Ant colony based feedback controller design for soft-starter fed induction motor drive

The objective of this work is to design and implement a closed loop system for induction motor starting at rated current. Thyristorized AC voltage regulator is used as the starting equipment and motor current regulation is carried out using an optimally tuned Proportional-Integral (PI) controller. Since, AC voltage controller fed starting of induction motor is a non-linear process, identification of optimal values of PI controller constants is performed using a novel ant colony based optimization technique. The complete drive system including AC voltage controller fed induction motor in conjunction with optimal PI controller is first simulated in MATLAB and subsequently verified experimentally. The successful implementation with a low cost microcontroller illustrates the feasibility of the new approach. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.