Motor control system and method

1. A system for controlling an electric motor, said electric motor including at least three coils and a rotor, said system comprising:

at least three h-bridges each coupled with a respective coil for a voltage command to the respective coil thereof;

at least three pulse width modulators, each pulse width modulator coupled with a respective h-bridge and determining a pulse width modulated signal for operating the respective one of the at least three h-bridges, said pulse width modulated signal corresponding to a voltage respective of each coil;

a shaft encoder, associated with said rotor, determining a position of said rotor; and

a commutator coupled with said shaft encoder and with each of said pulse width modulators, for determining said voltage respective of each coil according to a received target velocity, said commutator further dividing the voltages between said at least three h-bridges according to the position or said rotor.

2. The system according to claim 1 , further including:

a current sensor coupled with each of said coils for determining an instantaneous current flowing through said coils;

a current controller coupled with said current sensor and with said commutator, for determining a respective voltage command aimed at minimizing a current error between the instantaneous current flowing through the respective coils and the target velocity.

3. The system according to claim 1 , wherein said pulse width modulated signal is one of a slow decay signal, a fast decay signal and a mixed decay signal.

4. The system according to claim 1 , further including:

at least three current control loops between said commutator and pulse width modulators, each of said at least three current control loops being associated with a respective one of said at least three coils, each current control loop including:

a current controller coupled with said commutator, for determining a respective voltage command for the respective coil thereof aimed at minimizing a current error between an instantaneous current flowing through the respective one of said at least three coils and a respective modified coil current; and

an h-bridge coupled with said current controller for providing said voltage command to the respective coil thereof.

5. The system according to claim 2 , further including:

a current feedforward for determining a respective forward voltage according to the respective target velocity and motor electrical parameters;

a first summer, between said commutator and said current controller, coupled with said commutator, with said current controller and with said current feedforward for producing a modified voltage to commutator.

6. The system according to claim 4 , wherein each of said current control loop further includes:

a current feedforward coupled with said commutator, for determining a respective forward voltage according to the respective modified coil current and motor electrical parameters; and

a third summer coupled with said current feedforward and said current controller for producing a modified voltage for the respective coil thereof.

7. The system according to claim 5 , further including:

a velocity controller coupled with said shaft encoder, for determining a current command aimed at minimizing a velocity error between an instantaneous velocity of said rotor and said target velocity;

a velocity feedforward coupled with said first summer, for determining a forward current according to a prediction of the current required to reach said target velocity;

a second summer coupled with said velocity controller, with said current controller and with said current feedforward, for producing a modified current according to said current command and said forward current.

8. The system according to claim 7 , further including a motion profile generator, coupled with said velocity controller, for generating a rotor motion profile, and for producing a velocity command according to said rotor motion profile.