Variable speed switched reluctance drive for low cost applications

This paper presents the development of a variable speed switched reluctance drive, which was designed for low cost applications. The cost minimization is focused on two aspects, which are the processing unit and the rotor position sensor. The drive uses a cheap CPLD (complex programmable logic device) as the processing unit instead of a microprocessor. A simple optical position sensor is used to replace an expensive encoder. The performance of the drive is limited as a trade-off with the cost reduction. The experimental results show that the achieved performance is sufficient for low cost applications like pumps and fans with variable speed capability.