ANFIS Based Soft-Starting and Speed Control
of AC Voltage Controller Fed Induction Motor
Mohammad Ayyub, Member, IEEE
Abstract—An intelligent ac voltage controller is proposed for
the control of induction motor. It controls the motor speed by
adjusting the firing angles of the thyristors. Adaptive Network
fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) based controller was designed
for open-loop sensor less control. The results obtained were
satisfactory and promising. In addition to simplicity, stability,
and high accuracy such controller gives soft starting. It is
suitable to control induction motor as a soft starter and speed
adjustment in compressors, blowers, fans, pumps, and many
other applications.
Index Terms—AC voltage controller, adaptive neuro fuzzy
inference system (ANFIS), firing angle, soft starter, thyristors.
I. INTRODUCTION
T HE application of AC voltage controllers are increasingly
used for control of small induction motor fed fans,
blowers, compressors, centrifugal pumps etc. [1-2].
Although the performance of above drives are satisfactory but
their starting is accomplished with high current and losses.
The electrical and mechanical stresses on the motor are more.
AC voltage controllers are used in these applications where
soft starting is also achieved. The static soft starters has
following advantages over conventional starters:
• Smooth acceleration, which reduces mechanical stress
on the drive system.
• Reduced stress on electrical supply due to reduced
starting current, hence elimination of voltage dip and
brown out conditions [3].
• Energy saving at light load conditions. A reduced
voltage can be applied if the load torque requirement is
met at reduced flux. Copper and iron losses will also be
reduced [4].
Soft starting can be achieved by simple change in the
control logic of the static AC voltage controller. Thus single
controller can be used for speed control, starting and stopping
with minimum electrical and mechanical stresses on the drive
system. Appropriate delay angle (α) has to be applied, which
gives appropriate reduced voltage corresponding to the
required operating condition of speed at a given torque.
M. Ayyub is with Electrical Engineering Department, Z. H. C. O. Engineering
& Technology, A. M. U. Aligarh, U. P., India (e-mail
m_ayyub03@yahoo.co.in).
0-7803-9525-5/06/$20.00 ©2006 IEEE.
However, adjusting the voltage to achieve an operating
condition for given speed and torque is a difficult job. Also, it
is not easy to find the exact value of α [5]. Closed loop
control method of voltage regulators that require speed sensor
is reported in [2]. Sastry et al [6] have proposed an optimal
soft starting method without speed sensor, but it requires
sensing of voltages across the thyristors. Gastli et al [5] have
discussed an ANN-based soft starting of voltage-controller
fed induction motor drive.
Adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) is an
intelligent technique and is proved to be efficient in problems
like classification, modeling, and control of complex systems
[7[-[9]. ANFIS has advantages over conventional fuzzy
systems as it provides standard method of interpreting system
information into specific fine-tuned rules and membership
functions through training process [9][11]. Therefore, this
paper aims at applying ANFIS for selecting the thyristors’
firing angles of a voltage-controller feeding the induction
motor. The proposed controller operates in open loop without
any requirement of speed or voltage sensing. High accuracy
was achieved with the proposed controller and is simple.
II. AC VOLTAGE CONTROLLER
The configuration of the drive is shown in Fig. 1, in
which a three-phase voltage controller fed induction motor is
shown. The firing sequence for the six thyristors was the
standard symmetrical firing [2] as shown in Fig 2. It should be
noted that to have a current flowing into the motor at least two
thyristors must conduct. The reference for delay angle (α) is
the zero crossing of the supply voltage for the respective
phase.
The three-phase induction motor was modeled with
orthogonal axes representation fixed with stator and the
devices were modeled according to their operating
characteristics. The simulation model was developed in
Matlab-Simulink environment. This model was found to give
satisfactory performances. The data for training the adaptive
neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) was obtained by
having several runs of the simulation and getting the firing
angle, speed, and torque pair from each run. Complete system
to obtain training data with constant load torque is shown in
Fig. 3. Fig. 4 shows the speed-torque characteristics obtained
from the simulation runs that give steady-state speed for
constant load torque with different values of delay angle (α).
 1
A 2.5
α = (0 - 30 0)
4 40
2
3
B Induction 50

Torque (p.u.)
Motor
6 1.5
60
5
C
70
1
2
Fig.1. AC voltage-controller fed Induction Motor. 80
0.5
90

100
Q1 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

α Speed (p.u.)

Q2 Fig. 4. Speed-torque characteristics for different α.

III. ADAPTIVE NEURO FUZZY INFERENCE SYSTEM

Q3
The adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) is a
fuzzy system and used in classification, modeling and control
Q4 problems [9]. It is based on Takagi and Sugeno’s fuzzy if-then
rules representation [7]-[9][11], which is different from
π+α
commonly used fuzzy logic controllers [11][12]. The
Q5
consequent part of the rule is a function of input variables.
The system considered in this paper has two inputs, viz. the
Q6 load torque (T) and the desired motor speed (ωm), and the
firing angle (α) is the only output. The inference mechanism
π/3 2π/3 π 4π/3 5π/3 2π
of ANFIS is mathematically expressed by the set of rules.
Fig. 2. Firing sequences of thyristors.
These rules are generated through the experience of operating
the system, which may be feedback from the plant operator,
Ia rm s s ignal
design engineer, or the expert. The kth rule is generally
alpha
+
expressed in the form (If premise THEN consequence) and is
a g
g
-
v
0 .5 given by:
g a ti n g a
Tm m
k k
A A A a If (T is A i ) and (ωm is B j ) Then (α is fk)
b B b
B B
C c
k k
c IM p u
where, A i and B j are the ith and jth fuzzy term sets of
C C

3 -p h so u rce A C Re g u l a to r
wm m representing T and ωm respectively. The consequent function
fk is represented as f k = pk T + qk ωm + rk . The parameters
Fig. 3. Matlab/Simulink model to generate training data. pk, qk, and rk are adjustable. These parameters were tuned in
training phase. The proposed work considered seven fuzzy
It is to be noted that for α ≤ 30 the characteristics are
0 subsets for each variable and resulting 49 rules cover the
whole input space. Bell-shaped membership function was
similar. This may be because of the firing angle a being
considered for each fuzzy subset each having three
smaller than the load impedance angle ( α ≤ φ ) and parameters. Each fuzzy subset (say Ai) is defined by a
continuous conduction of current takes place. Thus changing membership function µ A i (x ) as in (1).
α below 300 will not change the applied voltage across the
motor. The system parameter considered for the simulation
1
studies are [5][10]: 1/3 hp, 4 pole, 50 Hz 220 V, squirrel-cage µ A ( x ; a i , bi , c i ) = 2 bi
⎛ x − ci ⎞ (1)
i
three-phase induction motor. The motor parameters in per unit
with rated voltage taken as base voltage and base power taken 1 + ⎜⎜ ⎟⎟
as 375 watts are as given below: ⎝ ai ⎠
where (ai, bi, ci) is the parameter of antecedent fuzzy set Ai of
Rs = 0.0566 p.u. Rr = 0.1252 p.u. the ith membership function. These parameters control the
Ls = Lr = 1.0318 p.u. M = 0.969 p.u. shape of the bell-shaped membership function. The ranges of
Moment of inertia (J) = 1.5 p.u. these parameters are chosen to accommodate most of the
standard shapes used in fuzzy system.
 The architecture of the ANFIS considered in this paper is region. More rules are required to classify large training data
shown in Fig. 5, which has five layers. Per unit values are present in this region.
considered for input. Layer 1 is the fuzzification layer where
the values of membership for each input are calculated. Layer TABLE I
ANFIS hybrid learning
2 is the rule inference layer where the firing strength of each Forward pass Backward pass
rule (wk) is calculated using product inference [9]. These Premise
firing strengths are normalized in layer 3. The consequent parameters
Fixed Gradient descent
functions (fk) are calculated in layer 4 and layer 5 calculates Consequent
LS-estimator Fixed
the weighted sum consequent functions and output from this parameters
layer is a, which can be expressed as: Signal Node output Error signal

N
α = ∑ϖ k f k (2)
1

k =1
0.5
where α is the firing angle, N is the number of rules, and ϖ k
is the normalized firing strength of kth rule.
0
An overview of the ANFIS considered in this paper is
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
given in Fig. 5. It can be observed from the architecture that (a)Speed
for fixed values of premise parameters the overall output is a ( )
linear combination of consequent parameters. There will be 1
147 consequent parameters (49 rules x 3 parameters = 147
0.8
parameters). Thus forward path will calculate till layer 4 with
0.6
fixed premise parameters and the consequent parameters can
then be identified by least-square method. In backward path 0.4
the error signal is considered and premise parameters (2 inputs 0.2
x 7 fuzzy term sets x 3 parameters = 42 parameters) are 0
updated by gradient decent method. This hybrid-learning 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
algorithm is summarized in Table I, which tunes 189 (b)Torque
parameters in all (147 linear parameters + 42 nonlinear ( after
Fig. 6. Final membership functions ) training.

parameters = 189 parameters).

IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
T
N

N The ANFIS model and motor model were implemented

...
with Simulink Power System Blockset and Simulink Toolbox
T .
N
as in Fig. 7. The load considered was a pump or a fan load
. having following torque-speed characteristics:
. . N
.
... .
.
N
α
.
. N
∑
TL = kω m2 Nm (3)

where k = 1.8 (N m s2/rad2) is a constant

ωm
. N
. The input was the reference speed ( ω ref ) and simulation
. N
...
studies for motor starting, braking and speed control were
carried. The reference torque (Tref) was generated from the
N

ωm
Normalization

reference speed and the load model (2). These two references
Fuzification

Consequent
inference
Input
layer

layer
Rule

( ω ref and Tref) were the input to the ANFIS controller. The
layer

Output
layer

layer

layer

output from the controller is the firing delay angle α. The

triggering logic and gate pulse generator block (it is indicated
Fig. 5. Structure of ANFIS ac voltage controller.
as Pulses block in the diagram) generated the required gating
patterns for the thyristors as in Fig. 7.
The initialization for ANFIS training was done by grid
The simulation speed was done for speed control with
partition [9]. The training data obtained from off line
reference speed was changed from 0 to 0.45 p.u. At 6 seconds
simulation of the motor with different torques and firing
it was changed to 0.7 p.u. and at 8.5 seconds it was set to 0.5
angles and the corresponding steady state speed was recorded
p.u. It is obvious from the result depicted in Fig. 8 that the
for each set. The training was done for 150 epochs, after
actual speed effectively tracks the reference speed and there is
which the sum of squared error was reached to 0.006, which is
no oscillation in the response.
within acceptable limit. The final membership functions after
The ac voltage controller described above can be used for
the training is shown in Fig. 6. It can be noted that the
soft starting, in addition to speed control. Soft starting can be
membership functions crowded near the rated value. This may
accomplished by manipulating the speed reference signal in
be due to overlapping and bunching of the curves in this
such a way that the stress on the motor is minimized. A ramp
 w Ia
a
T T w

ANFIS load model w_ref rms signal

controller
+ wm
v
a g g - m
Te
a
Pulse
k*u^2
A A
Tm m
i
+
b -
A a
B B
B b

c C c
C C

AC voltage IM
3-ph
source regulator

Fig. 7. Simulation model with ANFIS controller.

0 .8

0 .6
R e f. S p e e d
A c tu a l S p e e d

0 .4

0 .2

0
0 5 10 15
T im e (s e c .)

Fig. 8. Response for speed change. (a) Reference and actual speeds

signal with appropriate slope was used to start the motor from 5
zero to the final speed. Fig. 9 shows the variation of speed,
current and torque with respect to time during the start-up of 4
the motor from zero to the final speed. Studies with direct-on-
line starting were also conducted to compare the 3 I (rms)
performances. Fig. 10 shows the results for this study. It can
be noticed that for direct-on-line starting the current attains 2
more than four-and-half times the rated current before settling
down to its steady-state value. The developed electric torque 1
also reaches the value as high as four-and-half times the rated
torque. We can also note that the torque and current oscillate
0
for some time. Because of the oscillations in current the 0 5 10 15
Time (sec.)
electric supply system is subjected to stress and may result in
voltage dips. On the other hand, the oscillations in torque (b) Line current (rms value)
decreases the life of gearboxes, motor bearing, motor shaft, 2
belt etc. During soft starting, Fig. 9, the magnitude of current
remains around its steady-state value and it results in the
developed electric torque sufficient enough to overcome the 1 .5
load torque. Fig. 9(a) shows the variation of actual speed of
D e v e lo p e d T o r q u e
the motor. It follows the reference speed and smoothly settles 1 L o a d T o rq u e
to the final speed where it exactly matches with the reference.
Because of smooth rise in speed the motor current and
developed electric torque (Te) have smooth variations and has 0 .5
no oscillations. It can be noted that Te has a peak value
slightly above one-and-half times the rated torque, which is 0
much reduces a value compared to its value with direct-on- 0 5 10 15
T im e ( s e c . )
line starting.
(c) Developed electric torque and load torque.
Fig. 9. Soft-starting with ramp reference.
 5 voltage starting of squirrel-cage induction motors”, IEEE Trans. Ind.
4 .5 Appl. vol. IA-20, no. 1, pp. 46-55, Jan./Feb. 1984.
4
[4] N. Mohan,” Improvement in energy efficiency of induction motors by
3 .5 means of voltage control”, IEEE Power App. Syst., vol. PAS-99, pp.
3
146-1471, Jul./Aug. 1980.
[5] A. Gastli and M. M. Ahmed,” ANN-based soft starting of voltage-
2 .5 controlled-fed IM drive system”, IEEE Trans. Energy Convers., vol. 20,
2 no. 3, pp. 497-503, Sept. 2005.
T o rq u e
[6] V. V. Sastry, M. R. Prasad, and T. V. Sivakumar,” Optimal soft starting
1 .5
of voltage-controller-fed IM drive based on voltage across thyristors”,
1 Speed IEEE Trans. On Power Electronics, vol. 12, no. 6, pp. 1041-1059, Nov.
0 .5
1997.
[7] T. Takagi and M. Sugeno,” Fuzzy identification of systems and its
0 applications to modeling and control”, IEEE Trans. on System, Man
0 1 2 3 4 5 and Cybernetics, Vol. , no. , pp. 116-132, 1985.
T im e (s e c .)
[8] M. Sugeno, editor,” Industrial Applications of fuzzy control”, Elsevier
(a) Variation of speed and developed electric torque. Science Pub. Co., 1985.
[9] J. S. Jang, C. T. Sun, and E. Mizutani,” Neuro-Fuzzy and Soft
5 Computing – A computational approach to learning and machine
4 .5 intelligence”, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey,
1997.
4 [10] T. A. Lipo,” The analysis of induction motor with voltage controlled by
3 .5 symmetrically triggered thyristors”, IEEE Trans. on PAS, vol. 90, pp.
515-525, March 1971.
3 [11] N. Gulley and J. S. R. Jang,” Fuzzy Logic Toolbox – a reference
2 .5
guide”, The MATHWORKs Inc, 1995.
I (rm s ) [12] M. Ayyub,” Application of genetic algorithm for optimal design of
2
Tl fuzzy logic controller”, in Proc. Of AICTE sponsored Natl. Conf. on
1 .5
Control, Communication and Information Systems, at Goa Government
Engg. College, Goa during Jan. 23-24th, 2004.
1

0 .5

0
0 0 .5 1 1 .5 2 2 .5 3 3 .5 4 4 .5 5
T im e ( s e c .) VII. BIOGRAPHIES
(b) Load torque and motor current.
Fig. 10. Direct-on-line starting.
Mohammad Ayyub (M’1995) was born in Chilha in
the state of Jharkhand, on January 15, 1961. He
V. ACKNOWLEDGMENT graduated from Institute of Technology, B. H. U.
The author gratefully acknowledges the suggestions from Varanasi, U. P. in 1984 and completed his M. Tech.
in Power Apparatus and Systems from I. I. T. Delhi.
F. Azeem and A. Iqbal that resulted in improvements in this He joined Electrical Engineering Department; A. M. U. Aligarh, U. P.,
work. India in 1985 and is now Associate Professor in the Department. His field of
interest includes intelligent control of machines and processes, electric drives
and SVC for power transmission system.
VI. REFERENCES
Ayyub is a life member of ISTE (India), System Society of India and
[1] P. C. Sen,” Power Electronics”, Tata McGraw Hill, 1987. member of Industrial Engineering and Computational Intelligent Societies of
[2] S. B. Dewan, G. R. Slemon, and A. Straughen,” Power Semiconductor
Drives”, Wiley Interscience, 1984. IEEE, USA. He received best paper award and best paper presentation award
[3] F. M. Bruce, R. J. Craefe, A. Lutz, and M. D. Panlener,” Reduced at several national conferences.