AC motor PWM control system based on x86 processor board and linux-embedded OS

The continuous enhancement of microprocessor (muP) performances, operating systems (OSs) and communication networks are pushed forward by the rising request of graphical, multimedia and control applications and of high-speed industrial and general-purpose communication tools. OSs have been embedded in a ever-growing number of applications, and their use has been recently extended to industrial drives. In this work an experimental PWM motor drive has been realized by using a common x86-based platform supported by a Linux-compatible operating system. Thanks to a multi-tasking embedded OS, the drivepsilas CPU can simultaneously perform parallel processes such as drive control, drive and machine diagnostics, and high-speed communication toward field and upper plant levels, each process being assigned with a different priority level. The drive is mainly dedicated to future research about these enhanced functionalities. Hardware, devices, and Linux-OS resources used for drive realization have been described, with experimental results.