Shaft Sensorless Speed Control of Induction

Motor Drive
Makys*, Ashert, Gaot,
Jain
*
University of Zilina, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Zilina, Slovakia
tUniversity of Nottingham, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nottingham, UK
Abstract-In this paper, the test voltage injection coupled creates an unwanted saliency which effect must be
with tracking of magnetic saliencies created by saturation eliminated.
and rotor slotting was used for shaft sensorless speed This paper describes a new method to reduce the
control of induction motor drives at zero and low speed. deteriorating effect on the position estimate due to
Method does not require additional wire connections and is saturation. The method has been implemented on an
usable for star or delta machine connection. The paper is experimental 30-kW induction machine drive and the
proposing low memory method of elimination saturation resulting sensorless speed control is shown to be robust
effect from position signals, which are obtained from under different load conditions.
sensors of line current derivations. Experimental results are
presented shoving tracking of rotor speed and position,
signal processing with proposed method and shaft sensorless II. ANISOTROPY IDENTIFICATION
speed control as well. The used method involves to superimpose series of
voltage test vectors Vk, k=1-6, on the normal PWM
waveform as shown in Figure.2.
I. INTRODUCTION This test signal method is described in [4] and during
Controlled induction motor drives without mechanical these pulses the phase current derivations are measured by
speed sensors at the motor shaft have the attraction of low air-core coaxial di/dt sensors [5]. The signals from di/dt
cost, high reliability and no mistake they can work in sensors reflect the anisotropy of rotor, which introduces
hostile environment. Many reliable techniques exist to unbalance in the phase values of the stator leakage
estimate rotor speed without deteriorating the dynamic inductances. The leakage inductances may be assumed to
performance of the drive. If low speed operation is not vary according to:
demanded, approaches utilizing the machine back-emf are
often preferred, where the information on the rotor speed 1(ya = lo + Alcos(nanOan ) (1)
is extracted from measured stator currents and from the
voltages at the motor terminals, known as model-based (2)
method. However, below 1 Hz the quality of estimated lob = lo + Al cos(nan(Oan -2/3))
speed or rotor flux position is poor and maintaining zero
speed is not possible. Therefore, most of researchers are (3)
using the saliency in spatial impedances of ac machines lGc = lo +Al coS(nan (O an -4,K/3))
instead of back-emf to estimated rotor flux position, speed where 1o is the average inductance, and JI is its
or rotor position. In order to measure this saliency, the variation caused by the rotor anisotropy (nan = 2 for
balanced three-phase high frequency signal is generated saturation induced anisotropy or nan= rs =Nr/p for rotor
by the inverter and superimposed upon the fundamental slotting, where Nr is rotor slot number and p the pole
enabled tracking independent of speed and load [1],[2]. In pairs).
[3], Shroedl proposed another method so-called method of
indirect flux-detection by online reactance measurement
(INFORM). Each phase of a machine was periodically
subjected to voltage test pulses, applied in different
directions as shown in Figure. 1. During these pulses the
current derivations that contain the useful position
information is measured. Whilst the implementation of
high frequency injection is easier, following signal
processing is more complicated and features of final
estimation are depended on more parameters. On the other
hand, test vector injection is more difficult to implement,
but this method provides more sufficient position signal,
which does not need so complicated signal processing. For
this reasons, this method was chosen to excite rotor
saliencies in this paper. u5(0,0,1) u6(1,0,1)
It is well known that mostly the machine saturation and
rotor slotting modify the leakage inductances. The first Fig. 1. Definition of Space Vectors
effect contains rotor flux position and the second one
contains rotor slot position. In order to estimate rotor
position, the magnetic saturation acts as a disturbance. It

1-4244-0121-6/06/$20.00 C2006 IEEE 337 EPE-PEMC 2006, Portoro2, Slovenia

 VI V4 V3 V6 V5 V2 Additionally, the voltage drops across the stator
resistance can be ignored due to their small values
compared with Ud.
Hence, (4) - (7) give:
(ul)
di ab di (uO)
ab J Ud (10)
dt dt lua
di(ul) di (uO)
bc _dbc- =
o
(1 1)
dt dt
Fig. 2. Application of Voltage Test Vectors
di(ul)
ca di (aU°)
d caUd
I (12)
The equivalent circuit when the machine is applied with dt dt 'Ga
vector ul is shown in Figure 3. For this case the following
equations can be derived: Expressing (10) to (12) in terms of line currents yields:

Ud (ul) s
ab diab ) (4) di(ul)
a di (uO)
a
g =
I1 +1IU Ud (13)
dt dt dt lu'alcGc
((ul)
c
=
id(t
b rs + I6
b + eb (5) dibu) _ dibU=) (14)
dt d dt dt 'Ga -c Ud

di (ul)
-Ud -Ui(U
lca )+
rs I ac Ca
dt +e(Ul)
c (6) di ul) _ di( uO)
t
dt
1
Ud (15)
dt dt 'GC
Similar, if inactive voltage vectors uo or 17 iS appl
yielding equations: Substituting (1) to (3) into (13) to (15) yields:

di(uO)
db
di(ul) di(uO) -U (2 COS(an(an ))) (16)
O =0-i(UO)r dt ++(uO)
a
lab rs ++ ua ea () dt dt /o /o 3

(uO)
d bc di(ul) di(uO) A
O = i( ) rs + Ib + e(UO) (8) b
dt
b
dt
-
Ud
lo
(1--COS((nanOan)) (17)
lo
dt b

.(uO) dilul) _ di6(uO) --Ud. (1 -Al ((0 4,T)) (18)

aiO)
c= caS +Gl
(TC
ca
dt
+e( (9) dt dt =-0(1--0 3(n (Oan--)))
10 10
n

3
from which three balanced position scalars Pa(V), Pb(V])
If the sampling instants, at which uo and ul are applied, and pq(v]) can be defined as follows:
are close, it can be assumed that:

ea(uO) ;zea(ul) , eb(uO) ;zeb(ul) , ec(UO)~ec(Ul)

Pa(Vl) 1+ c1( d tu- d
dt d)
b
) (19)

Ia iab di'(ul) di(uo) (20)

%L Pb(vI) = -2 + cl ( a
dt
--
c ti
/ S e
di(uo)
I(ar /0c
di(ul)
Pc(vi) 1::::I+ c1( dt c)
dt
(21)
Ud
r, where c, = 1o0 Ud The analysis for the other active
vectors, in view of (7) to (9), follows in the same manner,
so we obtain for V3:
di= (u 3) di(uO)
Pa(V3) 1+ c1(a (22)
dt
Fig. 3. Equivalent circuit with ul being applied

338
 di(u3) Cdi(uO) saturation will interact with the rotor slotting to create
Pb(V3) =1l±+ Cl (Idc --
c)
(23) sideband rotor slot harmonics. The signal processing
dt dt require to obtain useable rotor flux position or rotor
position signals is considering in Section III.
di(u3)
b di uO) (24)
Pc(v3) = -2 + c1 ( dt dt III. SEPARATION OF THE ANIZOTROPY SIGNAL
Also for V5: The separation and elimination of unusable harmonics
cannot be done using real-time filtering since drive
di(uC 5) di(u ) operation exists where 2koe=nrsscor In addition, the 2k0Oe
Pa(V5) ":::
2 +c1 (
dit d)
dit harmonics can converge to dc value at zero frequency
excitation. Several techniques were established to
eliminate corrupting harmonic (Harmonic Compensation
d1(d5) dt(u ) [7], SMP [8], Spatial Filtering [9] or Synchronous Filters
PbV5 -dt dt )
:::::I l
with memory [10]). The method used in this paper is also
based on Synchronous Filters.
di (u 5)
di(u°)
a) A. The Principle ofthe Synchronous Filters
Pc(V5) 1:::I+ c1( dta dt The synchronous filter block for identification of
This approach considers the line currents and hence fundamental frequency harmonics is shown in Figure 4.
only three injections have to be done and take one The kth bank transforms the position signals into a
measurement from each. Effectively, the procedure is this: synchronous dq frame rotating at kOi, where Oi is the
* Inject vector VI and read the dia/dt instantaneous angle of the stator current vector:
* Inject vector V3 and read the dibJdt Pdq k Pafi ke (33)
* Inject vector V5 and read the di,/dt Each of the k 2,4...n disturbing harmonic is now at dc
The vectors V2, V4, V6 just eliminate current and is retained with a low pass filter of cut-off frequency
disturbances introduced by previous vectors. Considering fs that is very low (0.5 Hz). After filtering the signals are
these facts and in order to eliminate DC offset, three transformed back into the stationary frame and added to
position signals pa, Pb andp, can be defined as follows: form a total disturbance signal:
n

Pa =
2 +c1( CL
di(u5)
1
C
di(uO)
d
)) (28) Pdij a/ P k_kje
EPa (34)
dt dt k=O
Synchronous filters are ideal to improve the quality of
di(ul) di(uO) position signal if these signals include only few corrupting
Pb =-2+c1(_ a a _) (30) harmonics because number of the banks will be limited by
dt dt the computing power of the microcontroller.
Once the disturbance signals have been built, one can
dii(u3) di(uo)b) (Ski11)) obtain an enhanced signal:
PC 2 +c1( b
dt dt m j N, 0 +Oh
Restricting the analysis to operation at low speed we Pa/_ filt Pa/i Pdis a/ E Psbe (35)
h=O
can assume that implementation VI, V3, V5 is nearly
instant, thus, where Psb is the magnitude of hth sideband harmonics
about the estimated position harmonic.
Pfx43 filt
P = Pcc + = Pa + aP b + a2PC
iP,8 ++ f
± r 1 Pf
di(5) d i(uO) -a( dia(u) di a)] u0 (32)
~) P,x,p A b
dt dt dt +0
Cl
a2 (difi(Ub '3) di b(u0) )
dt dt
where a e- /3, and rotor slot position p estimation
= 271 +20-e
is assumed. The slot-passing angle is obtained from arc
tan (p,/pp) from which the rotor position angle can be
constructed [6].
+nO, -
According to (1) to (3), it is well known that in most
cases the leakage inductances are dependent on the
machine saturation and rotor slotting. The first effect
contains rotor flux position and the second one contains -mO,7
rotor slot position. It is noted that is ideal, in practice
harmonics of saturation component 2k0Oe, k=2.3... will -nO -

exist as effect of non-linear converter effects, saturation Fig. 4. Structure of synchronous filters
space harmonic etc. In addition, rotating machine

339
These can be eliminated also with one bank of Po,
synchronous filter in the rotating frame of particular
sideband harmonic as shown in Figure 4 (green area). It is
noted that the filtration is done in a synchronous frame so
no phase shift on the retained disturbance signal is added
in signal Pdis ap. However, this signal is a function of load,
so that under load transients, the signal Pdis ip is only
enhanced after typically 0.8s for fs 0.5Hz. The most
significant disadvantage of the synchronous filters is that
if frequency of any corrupting harmonics is less than ff,
filtration of this harmonic is ineffective. So, at zero speed
and unloaded machine the most of disturbing harmonic
are zero what means that identification and elimination of
unwanted harmonics is impossible as shown in Figure 5.
In order to overcome these problems and to obtain good
elimination at low speed under all load conditions, similar
as in[ 10] memory storage method is proposed.
B. The low memory method
The proposed structure of synchronous filters with
memory is displayed in Figure 6. All previous proposed
methods used memory in the similar way - to storage
particular values for every step of discrete field angle
6k(basic step was used to be about one degree what means
360 values) and for every step of torque current
component Isq. In this approach, the main aim is to use as
less memory as possible, so that memory has been situated
to the synchronous dq frame rotating at kOi, where Oi is the
instantaneous angle of the stator current vector. This
structure allows to massively decrease space of memory
where only two values for every corrupting harmonics Fig. 6. Structure of synchronous filters with low memory
were needed. Note that these values are dependent on the
level and phase shift of particular harmonics which are IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
mostly changed with load level so that the current The proposed method has been implemented on an
component Isq must be added as a drive input to choice
proper value of elimination from the memory. Thus, the indirect rotor field orientation (IRFO)-controlled 30kW
final size of memory is depending on number of induction machine with an open slot rotor having 28-slots
disturbing harmonics and size of torque current per pole as shown in Figure 7.
component step. Three di/dt sensors were placed in the line currents to
A pre-commissioning process has been done to fill track the anisotropy caused by the slotting effect. The
memory in order to eliminate 3 disturbing harmonics with switching frequency of the IGBT was 2.5kHz. The
torque current component step IA. This process requires minimum vector duration is set at 25jts.
enabling memory array to be rewritten (ENABLE input).
A. Rotor speed andposition estimation
Real and estimated rotor position
10 - X In order to verify good quality of elimination with low
memory method, sensored speed control was used and
Co 5 L comparison between encoder and estimated position has
been done as shown in Figure 8.
0_
o 5 10 15 20 25 30
Real speed time[s]
20

20

a)
-20-
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Estimated speed time[s]
20

a) h
-20
o 5 10 15 20 25 30
time[s]
Fig. 7. Experimental induction drive
Fig. 5. Speed and position estimation with synchronous filters at low
and zero speed

340
 Real speed
Real and Estimated position 200
10
x) 2- 100
o 5 - 0a
0 cno =
0
0 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
10 2 6 8 10 12 time[s]
Rotor flux position time[s] Estimated speed
0 200

2- 100
C
5-
0aO
u) ,

O_ 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
0 2 6 8 10 12 Torgue component Isq time[s]
Position error time[s] 1'0
'F 5

o
A 0 -10
oi -5
2 4 6 8 10 12
0 3 4 5 6 9 10
time[s]
Torque component Isq time[s]
.0-10
Figure 10. Shaft sensorless control, speed steps 5rpm-l00rpm-5rpm, no
load
-10 Figure 10 shows shaft sensorless speed step from 5 to
20
-20
0 2 8 1
10
time[s]
1OOrpm and back to 5rpm without the load. The maximum
speed value was limited with sampling frequency where
for 1OOrpm was only 7 values of estimated position per
Figure 8. Sensored control 9rpm, loa(d step 35% (fe= 0) one rotor slot position. Pushing up speed over this limit
led to increasing of the estimated speed ripple.
In this case the positive load ste]p was applied to get The operation at zero speed and approximately 35%
fe=0. The error between real and esttimated rotor position load is shown in Figure 11. Speed and position estimation
is about ±2 electrical degrees. This esstimation was without is still excellent. The low-pass filter with cut-off
any low pass filters what increased the noise of estimated frequency 30Hz was added to improve estimated speed.
position.
Figure 9 shows differences of p, c,omponent before and V. CONCLUSIONS
after elimination the first, the secon d, the fourth and side The paper has shown that test voltage injection coupled
band harmonic during the positiv e speed demand of with tracking of magnetic saliencies creates excellent
lOrpm. The machine was working vvith full flux but still method to estimate position and rotor speed. A new low
rotor slot harmonic had main efffect. After filtration, memory elimination method was proposed which allows
unwanted corrupting harmonics had less magnitude than estimation at zero and low speed and increases the quality
10% of rotor slotting effect.
Real speed
B. Shaft sensorless speed control 20

In the following experimental results the estimated

rotor position angle was used for the dq axis ~E a)X
0

transformation. The estimated speed was also used as

feedback for speed control loop. A DC machine was used -20
0 4 6 10 12
time[s]
as a load. AC machine was fed from AC/AC 22KW IGBT 20
Estimated speed

inverter since the loading was restricted to 35%. E 10 _

2000
Alpha component of position signal pab before elimination -o
2-
a)
a)
0-
(n
04 10 "'9 12:
-10 _
2 000 0 4 6 8 10 12
Q- Real and estimated positions time[s]
10 r
-2000
o 1 2 3 4 5 6
Alpha component of position signal pab after elimination time[s]
2000 r- 0 5
n
o ..

CL
L_0 4 6 8 10 12
Torque component Isq time[s]
-2000 _ 20
o 2 3 4 6
Frequency spectrum before ad after elimination time[s]
, 10-
400
0
E 200 00_ 4 10 12
O time[s]
o 10 15
frequency [Hz]
Figure 11. Shaft sensorless control, speed steps 5rpm-Orpm-5rpm,
Figure 9. Filtering with low memory method, lOrpm, 35% load, permanent load 35%

341
of estimated signals in wide speed range. These features
enable precision and high dynamic speed control. In this
paper, only pre-commissioning process was used to write
down the values from synchronous filters to the memory.
Research is continuing to implement self in-line
commissioning process for low memory method and
implement this method on low cost DSP.
VI. APPENDIX
Induction motor parameters: Brook Cromton, A-
connected, 415V, 50Hz, 30KW, 53A, 1480 rpm, 56-slot
rotor, moment of inertia, J=0.69Nms1
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