The 2010 International Power Electronics Conference

FPGA Based Functional Link Radial Basis

Function Network Control for PMLSM Servo
Drive System
Faa-Jeng Lin * and Po-Huan Chou **
* Department of Electrical Engineering, National Central University, Chungli 320, Taiwan
** Department of Electrical Engineering, National Dong Hwa University, Hualien 974, Taiwan

Abstract--A field-programmable gate array (FPGA)
based functional link radial basis function network
(FLRBFN) control is proposed in this study to control the
mover of a permanent magnet linear synchronous motor
(PMLSM) servo drive system to track periodic reference
trajectories. First, the dynamics of the field-oriented control
PMLSM servo drive with a lumped uncertainty, which
contains parameter variations, external disturbances and
nonlinear friction force, is derived. Then, to achieve
accurate trajectory tracking performance with robustness,
an intelligent control approach using FLRBFN is proposed
for the field-oriented control PMLSM servo drive system.
The proposed FLRBFN is a radial basis function network
(RBFN) embedded with a functional link neural network
(FLNN). Moreover, the on-line learning algorithm of the
FLRBFN, including the connective weights, the centers and
the centers’ width of the receptive field functions, are
derived using back-propagation (BP) method. Furthermore,
an FPGA chip is adopted to implement the developed
control and on-line learning algorithms for possible low-cost
and high-performance industrial applications using
PMLSM. Finally, some experimental results are illustrated
to show the validity of the proposed control approach.
Index Terms--Field-programmable gate array, functional
link neural network, radial basis function network,
permanent magnet linear synchronous motor.
I. INTRODUCTION
In general, intelligent control approaches such as
neural and fuzzy mechanisms are dynamic model-free
control techniques. Therefore, many studies on neuro-
fuzzy approaches for controller developments and for
describing the dynamic behaviors of complex systems
have been published [1]. In these approaches, the RBFN
method, which took local receptive field to perform
function mappings, was investigated in [2]. Because the
The basic idea behind an FLNN is the use of the
functional links. These functional links generate
nonlinear transformations of the original input space
before they are fed to the network which constructs the
output layer. In other words, the input variables can be
enhanced and linear separability can be achieved in the
extended space using the FLNN [5]. Moreover, the
FLNN can capture nonlinear input-output relationship by
the adequate set of polynomial inputs since the high order
effects are incorporated in the input variables to increase
the dimension of the input space. Thus, FLNN is suitable
to be applied in system identifications or control
applications [5-7]. In [5], since the structure offers less
computational complexity compared to multi-layer
perceptron (MLP), an FLNN was adopted for adaptive
channel equalization in a digital communication system.
For the pattern recognition problem, an FLNN was
adopted for the fingerprint and speaker verification
decisions in [6]. In [7], an FL-based FNN was developed
for temperature control since it can generate a nonlinear
combination of the input variables as the consequent part
of the fuzzy rules.
II. PMLSM SERVO DRIVE SYSTEM
The block diagram of a field-oriented control PMLSM
servo drive system is shown in Fig. 1, where d is the
d
position of the mover; v is the velocity of the mover; m
v
is the position command; m is the velocity command.
The PMLSM servo drive consists of a ramp comparison
current-controlled PWM voltage source inverter, a field-
oriented mechanism. With the implementation of field-
oriented control, the model of the PMLSM servo drive
L linear

RBFN has a simple structure, the convergence speed of 110V

60Hz
rectifier C
ҙ
ҟ
PWM
inverter
PMLSM
scale
&
Hall
the RBFN is faster than a multilayer perceptron (MLP) sensors

network. Moreover, the RBFN has similar features in the Ta Tb Tc

ramp ia

following as the fuzzy system: (i) The output value is comparison

current ib

obtained by using a weighted sum method; (ii) The control

ia* ic*
receptive field functions in RBFN are similar to the
ib*
+
position v
m +
speed iq*
dm ¦ loop ¦ loop limiter
coordinate
membership functions of the premise part in the fuzzy
- controller - controller
v translator
d id* = 0

system. As a result, the RBFN is one of the powerful cos θ e sin θ e

tools for the systems control development [3-4]. sin/cos

generator

digital U,V,W,d
filter
and d/dt

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of the

National Science Council of Taiwan, R.O.C. through its grant NSC 95- Fig.1. System configuration of PMLSM servo drive.
2221-E-008-177-MY3

978-1-4244-5393-1/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE 1377

 The 2010 International Power Electronics Conference

fˆ1 fˆ2 fˆ j B. Structure of FLRBFN

y ( 4)

Σ Σ ... Σ Layer 4 Σ
wM 1 wM 2 w1 j (output layer)
w21 w22 wMj
w2 j wm2
w11
w12 ym( 3)

Layer 3
(hidden layer)

φ1 φ2 ... φM y (j2)
Σ Σ … Σ
Function expansion

Layer 2 w 1Mj
x1 x2 (FL layer)
φ1 φ2 … φM
Fig.2. Structure of FLNN.
Function expansion

can be simplified to a control system block Layer 1

diagram as follows, in which [2]:

(input layer)
x1 x2

Fe = K F iq* (1) Fig.3. Structure of FLRBFN.

The structure of the FLRBFN is a three-layer RBFN
where K F is the thrust coefficient; iq is the control
*
embedded with an FLNN as shown in Fig. 3. To give a
effort. Then, the mover dynamic equation using the clear understanding, the signal propagation and the basic
electromagnetic force shown in (2) is function of each layer are introduced in the following:
Layer 1 (input layer):
Fe = Mv + Dv + FL + f (v) (2) In this layer, the node output is represented as

where M is the total mass of the mover; D is the viscous yi(1) = xi(1) , i = 1, 2 (4)
friction and iron-loss coefficient; FL is the external
where xi(1) and yi(1) are the input and output of the ith
disturbance term, f (v) is the friction force. It is very
important to compensate the uncertainties including the node in this layer. In this study, x1(1) and x2(1) are the
parameter variations, external disturbances and friction tracking error e and its derivative e , respectively.
force. Layer 2 (FL layer):
In this layer, each node represents the outputs of the
III. PROPOSED CONTROL SYSTEM FLNN. The FLNN is designed to increase the
dimensionality of the input variables and provide greater
A. Functional Link Neural Network
discrimination capability in the input variables space [4].
To improve the accuracy of the function
For the jth node
approximation, an FLNN is adopted to implement the
function expansion for the proposed FLRBFN. The y (j 2 ) = fˆj ( yi(1) ) j = 1, 2, !, k (5)
architecture of the FLNN is shown in Fig. 2, in which the
functional link acts on each input variable by generating a
where y j is the output of the layer 2.
( 2)

set of linearly independent functions, i.e., function

expansion. In the function expansion of the FLNN, the
basis functions such as trigonometric, Gaussian or other
orthogonal polynomials are feasible. In this study, the
trigonometric function is adopted [4]. Therefore, for an
input vector X = [ x1 , x2 ]T , the input variables can be
separated in the enhanced space as ĭ = [φ1 , φ2 , ..., φ M ]T =
[1, x1 , sin(πx1 ), cos(πx1 ),
sin(πx2 ), cos(πx2 ), x1 x2 ] , where x1 x2 is the outer product
T
Layer 3 (hidden layer):
In the conventional RBFN, each node in this layer usually
adopts Gaussian function or a logistic function [2] as the
receptive field function. In order to reduce the
computational requirements and facilitate the hardware
implementation using FPGA, the triangular function
shown in Fig. 4 is selected as the receptive field function
x2 , in the following:

term. Furthermore, the output of the FLNN is given by a ­ if y (j 2 ) ≥ c jm + σ j

linear sum of the jth node as: ° 0
° or y (j 2 ) ≤ c jm − σ j
fˆ j = ¦ w1Mjφ M ( X) , M = 1, 2, ", 8 and j = 1, 2, ", k (3) °° y ( 2 ) − c jm + σ j
Γ jm ( y (j2 ) ) = ® j if c jm − σ j < y (j 2) ≤ c jm
M
° σj
where k is the number of the output nodes of the FLNN; ° − y (j 2 ) + c jm + σ j
° if c jm < y (j 2 ) ≤ c jm + σ j
fˆ j is the output of the FLNN; w1Mj is the connective °¯ σj
weight; φ M is the output of function expansion.
j = 1, 2, !, k , m = 1,2,!, f (6)

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ī jm ( y(j2) )
∂E ∂E ∂y ( 4 )
1 δ m( 3) = − = − ( 4 ) ( 3) = δ ( 4 ) wm2 (13)
ī1( y1(2) ) ∂ym
( 3)
∂y ∂ym
ī3 ( y3( 2) )

and the update law of c jm is

σ3 σ2 σ1

ī 2 ( y2(2) )

∂E ∂y ( 3) ∂y
( 2)
∂E
c3m c 2m 0 c1m y (j2 )
y3( 2 ) y2( 2 ) y1( 2 )
Δ c jm = −η m = −η m ( 3) m( 2 ) j
Fig.4. Triangular functions in hidden layer of FLRBFN. ∂c jm ∂y m ∂y j ∂c jm
­ ( 3) 1
where f is the number of the hidden nodes; c jm and σ j °− η mδ m σ if c jm − σ j < y (j 2 ) ≤ c jm (14)
° j
are the center and center’s width of the triangular =®
°η δ ( 3) 1
function, respectively; ī jm ( y j ) is the output of the
( 2)
if c jm < y (j 2 ) ≤ c jm + σ j
°¯ m m σ j
receptive field function. Then, in this layer, the node
output is represented as
where the η m is the learning rate of the center. The
k

ym( 3) = ∏ Γjm ( y (j2 ) ) j = 1, 2, !, k , m = 1,2,!, f (7) update law of σ j is

j =1
∂E ∂y ( 3) ∂y j
( 2)
∂E
where y is the output of the layer 3.
( 3) Δσ j = −ησ = −η σ ( 3) m( 2 )
m ∂σ j ∂y m ∂y j ∂σ j
Layer 4 (output layer):
In the output layer, the weighted sum method is used to
calculate the output of the FLRBFN. Then, the node ­ c jm − y (j 2 )
°ησ δ m if c jm − σ j < y (j2 ) ≤ c jm
( 3)

output becomes ° (σ j ) 2
=® (15)
°η δ ( 3) y j − c jm
( 2)
f

¦y if c jm < y ≤ c jm + σ j
( 2)
y ( 4)
=i =
* ( 3)
w 2
m = 1,2,..., f (8) ° (σ j ) 2
q m m σ m j
m=1 ¯
where wm2 is the connective weight between the hidden where the factor ησ is the learning rate of the center’s
layer and the output layer; y is the output of the ( 4)
width. The center c jm and the center’s width σ j of the
FLRBFN as the trust command current. receptive field function are updated as follows:
c jm (n + 1) = c jm (n) + Δc jm (16)
C. On-Line Learning Algorithm
To describe the on-line learning algorithm of the
FLRBFN using gradient decent method, first the energy σ j (n + 1) = σ j (n) + Δσ j (17)
function E is defined as
Layer 2:
1 1 The error term propagated in this layer is derived as
E = (d m − d ) 2 = e 2 (9)
2 2 ∂E ∂E ∂ym(3)
δ j( 2 ) = − = − = δ m( 3) (18)
Then the learning algorithm is described as follows: ∂y (j 2 ) ∂ym( 3) ∂y (j2 )
Layer 4:
The error term to be propagated is given by According to (18), the connective weight is updated as

∂E ∂y m( 3) ∂y j
( 2)
∂E ∂E ∂d ∂E
δ ( 4) = − =− (10) Δw1Mj = −η 2 = −η 2 = η 2δ m( 3)φM (19)
∂y ( 4)
∂d ∂y ( 4 ) ∂w1Mj ∂y m( 3) ∂y (j 2 ) ∂w1Mj

and the connective weight is updated by the amount where the factor η 2 is the learning rate of the connective
weight in layer 2. The connective weight wMj is updated
1
∂E ∂E ∂y ( 4 )
Δw = −η1 2 = −η1 ( 4 )
2
= η1δ ( 4 ) ym( 3) (11)
m
∂wm ∂y ∂wm2 according to the following equation:
w1Mj (n + 1) = w1Mj (n) + Δw1Mj (20)
The connective weight wm2 is updated according to the
following equation: The exact calculation of the Jacobian of the system,
w (n + 1) = w (n) + Δw
2 2 2
(12) ∂d / ∂y ( 4 ) , is difficult to be determined due to the
m m m
unknown dynamics of the PMLSM servo drive system.
where the η1 is the learning rate of the connective To overcome this problem, the delta adaptation law is
weight. adopted as follows [8]:
Layer 3:
The error term propagated in this layer is derived as δ ( 4 ) ≅ (d m − d ) + (dm − d ) = e + e (21)

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+
3-Phase
220V L PWM
PWM
rectifier C inverter
inverter PMLSM
60Hz
- encoder
FPGA Ta Tb Tc
timing control module ramp ia
comparison
field-oriented control module current
control ib
ia
*
encoder
24MHz sinθ e & cosθ e 12
signal
CLK generator ib* data & D/A ia* ib* ic*
12
controller
coordinate 12 ic
*

36
12 θe translator D/A
converter
data & D/A
control signal
command 12 dm input FL layer output 12
•
generator layer layer iq*
12
•
d hidden layer
6

encoder 12 v
interface
on-line learning algorithm
encoder interface module dm
FLRBFN control module
24
Data & D/A D/A
controller converter d

digital oscilloscope
A, B , Z , U , V , W
Fig.6. Photographs of experimental setup.
Fig.5. Block diagram of FPGA based control system.

VI. CONCLUSIONS
where dm and d represent the first derivatives of the
This study successfully demonstrates the application of
reference trajectory and the mover position of the an FLRBFN control to control the mover position of a
PMLSM, respectively. field-oriented control PMLSM servo drive for the
tracking of periodic reference trajectories. First, the
IV. CIRCUITS DESIGN ON FPGA CHIP dynamics of the field-oriented control PMLSM servo
The block diagram of the FPGA-based control drive was introduced. Then, the network structure and
PMLSM motion control system is shown in Fig. 5. The theoretical bases of the proposed FLRBFN control were
proposed control system is realized on a 24MHz FPGA described in detail. Moreover, the circuits design of the
(XC2V1000) with 1 million gate counts and 10240 flip- proposed intelligent control via an FPGA chip was
flops from Xilinx, Inc using VHDL with the Q-format discussed. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the proposed
arithmetic representation. Integrated Software intelligent control system has been confirmed by
Environment (ISE) version 8.1i from Xilinx, Inc is experimentation. From the experimental results, the
adopted to develop the FPGA chip. A linear scale with FPGA based PMLSM servo drive system possesses the
resolution 1 μm is adopted to detect the position of the advantages of good transient control performance and
moving table. To implement the FLRBFN control robustness to uncertainties for the tracking of periodic
system, the timing control module, encoder interface reference trajectories.
module, field-oriented control module and the FLRBFN The major contributions of this study are the
module are realized on the FPGA chip, respectively. successful development and hardware implementation
Moreover, the execution interval of the control algorithm using FPGA of the on-line training FLRBFN for the
is 1.366ms (732Hz). field-oriented control PMLSM servo drive system.
Moreover, the developed VHDL code can be easily
V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS modified and implemented to control any type of AC
motors.
The photographs of the experimental setup including
the PMLSM, the motor drive, the FPGA chip and the ACKNOWLEDGMENT
development system using PC are shown in Fig. 6.
Moreover, an RBFN controller [2] is also implemented in The author would like to acknowledge the financial
the experimentation for the comparison of the control support of the National Science Council of Taiwan,
performance. Furthermore, to demonstrate the R.O.C. through its grant NSC 95-2221-E-008-177-MY3.
effectiveness of the proposed FLRBFN control system,
the parameter variation condition with the addition of one REFERENCES
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drive system.

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1mm mover 1mm

mover
position
position

0mm 0mm reference

trajectory
reference
trajectory -1mm
2s 2s
(a) (a)

control effort control effort

0V 0V

2V 2V
2s 2s
(b) (b)

tracking error tracking error

50Ӵm 50Ӵm
2s 2s
(c) (c)
1mm mover 1mm
mover
position
position

0mm 0mm
reference
reference trajectory
trajectory -1mm
2s 2s
(d) (d)

control effort control effort

0V 0V

2V 2V
2s 2s
(e) (e)

tracking error tracking error

2s 2s

50Ӵm
50Ӵm

(f)
Fig.7. Experimental results of RBFN controller for periodical
sinusoidal reference trajectory. (a) Tracking response at nominal
condition. (b) Control effort at nominal condition. (c) Tracking
error at nominal condition. (d) Tracking response at parameter
variation condition. (e) Control effort at parameter variation
condition. (f) Tracking error at parameter variation condition.
(f)
Fig.8. Experimental results of RBFN controller for periodical
trapezoidal reference trajectory. (a) Tracking response at nominal
condition. (b) Control effort at nominal condition. (c) Tracking
error at nominal condition. (d) Tracking response at parameter
variation condition. (e) Control effort at parameter variation
condition. (f) Tracking error at parameter variation condition.

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1mm mover 1mm

mover
position
position

0mm 0mm
reference
trajectory
reference
trajectory -1mm
2s 2s
(a) (a)

control effort control effort

0V 0V

2V 2V
2s 2s
(b) (b)

tracking error tracking error

50Ӵm 50Ӵm
2s 2s
(c) (c)
1mm mover 1mm
mover
position
position

0mm 0mm
reference
trajectory
reference
trajectory -1mm
2s 2s
(d) (d)

control effort control effort

0V 0V

2V 2V
2s 2s
(e) (e)

tracking error tracking error

50Ӵm
2s
(f)
Fig.9. Experimental results of FLRBFN controller for periodical
sinusoidal reference trajectory. (a) Tracking response at nominal
condition. (b) Control effort at nominal condition. (c) Tracking
error at nominal condition. (d) Tracking response at parameter
variation condition. (e) Control effort at parameter variation
condition. (f) Tracking error at parameter variation condition.
50Ӵm
2s
(f)
Fig.10. Experimental results of FLRBFN controller for periodical
trapezoidal reference trajectory. (a) Tracking response at nominal
condition. (b) Control effort at nominal condition. (c) Tracking
error at nominal condition. (d) Tracking response at parameter
variation condition. (e) Control effort at parameter variation
condition. (f) Tracking error at parameter variation condition.

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