Embedded BLDC Motor Control Platform

An embedded controls project for designing, implementing, and experimentally validating closed-loop velocity control of a brushless direct current (BLDC) motor.

The project combines a microcontroller, motor driver, rotor/speed sensing, embedded control firmware, telemetry, and a small host-side analysis stack. The finished system will command motor speed, measure the physical response in real time, reject disturbances, and produce repeatable plots and test results.

Project Goal

Build one complete bench-top BLDC control platform that demonstrates:

• reliable motor commutation through a suitable BLDC driver,
• measured rotor speed / position feedback,
• closed-loop velocity control,
• real-time telemetry,
• controller tuning and step-response characterization,
• disturbance-rejection testing,
• electrical and thermal measurements,
• documented experimental results.

This is intentionally not an open-ended attempt to build a production ESC. The end state is a documented experimental controls platform with reproducible tests.

System Architecture

        velocity setpoint
               |
               v
      +------------------+
      |  MCU Controller  |
      | PID / control    |
      +--------+---------+
               |
             PWM / command
               |
               v
      +------------------+
      |   BLDC Driver    |
      +--------+---------+
               |
          3-phase power
               |
               v
      +------------------+
      |    BLDC Motor    |
      +--------+---------+
               |
      encoder / Hall feedback
               |
               +--------------------> MCU

MCU telemetry --> USB/UART --> Python logger --> plots / analysis

Project Definition

Requirements

1. Select and document the motor, driver, MCU, sensor, and power supply.
2. Bring up the hardware safely in open loop or driver-native commutation mode.
3. Acquire speed or position feedback.
4. Implement a fixed-rate velocity-control loop.
5. Stream timestamped telemetry to a host computer.
6. Tune and validate the controller using repeatable test profiles.
7. Measure step response and steady-state tracking.
8. Perform at least one repeatable disturbance-rejection experiment.
9. Record current/power and temperature where practical.
10. Publish final plots, results, limitations, and reproducible instructions.

Explicitly Out of Scope

• custom high-power inverter PCB,
• production certification,
• sensorless startup research,
• full vehicle propulsion,
• multi-axis robotics,
• custom motor winding,
• advanced FOC unless added only after the baseline project is complete.

Suggested Baseline Hardware

The exact parts may change during bring-up. Prefer a low-voltage bench system with a supported BLDC driver/ESC, an MCU development board, and a sensored motor or external encoder.

The repository keeps hardware-specific decisions in hardware/ so the controls and analysis work remain cleanly separated.

Repository Structure

.
├── README.md
├── LICENSE
├── .gitignore
├── requirements.txt
├── docs/
│   ├── 00_project_scope.md
│   ├── 01_system_requirements.md
│   ├── 02_control_architecture.md
│   ├── 03_test_plan.md
│   └── 04_final_report_template.md
├── hardware/
│   ├── README.md
│   ├── bom.csv
│   └── wiring.md
├── firmware/
│   ├── README.md
│   ├── include/
│   │   ├── controller.h
│   │   ├── sensors.h
│   │   └── telemetry.h
│   └── src/
│       ├── controller.c
│       ├── main.c
│       ├── sensors.c
│       └── telemetry.c
├── host/
│   ├── README.md
│   ├── logger.py
│   └── plot_run.py
├── simulation/
│   ├── README.md
│   └── velocity_loop.py
├── experiments/
│   ├── README.md
│   └── test_matrix.csv
├── data/
│   └── README.md
└── results/
    └── README.md

Definition of Done

The project is complete when a clean checkout contains documentation and code to reproduce the following demonstration:

Command at least three motor-speed setpoints, log measured speed and controller output, quantify tracking performance, apply a repeatable load disturbance, show recovery, and summarize electrical/thermal behavior in a final report.

Minimum final artifacts:

• hardware BOM and wiring diagram,
• compilable firmware,
• host telemetry logger,
• raw CSV data from final experiments,
• plots for step response, tracking error, and disturbance rejection,
• controller gains and sample period,
• test matrix with pass/fail results,
• final engineering report,
• short demo video/GIF linked from this README.

Milestones

#	Milestone	Deliverable
01	Scope & architecture	Requirements, block diagram, hardware shortlist
02	Modeling	Simple motor/velocity-loop simulation
03	Hardware bring-up	Motor spins safely; sensor values verified
04	Telemetry	Timestamped host logging works
05	Closed-loop control	Stable velocity controller
06	Characterization	Step-response and tracking experiments
07	Robustness	Disturbance and operating-range tests
08	Finalization	Results, report, demo, reproducible release

Engineering Questions

The project should answer concrete questions rather than simply make a motor spin:

• How does controller gain selection affect rise time, overshoot, and settling time?
• How accurately can the system track velocity across its usable operating range?
• How quickly does it recover from a repeatable external load?
• Where do saturation, sampling, sensor noise, and deadband become important?
• How do current draw and temperature change with speed and load?
• Which limitations arise from the controller versus the physical plant?

License

MIT. See LICENSE.