Johnson Electric Uses Digital Twins to Validate Novel Actuator Design and Control Strategies
Reducing Validation Time for Sensorless Motor Control Before Physical Prototypes
“At Johnson Electric, we leveraged MathWorks tools to develop digital twins of our actuators, accelerate innovation, optimize control algorithms, and reduce time to validation.”
Key Outcomes
- Reduced validation time by approximately 20–30% when compared to a traditional hardware-first approach
- Enabled early evaluation of new motor designs and control strategies before physical prototypes were available
- Achieved accurate rotor position estimation for zero- and very low-speed operation
The Integrated Thermal Management System from Johnson Electric includes valve actuators. (Image credit: Johnson Electric)
Johnson Electric is a global manufacturer of electric motors, actuators, and other electromechanical components.
For its Integrated Thermal Management System, the company aimed to develop a compact actuator for valves that integrated electronics, a brushless motor, and flap-actuation mechanisms. A key requirement for this system was accurate rotor position estimation at very low and zero speeds. While physical sensors could provide position feedback, they increased cost and made it more difficult to meet compactness requirements.
Furthermore, high-frequency injection (HFI), an effective sensorless method for salient motors, does not function well with BLDC motors used in actuators, which have characteristics similar to surface-mount permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs). Exploring alternative motor designs through physical prototypes would also be costly and time-consuming.
To solve these challenges, the Johnson Electric team developed a new brushless motor topology with simulated saliency, enabling sufficient inductance variation for HFI-based rotor position estimation at zero and very low speeds. To evaluate the concept, the team developed a digital twin using Motor Control Blockset™, Simscape Electrical™, Simulink®, and Stateflow®.
Using the digital twin, Johnson Electric rapidly iterated and tested control algorithms. Reference implementations, such as extended EMF observers and double-pulse injection techniques, helped accelerate control development and evaluate the new motor topology before the physical prototypes were available.
Products Used
Related Resources
