Optimized Kalman filters for sensorless vector control induction motor drives

This paper presents the comparison between optimized unscented Kalman filter (UKF) and optimized extended Kalman filter (EKF) for sensorless direct field orientation control induction motor (DFOCIM) drive. The high performance of UKF and EKF depends on the accurate selection of state and noise covariance matrices. For this goal, multi objective function genetic algorithm is used to find the optimal values of state and noise covariance matrices. The main objectives of genetic algorithm to be minimized are the mean square errors (MSE) between actual and estimation of speed, current, and flux. Simulation results show the optimal state and noise covariance matrices can improve the estimation of speed, current, torque, and flux in sensorless DFOCIM drive. Furthermore, optimized UKF present higher performance of state estimation than optimized EKF under different motor operating conditions

Sensorless Control of Electric Motors with Kalman Filters: Applications to Robotic and Industrial Systems

The paper studies sensorless control for DC and induction motors, using Kalman Filtering techniques. First the case of a DC motor is considered and Kalman Filter-based control is implemented. Next the nonlinear model of a field-oriented induction motor is examined and the motor's angular velocity is estimated by an Extended Kalman Filter which processes measurements of the rotor's angle. Sensorless control of the induction motor is again implemented through feedback of the estimated state vector. Additionally, a state estimation-based control loop is implemented using the Unscented Kalman Filter. Moreover, state estimation-based control is developed for the induction motor model using a nonlinear flatness-based controller and the state estimation that is provided by the Extended Kalman Filter. Unlike field oriented control, in the latter approach there is no assumption about decoupling between the rotor speed dynamics and the magnetic flux dynamics. The efficiency of the Kalman Filter-based control schemes, for both the DC and induction motor models, is evaluated through simulation experiments

Speed Estimation for Indirect Field Oriented Control of Induction Motor Using Extended Kalman Filter

Speed sensors are required for the Field Oriented Control (FOC) of induction motors. These sensors reduce the sturdiness of the system and make it expensive. Therefore, a drive system without speed sensors is required. This paper presents a detailed study of the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) for estimating the rotor speed of an Induction Motor (IM). Using MATLAB/SIMULINK software, a simulation model is built and tested. The simulation results illustrated and demonstrated the good performance and robustness of the EKF to estimate the high and low speed. Moreover, the performance of the EKF is found to be satisfactory in case there are externaldisturbances

Sensorless speed control of DC motor using EKF estimator and TSK fuzzy logic controller

In this article, sensorless speed control of DC motor has been proposed using the extended Kalman filter (EKF) estimator and Takagi–Sugeno-Kang (TSK) fuzzy logic controller (FLC). In the industry, high-cost measurement systems/sensors are necessary for better controlling and monitoring, which can be replaced by a sensorless control technique to reduce the cost, size and increase system reliability and robustness. EKF has been used to perform the sensorless speed control by estimating the speed of the DC motor using the armature current only and TSK-FLC is used to reduce the effect of motor parameter variation and load torque nonlinearity in close loop speed control for various speed references. The performance of EKF-based TSK-FLC is compared with EKF-based PID controller. The time-domain specification and absolute error performance indices indicate that EKF-based TSK-FLC is superior to the EKF-based PID under similar conditions. The proposed system is executed in the MATLAB/Simulink environment, and sensorless speed control of DC motor prototype model has been developed for validating the proposed technique with the help of a micro-controller

Analysis and Modification of a Particle Filter Algorithm for Sensorless Control of BLDC Machine

This paper investigates the performance of a newly developed particle filter (PF) algorithm for sensorless control of the Brushless DC (BLDC) machines. A number of modifications have also been incorporated to the proposed PF algorithm in order to improve its performance with respect to resampling process and robust operation when unpredicted disturbances are occurred. The disturbances investigated in this paper include the presence of unconventional Non-Gaussian noises, changes in machine’s parameters, and occurrence of inter-turn short circuit fault. In addition, the paper proposes several measures in order to improve the estimation accuracy of the filter and enhance the filter robustness against system uncertainties. In order to evaluate the performance of the PF algorithm, the sensorless control system of a 1.5 kW BLDC machine is simulated in MATLAB/Simulink environment. Simulation results show that the introduced techniques considerably improve the performance of the PF algorithm as state estimator

Introduction to State Estimation of High-Rate System Dynamics

Engineering systems experiencing high-rate dynamic events, including airbags, debris detection, and active blast protection systems, could benefit from real-time observability for enhanced performance. However, the task of high-rate state estimation is challenging, in particular for real-time applications where the rate of the observer’s convergence needs to be in the microsecond range. This paper identifies the challenges of state estimation of high-rate systems and discusses the fundamental characteristics of high-rate systems. A survey of applications and methods for estimators that have the potential to produce accurate estimations for a complex system experiencing highly dynamic events is presented. It is argued that adaptive observers are important to this research. In particular, adaptive data-driven observers are advantageous due to their adaptability and lack of dependence on the system model

Observer-based IM stator fault diagnosis: Experimental validation

In this paper, an experimental validation of an efficient approach to the Fault Detection and Isolation (FDI) of Induction Motor (IM) is proposed. The problem of Inter-turn short circuits (ITSC) in the stator windings is addressed. By introducing fault factors in the IM model an observer-based residual generator is designed, allowing the detection of ITSC in stator windings. The residual generator is built around an extended Kalman Filter (EKF) in order to estimate state variables and fault factors, which permits the evaluation of the severity of the fault. To overcome the problem of tuning the EKF a PSO algorithm is developed. It carries out a heuristic search of the noise matrices by optimizing a cost function. The proposed solution is validated by computer simulations and by real-time implementation on dSPACE 1104 Digital Signal Processor (DSP) test-bench under the healthy and the faulty conditions of IM. To perform tests under faulty conditions, an IM with customized design is built and the stator is rewound permitting to create ITSC. The results reveal the quick detection of the faults, the quantification of its severity and confirm the efficacy of this observer-based FDI algorithm

Modelling and Control of Stepper Motors for High Accuracy Positioning Systems Used in Radioactive Environments

Hybrid Stepper Motors are widely used in open-loop position applications. They are the choice of actuation for the collimators in the Large Hadron Collider, the largest particle accelerator at CERN. In this case the positioning requirements and the highly radioactive operating environment are unique. The latter forces both the use of long cables to connect the motors to the drives which act as transmission lines and also prevents the use of standard position sensors. However, reliable and precise operation of the collimators is critical for the machine, requiring the prevention of step loss in the motors and maintenance to be foreseen in case of mechanical degradation. In order to make the above possible, an approach is proposed for the application of an Extended Kalman Filter to a sensorless stepper motor drive, when the motor is separated from its drive by long cables. When the long cables and high frequency pulse width modulated control voltage signals are used together, the electrical signals difer greatly between the motor and drive-side of the cable. Since in the considered case only drive-side data is available, it is therefore necessary to estimate the motor-side signals. Modelling the entire cable and motor system in an Extended Kalman Filter is too computationally intensive for standard embedded real-time platforms. It is, in consequence, proposed to divide the problem into an Extended Kalman Filter, based only on the motor model, and separated motor-side signal estimators, the combination of which is less demanding computationally. The efectiveness of this approach is shown in simulation. Then its validity is experimentally demonstrated via implementation in a DSP based drive. A testbench to test its performance when driving an axis of a Large Hadron Collider collimator is presented along with the results achieved. It is shown that the proposed method is capable of achieving position and load torque estimates which allow step loss to be detected and mechanical degradation to be evaluated without the need for physical sensors. These estimation algorithms often require a precise model of the motor, but the standard electrical model used for hybrid stepper motors is limited when currents, which are high enough to produce saturation of the magnetic circuit, are present. New model extensions are proposed in order to have a more precise model of the motor independently of the current level, whilst maintaining a low computational cost. It is shown that a significant improvement in the model It is achieved with these extensions, and their computational performance is compared to study the cost of model improvement versus computation cost. The applicability of the proposed model extensions is demonstrated via their use in an Extended Kalman Filter running in real-time for closed-loop current control and mechanical state estimation. An additional problem arises from the use of stepper motors. The mechanics of the collimators can wear due to the abrupt motion and torque profiles that are applied by them when used in the standard way, i.e. stepping in open-loop. Closed-loop position control, more specifically Field Oriented Control, would allow smoother profiles, more respectful to the mechanics, to be applied but requires position feedback. As mentioned already, the use of sensors in radioactive environments is very limited for reliability reasons. Sensorless control is a known option but when the speed is very low or zero, as is the case most of the time for the motors used in the LHC collimator, the loss of observability prevents its use. In order to allow the use of position sensors without reducing the long term reliability of the whole system, the possibility to switch from closed to open loop is proposed and validated, allowing the use of closed-loop control when the position sensors function correctly and open-loop when there is a sensor failure. A different approach to deal with the switched drive working with long cables is also presented. Switched mode stepper motor drives tend to have poor performance or even fail completely when the motor is fed through a long cable due to the high oscillations in the drive-side current. The design of a stepper motor output fillter which solves this problem is thus proposed. A two stage filter, one devoted to dealing with the diferential mode and the other with the common mode, is designed and validated experimentally. With this ?lter the drive performance is greatly improved, achieving a positioning repeatability even better than with the drive working without a long cable, the radiated emissions are reduced and the overvoltages at the motor terminals are eliminated

PSO Based EKF Wheel-rail Adhesion Estimation

An ideal traction and braking system not only ensures ride comfort and transportation safety but also attracts significant cost benefits through reduction of damaging processes in wheel-rail and optimum on-time operation. In order to overcome the problem of the wheel slip/slide at the wheel-rail contact surface, detection of adhesion and its changes has high importance and scientifically challenging, because adhesion is influenced by different factors. However, critical information this detection provides is applicable not only in the control of trains to avoid undesirable wear of the wheels/track but also the safety compromise of rail operations. The adhesion level between the wheel and rail cannot be measured directly but the friction on the rail surface can be measured using measurement techniques. Estimation of wheel-rail adhesion conditions during railway operations can characterize the braking and traction control system. This paper presents the particle swarm optimization (PSO) based Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) to estimate adhesion force. The main limitation in applying EKF to estimate states and parameters is that its optimality is critically dependent on the proper choice of the state and measurement noise covariance matrices. In order to overcome the mentioned difficulty, a new approach based on the use of the tuned EKF is proposed to estimate induction motor (as a main part of the train moving system) parameters. This approach consists of two steps: In the first step the covariance matrices are optimized by PSO and then, their values will be introduced in the estimation loop.