Microprocessor control of an electric vehicle

This paper will investigate the use of a micro-processor to control the operation of a d-c series motor that is used to drive a battery powered van. The microprocessor will accomplish this control by sampling the speed of the vehicle and comparing this speed to the desired speed, which is set by the operator, and then vary the duty cycle of the SCR chopper based on the computed speed error to maintain the vehicle at the desired speed. It should be pointed out that the reference speed signal is not to be preset such that the microprocessor must maintain only one speed, but rather the input speed reference is capable of being varied continuously from zero to maximum rated speed and the microprocessor is to track this varying reference and control the vehicle to this speed.