EtherCAT-Based connected servo drive using fast current loop on PMSM

The Configurable Logic Block (CLB) present in this device can help to interface to a wide range of absolute serial encoders, typically seen in many industrial drives for position sensing, without external logics or FPGAs. The position encoders used in this evaluation are QEP and Tformat type. The platform used is TI's DesignDRIVE IDDK EVM kit and the C2000Ware MotorControl SDK. 

Frequency response analysis is performed in software using TI's Software Frequency Response Analyser (SFRA) library running in realtime on the control MCU F28388D. Besides controlling the motor, the MCU also performs EtherCAT communication with a TwinCAT running on PC. F2838x MCU is a part of the C2000™ family of microcontrollers. 

It has has two C28x CPU cores and an Arm Cortex-M4 core for performing control and communication effectively using a range of powerful peripherals for digital power and motor control applications. In servo drive space, it enables cost-effective design of intelligent, high bandwidth controllers for three-phase motors, by reducing the system components and increasing efficiency. 

Due to the higher level of integration of hardware accelerators, features and software support, FCL algorithms can be effectively implemented on this device to rival or surpass similar implementations using FPGA in terms of performance, cost and development time.

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