Self-Adaptive High-Frequency Injection Based Sensorless Control for Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor Drives

open5openKumar, Piyush; Bottesi, Omar; Calligaro, Sandro; Alberti, Luigi; Petrella, RobertoKumar, Piyush; Bottesi, Omar; Calligaro, Sandro; Alberti, Luigi; Petrella, Robert

Self-adaptive high-frequency injection based sensorless control for interior permanent magnet synchronous motor drives \u2020

Abstract: An auto-tuning and self-adaptation procedure for High Frequency Injection (HFI) based position and speed estimation algorithms in Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (IPMSM) drives is proposed in this paper. Analytical developments show that, using conventional approaches, the dynamics of the high-frequency tracking loop varies with differential inductances, which in turn depend on the machine operating point. On-line estimation and adaptation of the small signal gain of the loop is proposed here, allowing accurate auto-tuning of the sensorless control scheme which does not rely on a priori knowledge of the machine parameters. On-line adaptation of Phase-Locked Loop (PLL) gains and of the injected voltage magnitude is also possible, leading to important advantages from the performance, loss and acoustic point of view. The theoretical basis of the method has been introduced first and the main concept demonstrated by means of simulations. Implementation has been carried out using the hardware of a commercial industrial drive and two Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors, namely a prototype and an off-the-shelf machine. Experimental tests demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposal

Measurement of the Self-Sensing Capability of Synchronous Machines for High Frequency Signal Injection Sensorless Drives

Signal injection sensor-less control for synchronous machines is known to be afflicted by an estimation error dependent on the load current. The estimation error is related to the cross- saturarion and the saliency of the adopted synchronous machine. A motor can be more or less suitable for signal injection sensorless control compared to other motors with different designs or sizes. A sensorless drive can even be afflicted by the control divergence when the machine is highly saturated, resulting in a useless drive. Moreover, even when the control converges, the actual current control trajectory is different from the given reference. In this paper, a measurement procedure of the convergence region, i.e. the operating points where the motor can be successfully controlled without a position sensor is presented and validated. In particular, two different synchronous motors are considered, a permanent magnet assisted synchronous reluctance motor (PMA-SynRM) and a synchronous reluctance motor (SynRM

Advanced Modeling of Anisotropic Synchronous Machine Drives for Sensorless Control

Synchronous machines are extensively used for home appliances and industrial applications thanks to their fast dynamic response, good overload capability and high energy density. A precise knowledge of the rotor position is required to control efficiently this kind of motors. In most of the applications resolvers or absolute encoders are installed on the rotor shaft. The employment of position sensors leads to significant drawbacks such as the increased size and cost of the system and a lower reliability of the drive, caused by additional hardware and cabling. In sensorless drives motor position is estimated and employed in the machine control. Thus, no position sensor is required by the drive and all the drawbacks entailed by the sensor are eliminated. Moreover, the position estimation could be useful for redundancy in case of system failures. Therefore, position estimation techniques are object of great interest in the electric drives field. Position estimation techniques can be divided into two main categories: methods that are suitable for medium or high speed and techniques suitable for low speed or standstill operations. In the former group the motor position is estimated through a reconstruction of the permanent magnet flux or back electromotive force (back-EMF). In case of synchronous reluctance machines it is possible to reconstruct the extended active flux or back-EMF. Stator voltages and currents measurements are needed for these reconstruction methods. Since these signals amplitude is proportional to the rotor speed, position estimation can be successfully performed only for medium and high speed machine operations. In the low speed range, sensorless schemes exploit the rotor magnetic anisotropy. Thus, position can be estimated only for anisotropic motors, i.e. synchronous reluctance motors (SynRM), permanent magnet assisted synchronous reluctance motors (PMA-SynRM) and interior permanent magnet synchronous motors (IPMSM). The rotor anisotropy is recognized thanks to an high frequency voltage injection in the stator windings. Several injection techniques have been proposed, differing from the signal typology. In particular, high frequency sinusoidal or square-wave carriers are often applied. The position information is usually extracted from the current response through a heterodyning demodulation that entails the use of low pass filters in the position estimator, limiting its dynamic. The aim of the research was proposing a new algorithm to estimate the rotor position from the HF current response, getting rid of the demodulation and its weaknesses. Thus, the ellipse fitting technique has been proposed. Robustness against signal processing delay effects and a reduced number of required filters are the main advantages of this novel approach. The inverse problem related to the ellipse fitting is solved implementing a recursive least squares algorithm. The proposed ellipse fitting technique is not affected by signal processing delay effects, and it requires the tuning of only one parameter, called forgetting factor, making the studied method suitable for industrial application thanks to its minimal setup effort. Besides the ellipse fitting technique for rotor position estimation, two other topics have been studied: - Computation of self-sensing capabilities of synchronous machines. - Online incremental inductances identification for SynRM.Synchronous machines are extensively used for home appliances and industrial applications thanks to their fast dynamic response, good overload capability and high energy density. A precise knowledge of the rotor position is required to control efficiently this kind of motors. In most of the applications resolvers or absolute encoders are installed on the rotor shaft. The employment of position sensors leads to significant drawbacks such as the increased size and cost of the system and a lower reliability of the drive, caused by additional hardware and cabling. In sensorless drives motor position is estimated and employed in the machine control. Thus, no position sensor is required by the drive and all the drawbacks entailed by the sensor are eliminated. Moreover, the position estimation could be useful for redundancy in case of system failures. Therefore, position estimation techniques are object of great interest in the electric drives field. Position estimation techniques can be divided into two main categories: methods that are suitable for medium or high speed and techniques suitable for low speed or standstill operations. In the former group the motor position is estimated through a reconstruction of the permanent magnet flux or back electromotive force (back-EMF). In case of synchronous reluctance machines it is possible to reconstruct the extended active flux or back-EMF. Stator voltages and currents measurements are needed for these reconstruction methods. Since these signals amplitude is proportional to the rotor speed, position estimation can be successfully performed only for medium and high speed machine operations. In the low speed range, sensorless schemes exploit the rotor magnetic anisotropy. Thus, position can be estimated only for anisotropic motors, i.e. synchronous reluctance motors (SynRM), permanent magnet assisted synchronous reluctance motors (PMA-SynRM) and interior permanent magnet synchronous motors (IPMSM). The rotor anisotropy is recognized thanks to an high frequency voltage injection in the stator windings. Several injection techniques have been proposed, differing from the signal typology. In particular, high frequency sinusoidal or square-wave carriers are often applied. The position information is usually extracted from the current response through a heterodyning demodulation that entails the use of low pass filters in the position estimator, limiting its dynamic. The aim of the research was proposing a new algorithm to estimate the rotor position from the HF current response, getting rid of the demodulation and its weaknesses. Thus, the ellipse fitting technique has been proposed. Robustness against signal processing delay effects and a reduced number of required filters are the main advantages of this novel approach. The inverse problem related to the ellipse fitting is solved implementing a recursive least squares algorithm. The proposed ellipse fitting technique is not affected by signal processing delay effects, and it requires the tuning of only one parameter, called forgetting factor, making the studied method suitable for industrial application thanks to its minimal setup effort. Besides the ellipse fitting technique for rotor position estimation, two other topics have been studied: - Computation of self-sensing capabilities of synchronous machines. - Online incremental inductances identification for SynRM

High-frequency issues using rotating voltage injections intended for position self-sensing

The rotor position is required in many control schemes in electrical drives. Replacing position sensors by machine self-sensing estimators increases reliability and reduces cost. Solutions based on tracking magnetic anisotropies through the monitoring of the incremental inductance variations are efficient at low-speed and standstill operations. This inductance can be estimated by measuring the response to the injection of high-frequency signals. In general however, the selection of the optimal frequency is not addressed thoroughly. In this paper, we propose discrete-time operations based on a rotating voltage injection at frequencies up to one third of the sampling frequency used by the digital controller. The impact on the rotation-drive, the computational requirement, the robustness and the effect of the resistance on the position estimation are analyzed regarding the signal frequency

Sensorless control for limp-home mode of EV applications

PhD ThesisOver the past decade research into electric vehicles’ (EVs) safety, reliability and availability has become a hot topic and has attracted a lot of attention in the literature. Inevitably these key areas require further study and improvement. One of the challenges EVs face is speed/position sensor failure due to vibration and harsh environments. Wires connecting the sensor to the motor controller have a high likelihood of breakage. Loss of signals from the speed/position sensor will bring the EV to halt mode. Speed sensor failure at a busy roundabout or on a high speed motorway can have serious consequences and put the lives of drivers and passengers in great danger. This thesis aims to tackle the aforementioned issues by proposing several novel sensorless schemes based on Model Reference Adaptive Systems (MRAS) suitable for limp-home mode of EV applications. The estimated speed from these schemes is used for the rotor flux position estimation. The estimated rotor flux position is employed for sensorless torque-controlled drive (TCD) based on indirect rotor field oriented control (IRFOC). The capabilities of the proposed schemes have been evaluated and compared to the conventional back-Electromotive Force MRAS (back-EMF MRAS) scheme using simulation environment and a test bench setup. The new schemes have also been tested on electric golf buggies. The results presented for the proposed schemes show that utilising these schemes provide a reliable and smooth sensorless operation during vehicle test-drive starting from standstill and over a wide range of speeds, including the field weakening region. Employing these new schemes for sensorless TCD in limp-home mode of EV applications increases safety, reliability and availability of EVs

High frequency signal injection method for sensorless permanent magnet synchronous motor drives

The objective of this project is to design a high frequency signal injection method for sensorless control of permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drives. Generally, the PMSM drives control requires the appearance of speed and positon sensor to measure the motor speed hence to feedback the information for variable speed drives operation. The usage of the sensor will increase the size, cost, extra hardwire and feedback devices. Therefore, there is motivation to eliminate this type of sensor by injecting high frequency signal and utilizing the electrical parameter from the motor so that the speed and positon of rotor can be estimated. The proposed position and speed sensorless control method using high frequency signal injection together with all the power electronic circuit are modelled using Simulink. PMSM sensorless driveis simulated and the results are analyzed in terms of speed, torque and stator current response without load disturbance but under the specification of varying speed, forward to reverse operation, reverse to forward operation and step change in reference speed. The results show that the signal injection method performs well during start-up and low speed operation

Sensorless Commissioning and Control of High Anisotropy Synchronous Motor Drives

L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen

Estimation of rotor position for permanent magnet synchronous motor at standstill using sensorless voltage control scheme

The zero-speed rotor position estimation in surface mounted permanent magnet synchronous motor SM-PMSM represents a challenge due to the weak magnetic saliency in this type of motors. This paper presents a new method to estimate the initial rotor position of SM-PMSMs more simply and more accurately without any form of position or current sensors. It achieves this goal through an injection of three short width pulses and employing only the measurements of the motor terminal voltage responses, which fluctuate sinusoidally with the rotor position. Thereby, memory addresses, or dimensions of a look-up table, were created from the readings of the measured voltages. The memory was primarily loaded with 360 angles, each represents 1o angle of rotor positions. The simulated MATLAB model and experimental results demonstrate the advantages. Comparing with the previous related publications, this research work has fulfilled two main contributions. The first is in achieving a rotor position estimation of 1o resolution. The second is in eliminating the technique needed for detection of the rotor magnet polarity. The measured rates of error for the MATLAB model and the practical model were 2% and 5% respectivel