields that deal with human life, because if a car misfires or something strange happens, it can be a big problem.

So rather than hand-coding, we model various motor control algorithms using Matlab, Simulink, Stateflow, etc., which are made by MathWorks, which are recognized and certified worldwide. We simulate this to create a virtual car. However, this virtual car is modeled mathematically to the extent that it is almost similar to an actual car.

If you insert some control theory as an accessory and simulate the whole thing and it runs correctly, you can convert the algorithm into the MCU code of the desired vendor. These days, each company uses this kind of simulation tool that blocks the source from mistakes like in the past, and it is becoming a necessity rather than an option.

■ Recommended tools useful during development

As many motors come out, safety standards are said to be very important. However, I cannot develop my products while checking whether or not they meet safety standards.

One of the tools that will be introduced in this seminar is called MXAM. Even at the Simulink level, it tells you whether the model itself complies with automotive safety standards before it is put into the MCU.

Another thing is, when coding with MCU, to check if the program is sleeping well, you upload it to the emulator, set a breakpoint, and debug it. However, the problem is that the motor control uses PWM switching, so when you set a breakpoint and stop to find out the value, if it goes high in PWM, it will stay high and eventually the inverter may explode.

So, not only inverters but also power conversion devices should not stop in the middle of PWM switching. However, if there is a malfunction and you want to know about it, you need to monitor the various data you created in real time, that is, the various variable values in C language in real time. At the same time, there is another tool that is used at such times without affecting the operation.

Tools that allow you to monitor it in real time, change values if something is wrong, graph it, extract data into Excel and view it, and have log files.

Actually, you can do it without these tools. However, I think it is important to make a product that is time-to-market, that is, one that performs well and is not behind competitors. I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to introduce and experience effective tools, so I added a lot of those to this seminar.

■ About what will be covered at the e4ds motor control technology conference

In this seminar, my part can be considered as a time to practice the basic and solid theoretical aspects taught by Professor Lee Taek-gi.

I think the course will be mainly filled with hands-on practice on things like how to model various formulas for DC motors in Simulink, for example, using Simulink, how to model PI control, IP control, and anti-windup in Simulink, what the corresponding results are, how to target the code to Infineon or other MCUs, whether the model complies with safety standards during the development process using various tools, and monitoring and modifying whether it goes to the data I want in real time on the board when downloaded.

■ A word to our readers

This is one of the processes that I will introduce to you during this seminar so that you can easily approach and understand the motor. I think it will be a useful time for you to attend the seminar. I will see you at the seminar time.

thank you