IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON EDUCATION, VOL. 49, NO.

3, AUGUST 2006

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Three-Phase Machines and DrivesEquipment for a

Laboratory-Based Course
S. A. Shirsavar, Member, IEEE, Benjamin A. Potter, Member, IEEE, and Isabel M. L. Ridge

AbstractThe hazards associated with high-voltage three-phase

inverters and high-powered large electrical machines have resulted in most of the engineering courses covering three-phase
machines and drives theoretically. This paper describes a set
of purpose-built, low-voltage, and low-cost teaching equipment
that allows the hands-on instruction of three-phase inverters and
rotating machines. The motivation for moving towards a system
running at low voltages is that the students can safely experiment
freely with the motors and inverter. The students can also access
all of the current and voltage waveforms, which until now could
only be studied in textbooks or observed as part of laboratory
demonstrations. Both the motor and the inverter designs are for
teaching purposes and require minimal effort and cost.
Index TermsBrushless dc motor, course, induction motor, inverter, teaching.

I. INTRODUCTION

TILIZING a mixed variety of pedagogical approaches

to enhance student learning is widely accepted among
educators [1], [2]. By considering adult learning styles, researchers can show that using a variety of stimuli promotes
deep learning [3] and ensures that each adult learner is presented with the material so that it appeals to individual learning
patterns [4].
Laboratory and practical classes play a major role in the education of scientists and engineers [5]. In the field of engineering
education, latest research suggests that the pedagogical learning
objectives of practical sessions generally go much further than
simply supplying an additional stimuli, therefore promoting additional skills and deep learning [6].
The extra skills learned in practical sessions are an integral
part of engineering as a discipline and, from the engineering
educators point of view, the goals for a practical session are
much wider than just the promotion of deep learning. Fry et al.
[6] suggest that these additional aims may include the following:
gaining practical skills and experience of practical pieces
of equipment;
making links between theory and practice;
gathering, manipulating, and interpreting data;
forming and testing hypotheses;
developing problem-solving techniques;
motivating and exciting students.

Manuscript received February 20, 2004; revised April 25, 2006.

S. A. Shirsavar and B. A. Potter are with the Department of Electronic Engineering, School of Systems Engineering, University of Reading, RG6 6AY U.K.
I. M. L. Ridge is with the School of Construction Management and Engineering, University of Reading, RG6 6AY U.K.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TE.2006.879266

The results of two recent surveys of the electronic engineering

students at the University of Reading, Reading, U.K. [7], [8] corroborate many of the above suggestions. Both of these surveys
verified that the engineering students overwhelmingly prefer
an experimental approach to teaching. The vast majority (over
80%) of the students in these surveys felt that experiments enhanced their grasp of the core subject and their understanding of
the theoretical material and made the course more interesting.
However, the study of three-phase rotating machines and their
associated power electronics as part of an undergraduate electronic engineering course seems to lack any significant practical work. This scarcity is indeed understandable because, traditionally, hands-on experiments are not easy to introduce into
such courses. The two main reasons for this difficulty are the
high voltages present in three-phase inverters and the mechanical hazards associated with motors. This problem is particularly acute in departments geared toward electronic engineering,
where the laboratories in general are not equipped for high voltages and rotating machines. Thus, unless explicitly geared toward electrical engineering, many electronic engineering students are only able to follow a mainly theoretical approach.
To solve this problem, the introduction of alternative teaching
methods enhance student learning. Some of these methods use
computers and simulation packages [9], [10], while most of the
work that advocates the use of purpose-built hardware teaches
only dc motors [11], [12]. Indeed, a complete absence of experiment-based teaching material seems to exist for three-phase
inverters driving a three-phase induction motor. This lack of material can be directly attributed to the commercial unavailability
of low-voltage, three-phase induction machines and their associated inverters.
A solution to the above problem is presented in the excellent work of Undeland and Mohan [13]. In their paper, the authors overcome the unavailability of low-voltage, three-phase
induction machines by designing and constructing their own
three-phase induction motor running off a 42-V dc bus. Although a 42-V dc bus voltage is much lower than in typical
systems, the resulting inverter voltages will still be too high
to allow for hands-on student experimentation, as currently the
maximum voltage permitted for use in undergraduate experimentation in many of the United Kingdoms universities stands
at 30-V dc.
The above discussion shows the existence of a real practical
problem, which has so far prohibited the vast majority of undergraduate students from experimenting with three-phase machines and inverters.
In order to address this problem, this paper describes the
construction of low-voltage (12-V), three-phase induction,

0018-9359/$20.00 2006 IEEE

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Fig. 1. Power stage of the proposed inverter.

brushless dc motors, and an associated three-phase inverter.

The equipment has been designed to be both relatively inexpensive (circa U.S. $25) and easy to construct. Furthermore,
since the inverter runs at only 12 V, the students are able to
experiment freely with the motor and inverter and access the
various waveforms at different points in the circuitry. This
ability to experiment enhances their understanding of the basic
principles of three-phase induction machines and drives.
One must note at this point that the purpose of this paper is
not to prove that experimental work enhances student learning in
engineering courses, as this concept has already been proven by
educationalists [1][6]. The objective of this paper is to inform
colleagues of a novel, easy, and low-cost method of introducing
experimental work into a topic that has suffered from lack of
laboratory work in many educational establishments.
All information required to reproduce these components is
presented, and colleagues who are interested in introducing a
hands-on, practical element to their power electronic courses are
encouraged to make full use of the material presented here. Any
comments or suggestions would be gratefully received. The desire is that the information presented here will assist engineering
educators in improving the instruction of this discipline.
In the following sections, the construction of the inverter and
motor and some experimental results and feedback received
from the students will be described.
II. CONSTRUCTION OF A LOW-VOLTAGE
THREE-PHASE INVERTER
Commercial inverters are not appropriate for undergraduate
teaching. Unavoidable safety issues associated with the high
voltages that these units generate are present, making it difficult, if not impossible, to access the waveforms generated by
such inverters.
In addition, commercially available inverters are far more
complicated than the simple form of a three-phase H-bridge
depicted in most textbooks. Commercial inverters possess circuitry associated with surge protection, electromagnetic inter-

ference suppression, high-side drivers, current limiting, overvoltage protection, and optical isolation. In addition, most new
commercial inverters use all-in-one power modules containing
all the power switches in one package, rendering access to individual switch signals almost impossible.
A simple H-bridge inverter was designed to show the students
clearly how the circuitry relates to classroom material or descriptions found in electronics textbooks. To allow the students
some hands-on experience, a further requirement was for the
operating voltage to be lower than the minimum permitted safe
voltage. In the case of the United Kingdom, this requirement is
50-V ac, equating to a dc bus voltage lower than 30 V.
Since the inverter has been designed as a teaching tool, several features within the design facilitate ease of functional description, ease of construction, and low cost. One notes these
features will, in general, be at the expense of performance.
Fig. 1 depicts the schematic circuit diagram for the power
stage of the inverter, while Fig. 2 depicts the schematic circuit
diagram for the microprocessor control stage of the inverter.
The use of monolithic, integrated circuits (ICs) incorporating
all six switches has been avoided so that the students can have
easy access to all signals within the H-bridge inverter when the
basic operation of the three-phase, H-bridge inverter is taught. In
addition, no isolation is provided in order to simplify the circuit
further.
P-type, metaloxidesemiconductor field-effect transistors
(MOSFETs) have been used on the high-side of the H-Bridge,
i.e., M1, M3, and M5. P-type MOSFETs have the advantage
that they can be switched without the need of expensive and
often delicate high-side drivers, thus reducing circuit complexity and cost. A further simplification has been obtained by
using a MOSFETs parasitic diode for freewheeling purposes
[14]. Furthermore, all six power switches are slightly overrated
to eliminate the need for heatsinking.
The microcontroller stage of the circuit simply consists of
one bottom of the range 8-b microprocessor with its associated
20-MHz clock and voltage regulator. The microcontroller gen-

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385

Fig. 2. Microcontroller stage of the proposed inverter.

Fig. 4. Low-voltage, three-phase, PCB-mounted induction motor.

Fig. 3. Fully constructed inverter.

erates all six pulsewidth-modulated (PWM) outputs, incorporating within them the necessary dead time. The switching frequency is set to 3 kHz, while the base speed is fixed at 100 Hz.
This specification allows the six PWM signals to be generated
by a lookup table and permits the use of an inexpensive, low-performance processor. The microprocessor code, written in the C
programming language, is straightforward and has not been included in this paper. However, if required, the code can be obtained by contacting the corresponding author.
The entire circuit is routed on a single-sided board to allow
easy, in-house construction. The complete printed circuit board
(PCB) layout, its silkscreen, and the component lists are included in the Appendix.
Fig. 3 depicts the fully constructed inverter. The most expensive component in the circuit is the microprocessor at U.S.
$3.80, and hence educational establishments will be able to
make their own inverters with minimal cost and effort.
III. CONSTRUCTION OF LOW-VOLTAGE THREE-PHASE MOTORS
The three-phase induction motor and the three-phase brushless dc motor that will be described in this section share the same

simple stator assembly. Therefore, it is only necessary to exchange the rotors in order to switch between the different motor
types.
A. Miniature Three-Phase Induction Motor
Winding the electromagnets is a major problem when constructing any kind of motor by hand. In the case of induction
and brushless dc machines, construction is easier because no
rotor windings are present; only the stator needs to be wound.
However, even the smallest motors require thousands of turns of
very fine wire for each phase to produce enough magnetomotive
force at a reasonable current.
The easiest means of producing suitable windings was to remove the solenoids from simple, proprietary relays. Although
not the cheapest solution, relay solenoids provided compact,
uniformly wound coils with sufficient electromagnetic force at
reasonable current. The relays, from which the solenoids used
in the motor shown in Fig. 4 were taken, cost around U.S. $3
each. Of course, the winding distribution of the above motor is
different from a commercial machine and will not be able to produce any usable torque. However, for understanding the basic
principles, this arrangement will suffice, especially for courses
geared towards electronic engineering where the main emphasis
will be on the power electronic inverter.

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Fig. 5. Interchangeable rotors used in the motors.

Fig. 6. Stator PWM voltage and sinusoidal current.

The rotor was made from a piece of copper pipe with end caps
fitted top and bottom and is shown in Fig. 5 (bottom left). The
rotor shaft was taken from a miniature dc motor.
Having chosen the coils and rotor, the stator assembly was
simply mounted on a PCB that provided the electrical connections for the coils. The stator circuit was designed so that the
stator configuration could be changed between star and delta
with the use of a switch. If desired for further simplicity, the
switch could be removed and the coils permanently connected
in one configuration. The delta configuration is preferable to
give the greatest start-up torque and, hence, the lowest operating
voltage.
B. Miniature Three-Phase Brushless dc Motor
The stator of the brushless dc motor is identical to the induction motor assembly described above. However, the rotor
for this type of motor is made of permanent magnets. Manufacture of magnets, specifically for the rotor, would be prohibitively expensive and unnecessary. A permanent-magnet rotor
can be made by removing the stator magnets of the miniature
U.S. $1 dc motor and attaching them to the rotor as is shown
in Fig. 5. By removing the windings from the rotor shown in
Fig. 5 (center) and attaching the two semicircular magnets that
were used to make the stator of the dc motor, the finished rotor
shown in Fig. 5 (right) can be constructed. The rotor of the induction and brushless dc motors are fully interchangeable in the
stator assembly.
IV. RESULTS
Both motors, with both stator assemblies, were found to operate smoothly with dc bus voltages as low as 12 V when connected to the inverter described earlier in this paper. The overall
system is well within safe voltage limits and presents no significant electrical risk to the user. In addition, since the kinetic energy in the rotor is very low because of its small size, no significant mechanical risks are present. Students can now have full,
safe access to all the voltages and currents, which would normally be impossible with commercial motors and inverters.
As an example, the statement Fig. 6 depicts the stator voltage
and the stator currents for a delta-connected induction motor. As
can be seen from Fig. 6, although the stator voltage is clearly a

Fig. 7. Dead time between the gate drive signals.

PWM square wave, the stator current is a sine wave with slight
harmonics.
By expanding the time base of the voltage waveform, the students can for the first time observe the dead time generated by
the inverter under safe low-voltage conditions. A typical waveform is depicted in Fig. 7.
In addition, since most modern oscilloscopes provide a
Fourier Transform function, students can now also study the
switching harmonics experimentally. The frequency spectrum,
displayed using a digital oscilloscope, is depicted in Fig. 8;
harmonic analysis is a prime example of one of the many
important topics that so far could only be studied theoretically.
By way of summary, the inverter and motors presented in this
paper allow students to carry out hands-on, practical investigations into, but not limited to, the following topics:
the generation and use of PWM waveforms;
inverters, gate drive signals, and the use of dead time;
harmonic content of the inverter voltage outputs;
running three-phase machines and start-up characteristics;
differences and similarities between dc brushless motors
and ac induction motors;
currents and voltages in the motors stator windings;
differences between star and delta stator configurations;
harmonic content of the stator currents and the low-pass
filtering effect of the coils.

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Fig. 8. Switching harmonics on the current waveform.

Fig. 10. Silkscreen for the inverter.

TABLE I
BILL OF MATERIALS FOR THE INVERTER

Fig. 9. PCB layout for the inverter.

V. STUDENT FEEDBACK
As stated in the Introduction of this paper, the objective of this
paper is not to prove that experimental work enhances student
understanding. This concept has already been proven and has
been referenced in this paper. Nevertheless, the students in the
School of Systems Engineering at the University of Reading
who used this equipment as part of their course were surveyed.
The vast majority of students in this survey (over 80%) expressed that experimentation with the inverter and motor, including the ability to carry out hands-on tests, made the subject of electrical machines and power electronics much easier
to understand and far more interesting. In addition, the students
wanted to see a similar approach adopted in their other subjects.
VI. CONCLUSION
The hazards, both electrical and mechanical, associated with
typical three-phase inverters and machines have meant that
the vast majority of related course material is theoretical. This
paper describes a miniature, low-voltage three-phase inverter
and motor that avoids these hazards and allows the student
direct and full access to all signals and motor elements.

The stator design allows for the study of both a three-phase induction machine and a three-phase brushless dc motor by simply
changing the rotor. The designs of all parts of the system have
been carefully considered to produce a system which is simple
to manufacture and has a low overall cost (circa U.S. $25).
Typical oscilloscope readings covering voltages, currents, and
Fourier transforms of both voltages and currents have been included and show the wealth and range of practical investigations
that could be made by the student.
The feedback received from the students who have used the
presented teaching material was very positive. The feedback
showed that enabling students to have hands-on ready access to
such equipment not only rekindles interest in the subject, but
also significantly improves their understanding and promotes
deep learning.
APPENDIX
The complete printed circuit board layout for the inverter is
shown in Fig. 9, and the corresponding silkscreen is shown in
Fig. 10. The bill of materials for the inverter is shown in Table I.

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S. A. Shirsavar (M94) received the B.Eng. (Hons.) degree in electronic engineering and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Reading, Reading, U.K., in
1992 and 1998, respectively.
After a period of working in the industry designing embedded controller
hardware, switch-mode power supplies, and high-performance three-phase inverters, he returned to the University of Reading as a Lecturer, where he has
been teaching courses at all levels. His main research interests are in power electronics and renewable energy resources, in particular high-efficiency grid-connected inverters for use with solar panels.

Benjamin A. Potter (M04) received the M.Eng. (Hons.) degree in engineering

science from the University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K., in 2001. He is currently
working towards the Ph.D. degree at the University of Reading, U.K., and is
actively involved in lecturing and laboratory-based teaching.
His main research interests include electric machines and drives and power
electronics, in particular the modeling of the high-frequency behavior of induction machines.
Mr. Potter is a member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) in the
United Kingdom.

Isabel M. L. Ridge was awarded the B.Sc. degree in mechanical engineering

(with mathematics) and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Reading,
Reading, U.K., in 1988 and 1992, respectively. Her Ph.D. research focused on
the Bending-tension fatigue of wire rope.
Currently, she is a Principal Research Fellow in the School of Construction
Management and Engineering at the University of Reading, where she manages
the Rope Research Programme. Her main field of interest is in the behavior and
condition assessment of offshore mooring lines for oil platforms, which she has
studied for over 15 years. She is a member of the Organisation Internationale
Pour lEtude de lEndurance des Cbles (OIPEEC) Management Committee
and President of the OIPEEC Scientific Committee and is currently editor of
their bulletin.
Dr. Ridge is a member of the following professional societies: a Member
of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers (CEng, MIMechE); Registered with
FEANI (Eur. Ing.); a Member of the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing
(MInstNDT); and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts,
Manufacturers and Commerce (FRSA). In addition, she has received the following awards and prizes in recognition of her work: the Institution of Mechanical Engineers project prize (1988), the OIPEEC Award (1993), and the Worshipful Company of Turners design prize Silver Medal (1994).