The analysis of a separately excited DC motor driven by DC-DC converter is realized by using state-space averaging technique. Firstly, a general and unified large-signal averaged circuit model for DC-DC converters is given. The method converts power electronic systems, which are periodic time-variant because of their switching operation, to unified and time independent systems. Using the averaged circuit model enables us to combine the different topologies of converters. Thus, all analysis and design processes about DC motor can be easily realized by using the unified averaged model which is valid during whole period. Some large-signal variations such as speed and current relating to DC motor, steady-state analysis, large-signal and small-signal transfer functions are easily obtained by using the averaged circuit model. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.