A torque control scheme for high-performance induction machine drives was developed to overcome some disadvantages of direct torque control (DTC). In the improved DTC method, the stator flux and the torque controllers use variable-structure control theory which does not require information about the rotor speed. Space vector modulation is applied to the voltage source inverter to reduce the torque, stator flux, and current ripples. The digital signal processor-based implementation is described in detail. The experimental results show that the system has good torque and stator flux response with small ripples.