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Resource Efficient Sensorless Control of Low-Power Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines

Subject Area Electrical Energy Systems, Power Management, Power Electronics, Electrical Machines and Drives
Automation, Mechatronics, Control Systems, Intelligent Technical Systems, Robotics
Term from 2021 to 2024
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 458222494
 
Final Report Year 2025

Final Report Abstract

In the last decades, Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (PMSMs) have gained wide applicability in industrial, automotive and domestic applications due to their power density, high dynamic behaviour and robustness. In order to control such machines, discrete sensors like encoders and resolvers are required for rotor position sensing, which increases system cost and complexity. For this reason, sensorless respectively self-sensing techniques are being developed, with back-Electromotive Force (EMF) based techniques focusing on middle-to-high speed operation, and anisotropy-based ones for standstill and low-speed. Within the latter category, techniques are based on the exploitation of current ripples inherently introduced by a Pulse-Width-Modulation (PWM) inverter. By applying a numerical differentiation, or by oversampling the current, information about the inductance and, consequently, the position can be obtained. For the case of low-power machines, it is important to apply resource-efficient techniques that allow the implementation in cost- and space-critical applications. The approach presented in this research project aims at providing a contribution to the toolbox of self-sensing techniques by proposing a hybrid analog/digital signal processing method capable of providing similar performance to well-known techniques at lower computational expenses. Based on a preceding work introducing the Integrator-based Direct Inductance Measurement (IDIM) technique for single-phase electromagnetic actuators, the current ripple is processed by a fast-resettable integrator circuit synchronized to the switching states of the inverter. The conducted research allows the application of the IDIM technique onto PMSMs first by analysing mathematically the current ripple in three-phase machines under the consideration of back-EMF, stator resistance and eddy currents. Afterwards, a machine excitation strategy involving different PWM patterns and current measurement topologies is developed. Then, a position estimator is synthesized and validated in simulation, that takes as input the integrated current ripple. Finally, experiments show that the noise power of the estimated inverse inductance of the approach is comparable to the one of the computation-intensive oversampling approaches. Moreover, position estimates on three different machines with the new approach show a reliable position estimation when compared to a setup with a high-resolution encoder.

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