Integrated Driving and Braking Control Unit for Electric Bikes

In this research, an integrated driving and braking control unit was developed for electric bikes. The unit integrates the driving and braking circuits in a module. Alternate commutation was used to design the driving and braking unit of a customized brushless direct-current hub motor (BLDCHM). The braking torque for the braking section is generated through alternating the duty cycle of the pulse-width-modulated (PWM) commands of the switching elements and phase sequence arrangement of the current conduction loops. The current conduction loops in the motor and switching elements is arranged to adjust the braking torque in a sophisticated way. The integrated design has been successfully tested in a commercialized electric bike with a BLDCHM.