Super-Twisting Sliding Mode Control to Improve Performances and Robustness of a Switched Reluctance Machine for an Electric Vehicle Drivetrain Application

In electric vehicles, performances of electric vehicle drivetrains depend on the electric machine and the control. Switched Reluctance Machines (SRMs) are today an alternative to rare earth magnets machines such as Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine (PMSM), which is used in the vehicle drivetrain. Because of its high nonlinear behavior, the classical control designed for SRMs is not sufficient to obtain good performances. The objective of this paper is to make performance and robustness comparisons of the designed robust controllers considering the high nonlinear behavior of SRMs. Sliding Mode Control (SMC) and Super-Twisting Sliding Mode Control (STSMC) are developed and validated by simulation for the velocity control loop and the current control loops of the control strategy. However, an evaluation of their performances compared to classical control based on PI controllers is carried out. For a robustness comparison, a variation of SRM parameters is carried out by simulation using the three controllers. Finally, an experimental validation on a developed test bench using the three controllers is conducted to show that Super-Twisting Sliding Mode Control (STSMC) is the best in terms of performances and robustness for an electric vehicle application.