Improved rotor-position estimation by signal injection in brushless AC motors, accounting for cross-coupling magnetic saturation

This paper presents an improved signal-injection- based sensorless-control method for permanent-magnet brushless ac (BLAC) motors, accounting for the influence of cross-coupling magnetic saturation between the d- and q-axes. The d- and q-axis incremental self-inductances, the incremental mutual inductance between the d-axis and q-axis, and the cross-coupling factor are determined by finite-element analysis. An experimental method is proposed for measuring the cross-coupling factor which can be used directly in the sensorless-control scheme. Both measurements and predictions show that a significant improvement in the accu- racy of the rotor-position estimation can be achieved under both dynamic and steady-state operation compared with that which is obtained with the conventional signal-injection method

Signal injection and averaging for position estimation of Permanent-Magnet Synchronous Motors

Sensorless control of Permanent-Magnet Synchronous Motors at low velocity remains a challenging task. A now well-established method consists in injecting a high-frequency signal and use the rotor saliency, both geometric and magnetic-saturation induced. This paper proposes a clear and original analysis based on second-order averaging of how to recover the position information from signal injection; this analysis blends well with a general model of magnetic saturation. It also experimentally demonstrates the relevance for position estimation of a simple parametric saturation model recently introduced by the authors

Cross-Saturation Effects in IPM Motors and Related Impact on Sensorless Control

Permanent-magnet-assisted synchronous reluctance motors are well suited to zero-speed sensorless control because of their inherently salient behavior. However, the cross-saturation effect can lead to large errors on the position estimate, which is based on the differential anisotropy. These errors are quantified in this paper as a function of the working point. The errors that are calculated are then found to be in good accordance with the purposely obtained experimental measurement

Observability analysis of sensorless synchronous machine drives

This paper studies the local observability of synchronous machines using a unified approach. Recently, motion sensorless control of electrical drives has gained high interest. The main challenge for such a technology is the poor performance in some operation conditions. One interesting theory that helps understanding the origin of this problem is the observability analysis of nonlinear systems. In this paper, the observability of the wound-rotor synchronous machine is studied. The results are extended to other synchronous machines, adopting a unified analysis. Furthermore, a high-frequency injection-based technique is proposed to enhance the sensorless operation of the wound-rotor synchronous machine at standstill

Impact of cross-saturation in sensorless control of transverse-laminated synchronous reluctance motors

Synchronous reluctance (SyR) motors are well suited to a zero-speed sensorless control, because of their inherently salient behavior. However, the cross-saturation effect can lead to large errors on the position estimate, which is based on the differential anisotropy. These errors are quantified in the paper, as a function of the working point. The so-calculated errors are then found in good accordance with the purposely obtained experimental measurements. The impact of the amplitude of the carrier voltage is then pointed out, leading to a mixed (carrier injection plus electromotive force estimation) control scheme. Last, a scheme of this type is used, with a commercial transverse-laminated SyR motor. The robustness against cross-saturation is shown, in practice, and the obtained drive performance is pointed out proving to be effective for a general-purpose applicatio

Low-cost, high-resolution, fault-robust position and speed estimation for PMSM drives operating in safety-critical systems

In this paper it is shown how to obtain a low-cost, high-resolution and fault-robust position sensing system for permanent magnet synchronous motor drives operating in safety-critical systems, by combining high-frequency signal injection with binary Hall-effect sensors. It is shown that the position error signal obtained via high-frequency signal injection can be merged easily into the quantization-harmonic-decoupling vector tracking observer used to process the Hall-effect sensor signals. The resulting algorithm provides accurate, high-resolution estimates of speed and position throughout the entire speed range; compared to state-of-the-art drives using Hall-effect sensors alone, the low speed performance is greatly improved in healthy conditions and also following position sensor faults. It is envisaged that such a sensing system can be successfully used in applications requiring IEC 61508 SIL 3 or ISO 26262 ASIL D compliance, due to its extremely high mean time to failure and to the very fast recovery of the drive following Hall-effect sensor faults at low speeds. Extensive simulation and experimental results are provided on a 3.7 kW permanent magnet drive

Sensorless position estimation in fault-tolerant permanent magnet AC motor drives with redundancy.

Safety critical applications are heavily dependent on fault-tolerant motor drives being capable of continuing to operate satisfactorily under faults. This research utilizes a fault-tolerant PMAC motor drive with redundancy involving dual drives to provide parallel redundancy where each drive has electrically, magnetically, thermally and physically independent phases to improve its fault-tolerant capabilities. PMAC motor drives can offer high power and torque densities which are essential in high performance applications, for example, more-electric airplanes. In this thesis, two sensorless algorithms are proposed to estimate the rotor position in a fault-tolerant three-phase surface-mounted sinusoidal PMAC motor drive with redundancy under normal and faulted operating conditions. The key aims are to improve the reliability by eliminating the use of a position sensor which is one of major sources of failures, as well as by offering fault-tolerant position estimation. The algorithms utilize measurements of the winding currents and phase voltages, to compute flux linkage increments without integration, hence producing the predicted position values. Estimation errors due measurements are compensated for by a modified phase-locked loop technique which forces the predicted positions to track the flux linkage increments, finally generating the rotor position estimate. The fault-tolerant three-phase sensorless position estimation method utilizes the measured data from the three phase windings in each drive, consequently obtaining a total of two position estimates. However, the fault-tolerant two-phase sensorless position estimation method uses measurements from pairs of phases and produces three position estimates for each drive. Therefore, six position estimates are available in the dual drive system. In normal operation, all of these position estimates can be averaged to achieve a final rotor angle estimate in both schemes. Under faulted operating conditions, on the other hand, a final position estimate should be achieved by averaging position estimates obtained with measurements from healthy phases since unacceptable estimation errors can be created by making use of measured values from phases with failures. In order to validate the effectiveness of the proposed fault-tolerant sensorless position estimation schemes, the algorithms were tested using both simulated data and offline measured data from an experimental fault-tolerant PMAC motor drive system. In the healthy condition, both techniques presented good performance with acceptable accuracies under low and high steady-state speeds, starting from standstill and step load changes. In addition, they had robustness against parameter variations and measurement errors, as well as the ability to recover quickly from large incorrect initial position information. Under faulted operating conditions such as sensor failures, however, the two-phase sensorless method was more reliable than the threephase sensorless method since it could operate even with a faulty phase.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 201

A review of saliency-based sensorless control methods for alternating current machines

Operation of model-based sensorless control of Alternating Current machines at low and zero speeds is unreliable and can fail. To overcome the limitations of sensorless control at low speeds, several alternative techniques have been developed to estimate speed and position. These are mainly based on detecting machine saliencies by measuring the response of the current to some form of voltage injection. This paper discusses injection methods, machine saliencies, and techniques used to extract speed and position that are applicable to both induction machines and permanent magnet synchronous motors.peer-reviewe