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Procedia Engineering 100 (2015) 299 304

25th DAAAM International Symposium on Intelligent Manufacturing and Automation, DAAAM

2014

PWM Control of a DC Motor Used to Drive a Conveyor Belt

Livinti Petrua* , Ghandour Mazenb
a

Vasile Alecsandri University of Bacau, Street Marasesti 157, Bacau, 600115, Romania
b
Lebanese University, Museum Square, Faculty of Engineering III, Beirut, Lebanon

Abstract
This work presents an experimental stand for the PWM control of a DC motor used for driving a conveyor belt. For supplying the
DC motor an H-bridge has been used that allows the reversal of the motor rotation wise. The PWM signal is generated by an
ARDUINO UNO board, equipped with an Atmega 328 microcontroller. For controlling the ARDUINO UNO board, a program
has been issued in the LabVIEW 2013 programming environment. The purpose of the experimental stand consists of studying the
running characteristics of the conveyor belts under laboratory conditions, so that, further on, such driving systems can be
implemented to industrial applications as well. Unlike other driving systems of conveyor belts, this system allows the
optimization, by trials, of their running duties. The running duty of a conveyor belt may be modified by modifying the duty-cycle
value of the PWM signals that controls the transistors of the H-bridge that supplies the DC motor. The PWM control of the DC
motor provides the performances settled at the designing stage.

by Elsevier
Ltd. This
an open Ltd.
access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
2015
2015Published
The Authors.
Published
by isElsevier
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of DAAAM International Vienna.
Peer-review under responsibility of DAAAM International Vienna

Keywords: PWM control; DC motor; Arduino board; LabVIEW; conveyor belt

1. Introduction
The most usual control method of a Dc motor rpm consists of the control through pulse width modulation (PWM)
[1], [2]. The motor rpm variation is performed by increasing or decreasing the time interval when the control signal
has the logic value 1 (tON). Thus, at a duty-cycle of 100%, the motor will have the maximum rpm, tON will be
maximal and tOFF will be zero. At a duty-cycle of 50 %, the motor will have half the rated rpm, so tON = tOFF.
Corresponding author. Tel.: +40 234542411 int. 169 ; fax: +40 234545753.
E-mail address: plivinti@ub.ro

1877-7058 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license

(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of DAAAM International Vienna

doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2015.01.371

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Livinti Petru and Ghandour Mazen / Procedia Engineering 100 (2015) 299 304

In case of a duty-cycle of 0%, the motor will be stopped, so tOFF will be maximal whilst tON will be zero. The dutycycle is noted by f and can be calculated through the relation:

(1)

In general, PWM signals are generated by microcontrollers, [3]. In an electric drive system micro-controllers form
the logic control or decision part and DC motors form the acting part. The control part operates with voltage levels
of 5V and low power and the acting part operates with higher voltage and power rates. For this reason an interface is
necessary between the two parts of the system. Such an interface is composed of an amplifier that frequently has the
role of galvanic separation between the two parts of the electric drive system. The block diagram of the DC motor
control by means of the H-bridge is shown at Fig. 1, [4].

S1

S3

DC

S4

S2

Fig. 1. Block diagram of the H-bridge.

The electric drive diagram presented above is made on the basis of several transistor type circuit breakers, GTO etc.
The bridge is built of four circuit breakers, actuated diagonally. When the circuit breakers S1 and S4 are switched on
(and S2 and S3 are switched off), Fig. 2.a, a positive voltage will be applied to the DC motor that will rotate clock
wise. By switching off the circuit breakers S1 and S4 and switching on S2 and S3, Fig. 2.b, the voltage polarity is
reversed, thus making possible the motor rotation counterclockwise.

S1

DC

DC

S4

S2

S3

S1

S3

S2

S4

b
Fig. 2. H-bridge functioning diagram.

The H-bridge is generally used for reversing the polarity of the motor supply voltage but it may be also used for
braking the motor (the motor stops suddenly because of short-circuiting its terminals) or for allowing the motor to
freely rotate until still. This work presents and experimental stand for the PWM control of a DC motor used for
driving a conveyor belt. For the supply of the DC motor an H-bridge has been used that allows the reversal of the
rotation wise of the motor. The PWM signal is generated by an ARDUINO UNO board, built with an Atmega 328
microcontroller, [5], [6]. For controlling the ARDUINO UNO board a program has been issued in LabVIEW 2013
programming environment, [7]. The experimental stand aims at studying the running characteristics of the conveyor

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Livinti Petru and Ghandour Mazen / Procedia Engineering 100 (2015) 299 304

belts under laboratory conditions and, further on, such driving systems to be implemented to industrial appliances as
well. Unlike other driving systems of conveyor belts, this system allows the optimization, through tests, of the
conveyor belt running duties. The running duty of a conveyor belt can be modified by changing the value of the
filling factor of the PWM signal that controls the transistors in the structure of the H-bridge that supplies the DC
motor.
2. Construction of the experimental stand
The block diagram of the experimental stand is shown at Fig. 3.
12 V Source

5 V Source

gear box
Arduino Uno

Computer

H-bridge

DC
motor

conveyor belt

Fig. 3. Block diagram of the experimental stand.

A picture of the experimental stand is shown at Fig. 4. The experimental stand is composed of: DC-motor (1), gear
box (2), H-bridge (3), ARDUINO UNO board (4), portable computer (5), conveyor belt (6), oscilloscope (7),
tachometer (8).
6

3
4

5
8

Fig. 4. Picture of the experimental stand.

2.1. Description of the experimental stand

The conveyor belt has been designed for the following dimensions: length = 63.5 cm, width = 10 cm, drum
diameter = 4.5 cm. For driving the conveyor belt a DC motor has been used. Its characteristics are: the rated voltage
 , the nominal power . The DC motor drives the conveyor belt by means of a gear box

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Livinti Petru and Ghandour Mazen / Procedia Engineering 100 (2015) 299 304

(reducer) that has the role to increase the driving torque of the conveyor belt. In function of the motor power, the
H-bridge has been sized. For the H-bridge field effect transistors of the following type have been used: IRF 4095,
IRFZ 44.
3. Functioning of the experimental stand
The electric diagram of the experimental stand is shown at Fig. 5. The H-bridge is supplied from the DC voltage
source of 12 V.D.C., of 100 W power, and the board ARDUINO UNO is supplied at 5V.D.C. through the USB port,
from the portable computer used for its control.
D1
D10N4

Tr
100 W

F1
1A

C1
1000 F

220 V.c.a.

D2
D10N4

S1

+12 V.c.c.
R6
220

R1
1K

MB 104
1

Q1
IRF 4095

Q3
IRF 4095

C2

0,1

D3

G
D

4
2
R7
220

MB 104

R5
1K

D4

M
Q4
IRFZ 44

Q2
IRFZ 44

4
2

D
G
S

S
R2
10K

S2

direct

reverse

10

GND

R4
10K

R3
1K

Livinti Petru and Ghandour Mazen / Procedia Engineering 100 (2015) 299 304
Fig. 5. Electric diagram of the experimental stand.

The PWM signal generated by ARDUINO UNO board is amplified through the amplifying steps built with the
optocouplers MB 104 in function of the moving direction of the conveyor belt, selected through the switch S2. The
program issued in LabVIEW 2013 for controlling the board ARDUINO UNO has the block diagram shown at Fig. 6
and the related front panel is shown at Fig. 7. The duty-cycle of the PWM signal may be modified through the Slide
2 located on the front panel of the program issued in LabVIEW 2013. The board ARDUINO UNO is controlled
from the computer, through the USB port. The PWM signal of the ARDUINO UNO board is transmitted through its
output, pin No. 10.

Fig. 6. Block diagram.

Fig. 7. Front panel.

4. Experimental results
By means of the experimental stand the following experimental findings have been done: For various rates of the
PWM signals, visualized with the help of an oscilloscope, the rpm values of the DC motor have been measured
through a tachometer, for each moving direction of the conveyor belt. These values are shown at Table 1 for the
direct motion direction and for the reverse motion direction of the conveyor belt and the diagrams of these
characteristics are shown at Fig. 8. Through experimental trials, the running duty of the conveyor belt may be
optimized, in function of the materials to be transported on the belt and technological conditions of use. After
determining the optimal running duty, the program issued in LabVIEW may be implemented into the memory of the
microcontroller ATMEGA 328 of the control board ARDUINO UNO. Thus, the cost of the automation equipment

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Livinti Petru and Ghandour Mazen / Procedia Engineering 100 (2015) 299 304

used for controlling the DC motor of the conveyor belt system will be decreased.
Table 1. Resulting values of speed DC motor and duty-cycle for the direct and reverse motion direction.
Duty-cycle
Speed DC motor
(rpm)

50

100

150

200

255

Direct

13

30

47

67

91

Reverse

11.8

25.3

36.2

44.5

55.9

n=f(duty-cycle)

Speed

n=f(duty-cycle)

100

80

-10 0

100

200

300

-20
60

-30
-40

40

-50
-60

20

Speed

0
0

100

200
a.

300
b.

Fig. 8 Diagram of speed of the DC motor a.- direct motion direction, b.- reverse motion direction.

Conclusions
In this work was presented an experimental stand for the PWM control of the DC motor used for driving a
conveyor belt. This experimental stand has been built at Electric machinery Laboratory of the University Vasile
Alecsandri in Bacau. For supplying the DC motor an H-bridge has been used that allows the reversal of the motor
rotation wise. The PWM signal is generated by an ARDUINO UNO board, equipped with an Atmega 328
microcontroller. For controlling the ARDUINO UNO board, a program has been issued in the LabVIEW 2013
programming environment. The running duty of a conveyor belt may be modified by modifying the duty-cycle value
of the PWM signals that controls the transistors of the H-bridge that supplies the DC motor. With this experimental
stand were studied the running characteristics of the conveyor belts under laboratory conditions, so that, further on,
such driving systems can be implemented to industrial applications as well.
Bibliography
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http://www.ijret.org, Pg. 621-625, eISSN: 2319-1163, pISSN: 2321-7308.
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Energy Generators, The International Conference on Technologies and Materials for Renewable Energy, Environment and Sustainability,
TMREES14, Energy Procedia 50 ( 2014 ) 832 840.
[3] Shinde Krishnat Arvind, Tarate Akshay Arun, Taur Sandip Madhukar, Jayashree Deka: Speed Control of DC Motor using PIC 16F877A
Microcontroller, Multidisciplinary Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology, Volume 1, Issue 2, Pg. 223-234, ISSN:2348 6953,
M19-1-2-7-2014.
[4] Miroslav Puskarica, Ilya Kukushkinb, Damir Haskovic: Power Supply Concept for Mobile Robots in Bionic Assembly System, Journal
Procedia Engineering, Volume: 69, Pages: 861 870, ISSN: 1877-7058 , 2014.
[5] Mitrea Iulian, COMANDA UNUI MOTOR DE CURENT CONTINUU CU PLACA ARDUINO, Lucrare de diplom, Univ. Vasile
Alecsandri din Bacu, 2014.
[6] http://www.robofun.ro/arduino/arduino_uno_v3.
[7] **** program LabVIEW 2013 trial.