Analog Devices demos high performance development platform for rapid deployment of motor control systems

PCIM 2011, NUREMBERG, GERMANY: Analog Devices Inc. demonstrated a development platform which can be used to design and optimize motor control systems with any type of motor. By coupling the power efficiency of the Analog Devices’ Blackfin processor with the flexibility of Matlab, a high-level technical computing language and interactive environment for algorithm development, and Simulink, a model-based design environment, the development platform embraces the key objectives for reducing power consumption, development time and costs.

The Blackfin-based development platform enables rapid deployment of advanced control algorithms which maximize the efficiency of permanent magnet synchronous and ac induction motors. Model based designs using Matlab and Simulink enable motor drive manufacturers to quickly develop new sensorless and sensored motor control algorithms that improve drive efficiency and reduce development time.

“We are collaborating with Boston Engineering to create a tool that will allow engineers to produce a working design within a couple of hours of opening the box,” said Anders Frederiksen, motor and power control segment manager, Analog Devices, Inc. “Engineers will also be able to test many different control schemes easily and effectively for designing drives, robotics, and servo-control systems, among other motor control applications.”

The development platform includes hardware and software to start designing “out of the box” using the included motor with different kinds of controllers. By utilizing Analog Devices’ ADSP-BF506A Blackfin processor, engineers can model their system in Matlab/Simulink, generate the C code, and deploy with Analog Devices’ Visual DSP++ Design Environment with bandwidth remaining for application code. Alternatively, engineers can use Boston Engineering’s C libraries where specific embedded needs are required.

“Together with Analog Devices, we are developing a high-performance platform that takes advantage of the flexible MathWorks’ Matlab/Simulink environment with added power of Analog Devices’ Blackfin Processor,” added Erik Goethert, account manager at Boston Engineering Corps. “With the availability of modelling and design libraries in the Matlab/Simulink environment, design engineers can develop, debug, and test new control loops quickly and easily.”