022-ABHRA PAUL (EEI-03)

Speed Control of DC Motor using Hand Gesture

Abhra Paul

Arnava Chakrabarty

Department of Electrical Engineering

Academy of Technology
Hooghly, West Bengal, India
abhrapaul03@gmail.com

Soumit Mondal

Department of Applied Electronics &

Department of Electrical Engineering
Instrumentation Engineering
Academy of Technology
Academy of Technology
Hooghly, West Bengal, India
Hooghly, West Bengal, India
hiitssoumit@gmail.com
gm1750@gmail.com

Abstract The aim of developing this paper is to control the

DC motor using hand gesture. To achieve the speed control by
hand gesture, an IR sensor array and an electronic technique
called Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) is used which generates
High and Low pulses. These pulses vary the speed in the motor.
For the generation of these pulses a microcontroller
(ATMEGA16) is used. To catch the gesture of the hand the
sensor array is used. Besides this, components like Analog to
Digital converter (ADC), H-Bridge Motor driver (L293D) is
used. Here we use a 12V DC motor so for the power supply
purpose an IC (7805) and capacitors are also used. The DC
motor is directly connected to the output of the motor driver.
Economically this project is very much feasible to us and also
reliable and efficient. The speed control of higher rating motors
can also be done by this process.
Index Terms 12V DC motor, IR sensor array, ATMEGA-16
microcontroller, H-Bridge L293D Motor driver.

I. INTRODUCTION
Todays Industries are increasingly demanding process
automation in all sectors. Some advantages of Automation are
its better efficiency, better production and lower cost. The aim
of the developing this paper is to control the DC motor using
hand gesture.
In this paper speed control is attained using PWM (Pulse
Width Modulation) Technique and PWM is done using
microcontroller. The versatile characteristics of DC motors can
provide high starting torque which is required for traction
drives control over a wide speed range both below and above
the rated speed can be very easily achieved. The methods of DC
motor speed control are simpler and less expensive than AC
motors. The variable speed drives which can control the speed
of AC /DC motors, are indispensable controlling elements in
automation system. Depending on application, some of them
are fixed speed and some are variable speed drivers. The
variable speed drives, till a couple decades back, had a various
limitations, such as poor efficiency, larger space, lower speed
etc. However, the advent power electronic devices, such as
power MOSFETs, IGBTs etc. and also with the introduction of
microcontroller with many features on the silicon wafer,
transform the scene completely and today we have variable
speed drive system which are not only in the smaller in size but

also very efficient, highly reliable and meeting all the stringent
demands of various industries of modern era.
II. SPEED CONTROL METHODS IN A DC MOTOR
The motor speed can be controlled by controlling armature
voltage and armature current. It is obvious that speed control is
possible by varying
Flux per pole , (Field control)
Resistance of armature circuit (Armature resistance Control)
Applied voltage V (Voltage Control)
The above methods have some demerits like a large amount
of power is wasted in the controller resistance. Hence,
efficiency is decreased. It needs expensive arrangement for
dissipation of heat produced in the controller resistance. It gives
speeds below the normal speed. By these data that are
acquainted we can draw a conclusion that these electric and
electromechanical methods are less adaptive so electronic
techniques are used for speed control. These methods provide
higher efficiency, greater reliability, quick response, higher
efficiency. One such technique is Pulse Width Modulation. We
apply this technique in our paper so as to control the speed of
the DC motor. Here we control this PWM by our hand gestures
using the IR sensors.
III. PRINCIPLE
Pulse width modulation (PWM) is a method for binary signals
generation, which has 2 signal periods (high and low). The
width (W) of each pulse varies between 0 and the period (T).
The main principle is control of power by varying the duty
cycle. Here the conduction time to the load is controlled. Let for
a time t1, the input voltage appears across the load i.e. ON state
and for t2 time the voltage across the load is zero.
The average voltage at output is given by

the average load current

where, T is the total time period
k

is the duty cycle.

022-ABHRA PAUL (EEI-03)

The rms value of output voltage is,

microcontroller and gives out a proportionally higher current

signal which can control and drive motor. Here we use L293D
microcontroller. L293D is a dual H-bridge motor driver IC.
With one L293D motor driver we can interface two DC motors
The output power and is given by
which can be control in both clockwise and counter clockwise
direction. Then the output terminal of the motor driver is
The duty cycle can be varied from 0 to 1 by varying t 1, T or f. connected with the DC motor. The IC7805 is used for 5v dc
Therefore, the output voltage V0 can be varied from 0 to Vs by supply to the microcontroller.
controlling k, and the power flow can be controlled. As the time
V. BLOCK DIAGRAM
t1 changes the width of pulse is varied and this type of control
is called pulse width modulation (PWM) control.
For better understanding of PWM these diagrammatic
representations can be used. These figures represent the
Micro
L293D
IR
DC
waveforms obtained as output at different voltage requirements.
controller
Motor
High Speed Signal (90%): The green part of the signal
represents the ON time and the white part of it represents time
when it is not receiving any voltage.

Sensor
Array

12 V DC
Power
Supply

Atmega16

Driver

IC7805

VI. CIRCUIT DIAGRAM

Signal with half voltage (50%):

Signal with low voltage (10%):

.
When this PWM technique is applied to control the speed of a
DC motor the voltage is varied in the same manner. The IR
sensor array catch the position of the hands and it is connected
to the microcontroller ATMEGA 16 which is used to generate
the PWM.
IV. DESCRIPTION
Here we want to control dc motor by using hand gesture. For
this paper we use some components like TXRX IR Sensor
array, Atmega 16 microcontroller, L293D motor driver 7805IC.
We use IR sensor array to catch the hand gesture. The output of
the sensor array is connected with the input terminals of the
microcontroller. From output terminal of the microcontroller a
motor driver is connected. Motor driver is basically a current
amplifier which takes a low current signal from the

Motor

022-ABHRA PAUL (EEI-03)

pinMode(mspeed, OUTPUT);
pinMode(m1, OUTPUT);
pinMode(m2, OUTPUT);
pinMode(s1, INPUT);
pinMode(s2, INPUT);
pinMode(s3, INPUT);
pinMode(s4, INPUT);
pinMode(s5, INPUT);
pinMode(s6, INPUT);
pinMode(s7, INPUT);
pinMode(s8, INPUT);

VII. SOURCE CODE

int m1=16;
int m2=17;
int mspeed=15;
int s1=31;
int s2=30;
int s3=29;
int s4=28;
int s5=27;
int s6=26;
int s7=25;
int s8=24;
float kp = 12;
float kd = 5;
float err=0;
float preverr=0;
// the setup routine runs once when you press reset:
void setup()
{
// initialize the digital pin as an output.

}
void loop()
{
if(digitalRead(s1)==HIGH)
{
err=2;
}
if(digitalRead(s2)==HIGH)
{
err=4;
}
if(digitalRead(s3)==HIGH)
{
err=6;
}
if(digitalRead(s4)==HIGH)
{
err=8;
}
if(digitalRead(s5)==HIGH)
{
err=10;
}
if(digitalRead(s6)==HIGH)
{
err=12;
}
if(digitalRead(s7)==HIGH)
{
err=14;
}
if(digitalRead(s8)==HIGH)
{
err=16;
}
int motorspeed= (kp * err) + kd * (err-preverr);
preverr=err;
int mfspeed= 80-motorspeed;
if(mfspeed>255)
{
mfspeed=255;
}
if(mfspeed<0)

022-ABHRA PAUL (EEI-03)

{

With the help of this method we can control the speed of the
DC motor without any switch but only by our hand movement.
We can apply this method for the higher rated DC motor also.
}
The PWM technique which is used here is used to vary the
supply voltage of the motor. The motor responds to the average
digitalWrite(m1, HIGH);
value of the pulses and not to the individual pulses as the
digitalWrite(m2, LOW);
microcontroller works at high frequency. The main advantage
analogWrite(mspeed,(mfspeed));
of PWM is that power loss in the switching devices is very low.
delay(20);
When a switch is off there is practically no current, and when it
}
is on, there is almost no voltage drop across the switch. Power
The pin numbers mention in the source code is according to loss, being the product of voltage and current, is thus in both
the pin numbers of microcontroller Atmega-16 which are written cases close to zero. This method is more preferable due to its
low cost. Microcontrollers also need simple commands to vary
inside in the following diagram.
the duty cycle and frequencies of the PWM control signal and
also to catch the gesture of our hand
Finally, motors may be able to operate at lower speeds if you
control them with PWM. When you use an analog current to
control a motor, it will not produce significant torque at low
speeds. The magnetic field created by the small current will be
too weak to turn the rotor. On the other hand, a PWM current
can create short pulses of magnetic flux at full strength, which
can turn the rotor at extremely slow speeds.
mfspeed=0;

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We deem it a pleasure to acknowledge our deep sense of
gratitude to Prof. Dr. Amitava Sil of Electrical Engineering
Department, who directed and guided us with their timely
advice and constant inspiration, which eased to task the
completing the paper.
Finally we must say that no height is ever achieved with
some sacrifice made at some end and it is here we owe our
special debt to our parents and family member for showing
their love throughout this period of time.
VIII. APPLICATIONS
We can apply this method in various fields like,

We can use this method for the speed control of the

higher rated motor.

Variable speed drives in machines, eg. Lathe

Machines, Textile industry where the variable speed of
the motor is necessary.
We can also use this method in Drives in Electric
Vehicles.

CONCLUSION

REFERENCES
Bimbhra, Dr P S. Electrical Machinery. New Delhi: Khanna
Publisher, 1998.
Pulse Width Modulation Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia,
Wikimedia
Foundation.
Inc.
22
July
2004
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse-width_modulation>5 th
September, 2014
Speed Control Using PWM Modulation Engineers Garage
<HTTP://WWW.ENGINEERSGARAGE.COM/CONTRIBUTION/DCMOTOR-SPEED-CONTROL-USING-PWM-MODULATION >
4th
September 2014