Initial rotor position estimation of a SRM drive installed in an electric vehicle

In this paper an estimation method of the initial rotor position at a stand still condition for switched reluctance motor (SRM) drives is proposed. In the SRM, a rotor shaft is connected to an incremental encoder, thus, only an initial position should be detected to realize smooth start up operation. The proposed method is injecting voltage pulses to all windings and detecting the current and estimating the position based on a simple relation between inductance profile and phase current. With an accurate estimated rotor position, the motor can start smoothly under heavy load. The proposed method is implemented in a 6‐stator‐pole and 4‐rotor‐pole, 1.5 kW switched reluctance motor installed in an electric vehicle. © 2011 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.