Sensorless control of induction Machines at zero and low frequency using zero sequence currents

This paper considers both flux and rotor position estimations for sensorless control of delta-connected cage induction machines (IMs) at low and zero frequency operation. The variation of leakage inductance due to either saturation or rotor slotting is tracked by measuring the derivative of the zero sequence current in response to the application of appropriate voltage test vectors. The method requires only a single extra sensor. It requires access to machine phase windings and is appropriate for integrated-type induction motor drives. Both a closed-slot and an open-slot machine is used to demonstrate rotor flux and rotor position tracking, respectively. Experimental results are presented showing sensorless torque control and sensorless speed and position control at low and zero frequencies.     

Anisotropy Comparison of Reluctance and PM Synchronous Machines for Position Sensorless Control Using HF Carrier Injection

Position sensorless control of reluctance and permanent magnet synchronous machines at zero and low speed is possible using HF voltage injection and proper demodulation. The so-called saliency position, which is tracked by the HF sensorless scheme, is different from the actual rotor position: the difference contains both offset and rotor-position-varying components, which may be explained by carefully considering the HF behavior of the machine and the effect that fundamental excitation and rotor position have upon it. This paper gives insight into the HF behavior of synchronous machines and serves as a practical guide for implementation of stable and robust position estimation at zero and low speed.      

Suppression of saturation saliency effects for the sensorlessposition control of induction motor drives under loaded conditions

This paper presents an automated commissioning procedure used for the elimination of the saturation saliency effects in the sensorless position control of field-orientated cage induction motor drives. The position control itself is based on extracting a rotor position estimate from a high-frequency signal injection interacting with natural or engineered rotor position saliencies within the machine. The paper shows that this estimate cannot be robustly or accurately obtained if saturation saliencies are present. The paper introduces a method for suppressing the effects of the saturation saliency through information gained in a prior commissioning procedure. The effectiveness of the procedure is demonstrated through experimental results showing both good suppression of the saturation harmonics and true sensorless position control under high load torques     

Sensorless position control of induction motors-an emergingtechnology

Concepts for the sensorless position control of induction motor drives rely on anisotropic properties of the machine rotor. Such anisotropies can be incorporated as periodic variations of magnetic saliencies in various ways. The built-in spatial anisotropy is detected by injecting a high-frequency flux wave into the stator. The resulting stator current harmonics contain frequency components that depend on the rotor position. Models of the rotor saliency serve to extract the rotor position signal using phase-locked loop techniques. A different approach makes use of the parasitic effects that originate from the discrete winding structure of a cage rotor. It has the merit of providing high spatial resolution for incremental positioning without sensor. The practical implementation of sensorless position identification and of a high-accuracy position control system are reported     

Sensorless torque control of salient-pole synchronous motor atzero-speed operation

A position and speed sensorless control using the counter electromotive force of a permanent-magnet motor (PM) debases the control performance at a low speed. We propose a controllable system at full speed, including a zero speed using saliency. At low speed, the sensorless control is made by observing a current ripple at a time when alternating voltage has been applied to a salient-pole motor. Also, for discriminating the S and N poles of the magnet, magnetic saturation is used. A device has been applied to the motor rotor to allow the magnetic saturation to come about easily. Furthermore, at a time of high speed, drive at a full-speed range has been accomplished by switching smoothly over to a sensorless driving system making use of counter electromotive force. All algorithms are implemented by software, and this system can operate successively from starting to high-speed operation. The paper discusses the operational principles at a low speed, analysis and experimental results, the control scheme, how to changeover the control mode at high speed, and the experimental results     

A self-tuning closed-loop flux observer for sensorless torquecontrol of standard induction machines

This paper proposes a self-tuning closed-loop flux observer, which provides field-oriented torque control for induction machines without a tachometer. The proposed algorithm combines the best features of harmonic detection and stator voltage integration through the use of a new tuning scheme. The observer accuracy and robustness is augmented by a parameter-independent accurate-speed detector, which analyzes magnetic saliency harmonics in the stator current. The harmonic-detection scheme provides accurate rotor-speed updates during steady-state operation down to 1-Hz source frequency. This additional speed information is used to tune the rotor-resistance parameter of the observer. The tuned observer exhibits improved dynamic performance, accurate steady-state speed control and an extended range of control near zero speed. The algorithm requires no special machine modifications and can be implemented on most existing low- and medium-performance drives. The closed-loop nature of the flux observer, combined with the harmonic-detection scheme, provides flux and speed error feedback, which significantly increases the robustness of sensorless control across the entire speed range     

Sensorless PM brushless DC motor drives

To control PM brushless DC motors, position and speed sensors are indispensable because the current should be controlled depending on the rotor position. However, these sensors are undesirable from standpoints of size, cost, maintenance, and reliability. There are different ways of approaching this problem, depending on the flux distribution. The paper presents the speed and position sensorless control of PM brushless DC motors with a sinusoidal flux distribution. Two approaches are presented and compared with each other; one is based on the voltage model of the motor and another is based on the current model. The starting procedure is also a very difficult problem under sensorless drives, because the sensorless drive algorithm uses voltage and current for estimation of rotor position, but no information is available before starting. A novel starting method is presented by using a salient-pole machine. Experimental results based on DSP-TMS320C25 controller are shown for comparisons, which demonstrate desired characteristics both in steady-state and starting conditions     

A general algorithm for speed and position estimation of AC motors

A computationally efficient speed and position estimation algorithm, generally applicable to AC motor drives, is designed and analyzed. Applications include: (a) sensorless permanent-magnet and reluctance synchronous motor drives using the fundamental excitation as information source; (b) sensorless drives using saliency and signal injection; and (c) sensored drives using resolvers. Particular attention is given for case (a). Low parameter sensitivity in the entire speed range (except at low speeds for the reluctance motor)-implying a small position estimation error-and good dynamic properties at nominal speeds are verified     

Sensorless vector control of synchronous reluctance motors withdisturbance torque observer

The elimination of the position sensor has been one important requirement in vector control systems because the position sensor spoils the reliability and simplicity of drive systems. Therefore, we present a sensorless vector control technique for synchronous reluctance motors. The rotor position is calculated easily from ds-qs-axes flux linkages which are estimated with a first-order lag compensator. Furthermore, utilizing estimated rotor position as the input of the full-order observer, the rotor speed and disturbance torque are estimated. The proposed sensorless vector control scheme is demonstrated with experimental results     

Control strategies for power smoothing using a flywheel driven by a sensorless vector-controlled induction machine operating in a wide speed range

This paper presents a novel control strategy for power smoothing. The system is based on a sensorless vector-controlled induction machine driving a flywheel. The problem of regulating the DC-link voltage against input power surges or sudden changes in load demand is addressed. The induction machine is controlled to operate in a wide speed range by using flux weakening above rated speed. A model reference adaptive system observer is used to obtain the rotational speed in the whole speed range. The observer parameters are adapted during flux weakening in order to obtain close tracking of the flywheel speed. Experimental results for the operation of the induction machine between zero to more than twice base speed are presented and discussed.     

Implementation and experimental investigation of sensorless speed control with initial rotor position estimation for interior permanent magnet synchronous motor drive

In this paper, a new approach to sensorless speed control and initial rotor position estimation for interior permanent magnet synchronous motor (IPMSM) drive is presented. In rotating condition, speed and rotor position estimation of IPMSM drive are obtained through an extended Kalman filter (EKF) algorithm simply by measurement of the stator line voltages and currents. The main difficulty in developing an EKF for IPMSM is the complexity of the dynamic model expressed in the stationary coordinate system. This model is more complex than that of the surface PMSM, because of the asymmetry of the magnetic circuit. The starting procedure is a problem under sensorless drives, because no information is available before starting. The initial rotor position is estimated by a suitable sequence of voltage pulses intermittently applied to the stator windings at standstill and the measurement of the peak current values of the current leads to the rotor position. Magnetic saturation effect on the saliency is used to distinguish the north magnetic pole from the south. To illustrate our work, we present experimental results for an IPMSM obtained on a floating point digital signal processor (DSP) TMS320C31/40 MHz based control system.     

Mechanical sensorless speed control of permanent-magnet AC motors driving an unknown load

A new sensorless scheme for high-performance speed control of permanent-magnet ac motors (PMACMs) driving an unknown load is proposed. This scheme uses an extended nonlinear reduced-order observer to estimate the induced electromotive force (EMF) and load torque. From the estimated variables, the rotor position, the rotor speed, and the position derivative of flux are calculated and are used to close the control loop. In order to improve the drive performance, the estimated load torque is incorporated as a feedforward signal in the closed control loop. In addition, the proposed sensorless PMACM drive allows the torque-ripple and copper-loss minimization for motors with an arbitrary EMF waveform. Simulation and experimental results to validate the proposal are presented in this paper.     

Sensorless double-inverter-fed wound-rotor induction-Machine drive

The basic operation of a wound-rotor induction-motor drive fed by inverters on the stator as well as the rotor side is discussed. Different modes of operations are defined and explained based on power flow on both the sides of the machine. The sensorless motor control scheme consists of V/f-type direct frequency control on one side, with either vector control or direct torque and flux control on the other side. The machine operates up to twice the rated speed in either direction, with full flux and torque, thereby producing up to twice the rated power. Novel frequency profiles are proposed, which ensure that the frequency on either side never drops below a minimum value (set at 12 Hz in this work). Therefore, the estimation of flux can be simply and reliably carried out by integration of voltage, resulting in simple sensorless control. The drive works reliably at all speeds including zero speed and at all loads. Results from a 50-hp prototype drive are presented.     

Direct power control of grid-connected wound rotor inductionmachine without rotor position sensors

A method is presented for fast response control of the torque and flux of a grid connected wound rotor induction machine fed by back to back connected voltage source inverters on the rotor side. It is based on the measurement of active and reactive power on the grid side where voltages and currents are alternating at fixed frequency. The active and reactive powers are made to track references using hysteresis controllers. The method eliminates the need for rotor position sensing and gives excellent dynamic performance, as shown by simulation and experimental results from a variable speed constant frequency induction generator system. It is also capable of starting on the fly. It is thus an attractive sensorless control method for drive as well as generator applications     

Sliding-mode observer and improved integrator with DC-offset compensation for flux estimation in sensorless-controlled induction motors

Two flux observers for wide speed range direct torque control (DTC) of sensorless induction-motor drives are presented and compared. The first one is a full-order sliding-mode observer with proportional plus integral (PI) compensation, without rotor speed adaptation. The second one is based on a zero phase-delay-improved integrator of the voltage model, which uses only a PI flux amplitude control with stator-flux reference magnitude in the correction loop. In both cases, an estimated dc offset is built up and memorized by the PI integral component and this totally compensates for all dc offsets and drifts originated in the acquisition channels. Two feasible solutions for on-line stator-resistance identification are proposed. Simulation and experimental results prove the accuracy, robustness, and high-dynamic performance of both observers when employed in sensorless DTC drives. The effectiveness of state estimation is confirmed by a steady state and transient sensorless operation at very low speed with rated load torque and step-speed reversal.     

An improved stator flux estimation for speed sensorless stator fluxorientation control of induction motors

This paper proposes a programmable low pass filter (LPF) to estimate stator flux for speed sensorless stator flux orientation control of induction motors. The programmable LPF is developed to solve the DC drift problem associated with a pure integrator and a LPF. The pole of the programmable LPF is located far from the origin in order to decrease the time constant with the increasing speed. In addition, the programmable LPF has a phase/gain compensator to estimate exactly stator flux in a wide speed range. Consequently, the drift problem is much improved and the stator flux is exactly estimated in the wide speed range. The validity of the proposed programmable LPF is verified by speed sensorless vector control of a 2.2 kW three-phase induction motor     

Accurate rotor position detection and sensorless control of SRM for super-high speed operation

Based on the general nonlinear magnetizing model (GNMM) from our previous research work, an improved method of detecting rotor position for sensorless control of SRMs in super-high speed operation has been developed. With minimum input data, the approximated GNMM is obtained and the rotor speed estimated. Then the rotor position is detected by the motion equation. To remove rotor position error, the proposed scheme updates the reference at critical points using the flux observation. Further, the GNMM is adaptively tuned based on the updated information. The improved rotor position detection method has been implemented by fully exploring the computation power of the modern DSP. Laboratory verification on different types of SRMs with sensorless control up to 20000 rpm is accomplished.     

Sensorless field orientation control of induction machines based ona mutual MRAS scheme

A mutual model reference adaptive system (MRAS) is proposed to implement a position sensorless field-orientation control (FOC) of an induction machine. The reference model and adjustable model used in the mutual MRAS scheme are interchangeable. Therefore, it can be used to identify both rotor speed and the stator resistance of an induction machine. For the rotor speed estimation, one model is used as a reference model and another is the adjustable model. Pure integration and stator leakage inductance are removed from the reference model, resulting in robust performance in low and high speed ranges. For the stator resistance identification, the two models switch their roles. To further improve estimation accuracy of the rotor speed and stator resistance, a simple on-line rotor time constant identification is included. Computer simulations and experimental results are given to show its effectiveness     

Low-frequency signal-demodulation-based sensorless technique for induction motor drives at low speed

The paper presents a method to compute the air-gap flux position in induction motors at very low including zero-stator frequency. A low-frequency (50 /spl divide/ 100 Hz) sinusoidal stationary signal is added to the normal stator variables to provide the machine with a suitable permanent excitation. Such an additional excitation modulates the saturation level of the magnetic core of the machine according to the angular position of the air-gap flux. As a result, a new zero-sequence stator-voltage component is generated that contains useful information about the position of the air-gap flux unaffected by load variation. Such a zero-sequence voltage can be easily employed to provide a wide bandwidth measurement of the air-gap flux position. A key feature of the proposed approach is that a low-frequency (0 /spl divide/ 5 Hz) signal is demodulated, thus avoiding any drawback featured by previous sensorless techniques operating with high-frequency signal injection.     

Inductance model-based sensorless control of the switched reluctance motor drive at low speed

A sensorless control scheme for the switched reluctance motor (SRM) drive at low speed is presented in this paper. The incremental inductance of each active phase is estimated using the terminal measurement of this phase. The estimated phase incremental inductance is compared to an analytical model, which represents the functional relationships between the phase incremental inductance, phase current, and rotor position, to estimate the rotor position. The presented sensorless control scheme requires neither extra hardware nor huge memory space for implementation. It can provide accurate rotor position information even as the magnetic characteristics of the SRM change due to aging. Combined with other inductance model-based sensorless control techniques, the proposed method can be used to develop an inductance model-based sensorless control scheme to run the SRM from standstill to high-speed. Simulation and experimental results are presented to verify the proposed scheme.