Abstract:
Switched reluctance motors are desirable option for aerospace applications to meet more elec tric aircraft (MEA) strategy because of their high torque-to-inertia ratio, compact size, fault
tolerance and robustness. Even though, the currently existing aircraft actuators are reliable
they are heavy weight, rigid and slow response time. Aircraft actuator applications require
high reliability and high-power density while aiming to decrease weight, complexity, opera tional costs and environmental impacts. Electric actuators system can be operated efficiently
over mechanical, hydraulic or pneumatic systems by using high-performance electric motors
with suitable power converter and optimal control strategy. This study proposed new control
strategy SRM drive used in aircraft actuators. It utilized a cascade control system of ANN optimized second order sliding mode control (SOSMC) which was designed to handle the
non-linearity and parameters uncertainty in SRM. The particle swarm optimization (PSO)
technique was used for tuning SOSMC parameters. Simulation of the proposed system was
tested and analyzed by MATLAB/SIMULINK software at no load test, under loaded test,
time varying load and with disturbance conditions. To show the effectiveness of the proposed
controller, the comparison was done with SMC and SOSMC controllers. Thus, the proposed
controller shows good transient response with the rise time and settling time advancements
of 3.7% and 4.1% respectively using ANN-SOSMC controller compared to both SMC and
SOSMC controllers under loaded condition. The SMC controller encountered the chattering
effect at the steady state response but it showed similar transient response rise and settling
time with that of SOSMC. The torque ripple was reduced by 9.9% with ANN-SOSMC when
compared with the SOSMC controller. Generally, the proposed controller outperformed both
the SMC and SOSMC controllers performance.