930 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 61, NO.

2, FEBRUARY 2014
Estimation of Load Disturbance Torque for DC
Motor Drive Systems Under Robustness and
Sensitivity Consideration
Danny Grignion, Member, IEEE, Xiang Chen, Member, IEEE, Narayan Kar, Senior Member, IEEE, and Huijie Qian
AbstractThis paper presents multiple methods for the design
of a robust disturbance torque estimator. The benet of these
designs is that they ensure robust estimation in the presence of
model uncertainties and/or noise. It is shown that these estima-
tion schemes can be used to estimate both constant and nearly
constant disturbance torques. In order to design the observers,
the nominal plant model is expanded to incorporate uncertainties.
Various cases for the design of the observer are presented. All
of the cases are tested on a real system using varying degrees of
model uncertainty to ensure that robust estimation is achieved.
The results are validated using an in-line torque sensor and are
presented accordingly.
Index TermsDisturbance torque estimation, H

index, H

ltering, multiobjective robust ltering, robust estimation.

NOMENCLATURE
Variation.

m
Motor speed.

d
Disturbance torque.

L
Load torque.
B
m
Viscous friction coefcient.
i
a
Armature current.
J
m
Inertial coefcient.
K
t
Mechanical constant.
K
v
Electrical constant.
L
a
Armature inductance.
R
a
Armature resistance.
v
d
Disturbance voltage.
v
t
Armature voltage.
I. INTRODUCTION
D
IRECT CURRENT (dc) motors are an important part
of many everyday systems. In particular, the automobile
contains an array of dc motors that are used to control various
aspects of the vehicles performance and enhance the comfort
Manuscript received June 13, 2012; revised November 13, 2012; accepted
February 14, 2013. Date of publication April 5, 2013; date of current version
August 9, 2013. This work was supported in part by the Ontario Research Fund
under the project Green Auto Powertrain, and in part by Natural Science and
Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) through Network of Centre
of ExcellenceAutomobile in 21st Century.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineer-
ing, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON N9B 3P4, Canada (e-mail: xchen@
uwindsor.ca).
Color versions of one or more of the gures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TIE.2013.2257138
level for the occupants. These applications range from highly
sensitive systems, such as electronic throttle control and electric
power steering, to less sensitive systems such as power sunroof,
power seats, and power windows. In highly sensitive systems,
such as the electronic throttle control system, it is necessary to
maintain as much precision as possible even in the presence of
disturbance torques that pose themselves on the motors shaft.
In order to accomplish this task, the system needs to have some
knowledge of the disturbance torque.
Due to the difculty of direct measurement, estimation has
become a popular method of measuring the quantity of the
disturbance torque acting on a motors shaft. This estimation
may then be used to compensate for the disturbance torque
acting on the shaft, thus improving the systems robustness to
external torques and load changes. A well-designed estimation
scheme can also be used to reduce the cost of the overall system
as it can be used to estimate other quantities and thus eliminate
the need to use high-priced sensors to measure such quantities.
Three such estimation schemes were presented in [1]. All
of the schemes are based on a Luenberger state observer (see
[15] and [16]) that is expanded to incorporate the disturbance
torque in the plant model. This expansion is performed in two
ways with the rst being that the disturbance torque is treated
as an unknown input and the second being that it is treated as
a state variable. This second method was used successfully in
[9] and [10]. There is a restriction placed on the design of this
type of estimator in that the disturbance torque acting on the
plant is assumed to be constant and only the performance for
constant disturbance torques was shown. It is not guaranteed
that a nonconstant disturbance torque can be estimated.
All of these schemes, though, do not incorporate the presence
of model uncertainties into the design of the estimator. An
observer design that also takes into account these uncertainties
would serve not only to provide a good estimation but also to
robustify the estimation to variations in the parameters of the
plant. Two such lters are the H

lter discussed in [22] and

[26] and the H

-Gaussian lter in [3] and [4]. These lters

are designed to provide a robust estimate in the presence of
model uncertainties (and noise in the case of the H

-Gaussian
lter). This is achieved through the solution of two coupled
algebraic Riccati equations (AREs). Another example of this
type of estimation can be found in [25]. A brief description
of these designs will be discussed later in this paper. It should
be noted that these designs are not the only methods available
to design an observer or to estimate a disturbance. For other
designs, see [2], [5], [6][8], [18], [19][21], [23], and [24].
0278-0046 2013 IEEE
GRIGNION et al.: ESTIMATION OF LOAD DISTURBANCE TORQUE FOR DC MOTOR DRIVE SYSTEMS 931
It can be shown that the error dynamics of the system
are affected not only by model uncertainties but also by the
disturbance acting on the system and that the disturbance torque
estimation is proportional to the error in the estimation of the
motors armature current. This raises an interesting question as
to howan estimator design can be conducted that maximizes the
sensitivity of the error to the disturbance to be estimated while
minimizing the sensitivity of the error to model uncertainties.
A good lter design will make a tradeoff between these two
conicting requirements. In order to facilitate such a design,
a second measure is needed in order to properly gauge the
sensitivity to a disturbance.
The H

index can be used for such a purpose. This index

can be used to achieve the desired sensitivity to disturbance
by maximizing the H

index of the transfer function from

disturbance to error. A mix of these two measures would thus
provide a means for achieving such a lter design. One such
design is the multiobjective H

/H

lter, presented in [11]

[14], that has been used for fault detection.
This paper will use an H

lter, an H

-Gaussian lter, and a

multiobjective H

/H

lter as the basis for three disturbance

torque estimator designs. The lters will be used to estimate
the disturbance torque acting on the motor shaft, without any
prior knowledge or model of the disturbance itself, and in the
presence of model uncertainty. The aim of this is to ensure that
the design of the observer and the estimate which it produces
are robust to model uncertainties and/or noise.
This paper is organized as follows. Section II will provide
the denitions of the H

norm, H
2
norm, and H

index and
a brief theoretical background of a generic observer and lter
designs and also discusses the modeling of a dc motor drive sys-
tem. Section III discusses the design of the disturbance torque
estimators. Section IV presents some test results. Section V
concludes this paper.
II. MODELING AND BACKGROUND THEORY
A. Notations and Denitions
The following notations and denitions are used throughout
this paper (see [3], [4], [11][14], [22], [26], and [27]). Matrices
and vectors are represented using bold lettering. denotes an
estimated state variable, and denotes a derivative with respect
to time. If A is a matrix or vector, then A
T
and A

denote its
transpose and conjugate transpose, respectively. I and 0 denote
an identity matrix of appropriate dimensions and a zero matrix
of appropriate dimensions, respectively. (A) and (A) denote
the largest and smallest singular values of A, respectively.
Let G(s) be a proper real rational transfer matrix. A state-
space realization of G(s) is
G(s) =
_
A B
C D
_
= C(sI A)
1
B +D.
A left coprime factorization (LCF) of G(s) is a factorization
G(s) = M
1
(s)N(s) where M(s) and N(s) are left coprime
over G(s) RH

and RH

is the space of all proper and

real rational stable matrix transfer functions. Let the state-space
realization of G(s) above be detectable, and let L be a matrix
with appropriate dimensions such that A+LC is stable. Then,
an LCF of G(s) is given by
[M(s) N(s)] =
_
A+LC L B +LD
C I D
_
.
For G(s) RH
2
where RH
2
is the space of all strictly
proper and real rational stable matrix transfer functions, the H
2
norm of G(s) is dened as
G(s)
2
=

_
1
2

trace [G

(j)G(j)] d.
For G(s) RH

, the H

norm of Gis dened as

G(s)

= sup
R
(G(j)) .
Similarly, the H

index of G(s) over all frequencies is

dened as
G(s)
[]

= inf
R
(G(j)) .
The H

index of G(s) over a nite frequency range [

1
,
2
]
is dened as
G(s)
[
1
,
2
]

= inf
[
1
,
2
]
(G(j)) .
The H

index of G(s) at zero frequency is dened as

G(s)
[0]

= (G(0)) .
If no superscript is added to the H

symbol, such as
G(s)

, then it represents all possible H

denitions.
B. Generic Observer Model
Any nominal linear time-invariant continuous-time system
can be represented by a state-space model in the following
form:
x =Ax +Bu
y =Cx +Du (1)
where x, x, y, and u are vectors that represent the system
states, the time derivatives of the system states, the measure-
ment output of the system, and the control input of the system,
respectively, and A, B, C, and D are the matrices that are
known as the system, input, output, and feedthrough matrices,
respectively.
Assuming that the pair (A, C) is observable, the following
observer model can be used for the estimation of the system
states:

x =A x +Bu +L(y y)
y =C x +Du (2)
where L represents the gain of the observer that is to be
designed. A general layout of a system with an observer is
shown in Fig. 1.
932 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 61, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2014
Fig. 1. General layout of a system with an observer.
Fig. 2. H

estimation problem.
The gain L can be chosen using different methods that are
geared toward different performance criteria. Note that the
state-space model of the system used to derive the particular
observer gain is altered accordingly also based on the perfor-
mance criteria.
C. H

Filter
As mentioned previously, the H

lter estimates the system

states in the presence of model uncertainties. The state model of
the systemused to calculate the observer gain is in the following
form:
x =Ax +Bu +B
1
w
y =Cx +D
21
w
z =C
1
x +D
11
w (3)
where B
1
is a weighting matrix for the model uncertainties,
D
21
and D
11
are the weighting matrices for the measurement
and output uncertainties, respectively, w is a vector of uncer-
tainties, and C
1
is a matrix that allows us to dene the desired
outputs of the system.
Using an observer in the form of (2) and dening e
x
= x
x to be the estimation error, the error dynamics of this observer
can be calculated as
e
x
= x

x = (ALC)e
x
+ (B
1
LD
21
)w (4)
where e
x
represents the time derivative of the estimation error.
Reformulating the problem as shown in Fig. 2, an objective
used to calculate the value of Lfor this observer can be dened.
The objective is as follows: Given a > 0, nd a causal lter
F(s) RH

if it exists such that:

T
e
x
w
(s)|

= sup
wL
2
[0,)
e
x

2
2
w
2
2
<
2
(5)
where L
2
[0, ) is the space of all time-domain square inte-
grable functions with values to be zero for t < 0. Assuming
that D
11
= D
21
= 0, where 0 is a zero matrix of appropriate
dimensions, this can be done by solving the following ARE:
AP+PA
T
+P(
2
C
T
1
C
1
C
T
C)P+B
1
B
T
1
=0 (6)
Fig. 3. H

-Gaussian estimation problem.

which yields a gain of
L = PC
T
. (7)
Note that is a positive constant that represents the limit of
the uncertainty that may be tolerated by the lter. For a detailed
description and proof of this estimator design, see [22] and [26].
D. H

-Gaussian Filter
The H

-Gaussian lter estimates the system states in the

presence of both model uncertainties and white noise. The state
model of the system used to calculate the observer gain is in the
following form:
x =Ax +Bu +B
0
w
0
+B
1
w
y =Cx +D
20
w
0
z
0
=C
0
x
z =C
1
x (8)
where B
1
is a weighting matrix for the model uncertainties,
B
0
and D
20
are the input and feedthrough matrices for the
process and measurement noises, respectively, C
0
and C
1
are
the matrices that allow us to dene the desired outputs of the
system, w is a vector of uncertainties, and w
0
is a vector of
white noises acting on the system. Note that white noise is
assumed to satisfy the following conditions:
E {w
0
(t)} =0
E
_
w
0
(t)w
T
0
(t)
_
=I(t )
where E{} is the expectation operator.
Using an observer in the form of (2) and dening e
x
= x
x to be the estimation error, the error dynamics of this observer
can be calculated as
e
x
= x

x = (ALC)e
x
+ (B
0
LD
20
) +B
1
w (9)
where e
x
represents the time derivative of the estimation error.
Reformulating the problem as shown in Fig. 3, an objective
used to calculate the value of Lfor this observer can be dened.
The objective is as follows: Given a > 0, dene the following
cost functionals:
J
1
(F, w(t), w
0
(t))
= lim
T
1
T
T
_
0
E
_

2
w(t)
2
e(t)
2
_
dt (10)
J
2
(F, w(t), w
0
(t))
= lim
T
1
T
T
_
0
E
_
e
0
(t)
2
_
dt. (11)
Note that F(s) must be stable. Therefore, we say that F is an
admissible lter if F(s) RH

.
GRIGNION et al.: ESTIMATION OF LOAD DISTURBANCE TORQUE FOR DC MOTOR DRIVE SYSTEMS 933
Find an admissible lter F

of the form

x =A x +L(y y) = (ALC) x +Ly; x(0) = 0

z
0
=C
0
x
z =C
1
x (12)
and a worst disturbance signal w

(t) such that

J
1
(F

, w

(t), w
0
(t)) J
1
(F

, w(t), w
0
(t))
J
2
(F

, w

(t), w
0
(t)) J
2
(F, w

(t), w
0
(t))
hold for all F P, where P is the space of all stationary
signals with bounded power. This can be done by solving the
following set of coupled AREs:
_
AP
2
C
T
R
1
0
CB
0
D
T
20
R
1
0
C
_
T
P
1
+P
1
_
AP
2
C
T
R
1
0
CB
0
D
T
20
R
1
0
C
_
+
2
P
1
B
1
B
T
1
P
1
+C
T
1
C
1
=0 (13)
_
AB
0
D
T
20
R
1
0
C+
2
B
1
B
T
1
P
1
_
P
2
+P
2
_
AB
0
D
T
20
R
1
0
C+
2
B
1
B
T
1
P
1
_
T
P
2
C
T
R
1
0
CP
2
+B
0
_
ID
T
20
R
1
0
D
20
_
B
T
0
=0 (14)
where R
0
= D
20
D
T
20
. This yields a gain of
L =
_
P
2
C
T
+B
0
D
T
20
_
R
1
0
. (15)
For a detailed description and proof of this estimator design,
see [3] and [4].
E. Multiobjective H

/H

Filter
The H

/H

lter can be used to estimate the system states

so as to make a tradeoff in the design that both maximizes
the sensitivity of the estimation to a parameter of interest and
robusties the estimation against another parameter.
For the purposes of this paper, the state model of the system
used to calculate the observer gain is in the following form:
x =Ax +Bu +B
d
w
d
+B
1
w
y =Cx +Du +D
d
w
d
+D
21
w (16)
where B
d
and D
d
are the input and feedthrough matrices for
the disturbances, respectively, B
1
and D
21
are the weighting
matrices for the model uncertainties and output uncertainties,
respectively, w
d
is a vector of external disturbances, and w is a
vector of model uncertainties.
By taking the Laplace transform of (16), we get
y = G
u
(s)u +G
1
(s)w +G
d
(s)w
d
(17)
where G
u
(s), G
1
(s), and G
d
(s) are the transfer matrices from
input to output, uncertainty to output, and disturbance to output,
respectively, whose state-space realizations are
G
u
(s) G
1
(s) G
d
(s) =
_
A B B
1
B
d
C D D
21
D
d
_
. (18)
An LCF of (18) can be written as
G
u
(s) G
1
(s) G
d
(s)
= M
1
(s) [N
u
(s) N
1
(s) N
d
(s)] (19)
where
[ M(s) N
u
(s) N
1
(s) N
d
(s) ]
=
_
A+LC L B +LD B
1
+LD
21
B
d
+LD
d
C I D D
21
D
d
_
(20)
and L is a matrix such that A+LC is stable.
It can been shown that the lter can take the following
general form:
r =Q(s) (M(s)y N
u
(s)u)
=Q(s) [ M(s) N
u
(s) ]
_
y
u
_
(21)
where r is known as the residual vector and Q(s) is a stable
transfer matrix to be designed. By replacing y in (21) with the
right-hand side of (17) and (19), we get
r =Q(s) [ N
1
(s) N
d
(s) ]
_
w
w
d
_
=Q(s)N
1
(s)w +Q(s)N
d
(s)w
d
. (22)
Thus, the transfer matrices from uncertainty to residual and
disturbance to residual can be written as
G
rw
(s) = Q(s)N
1
, G
rd
= Q(s)N
d
. (23)
From this, an objective can be dened that can be used to
design an appropriate Q(s) as follows: Let > 0 be a given
uncertainty rejection level. Find a stable transfer matrix Q(s)
RH

in (21)(23) such that G

rw
(s)

and G
rd
(s)

is maximized, i.e.,
max
Q(s)RH

_
Q(s)N
d
(s)

: Q(s)N
1
(s)

_
.
By letting R
1
= D
21
D
T
21
> 0 and letting Y 0 be the
stabilizing solution to the following ARE:
_
AB
1
D
T
21
R
1
1
C
_
Y +Y
_
AB
1
D
T
21
R
1
1
C
_
T
Y C
T
R
1
1
CY +B
1
_
I D
T
21
R
1
1
D
21
_
B
T
1
= 0 (24)
such that AB
1
D
T
21
R
1
1
C Y C
T
R
1
1
C is stable, we
can dene
L
0
=
_
B
1
D
T
21
+Y C
T
_
R
1
1
. (25)
Then,
max
Q(s)RH

_
Q(s)N
d
(s)

: Q(s)N
1
(s)

_
=
_
_
V
1
(s)N
d
(s)
_
_

and an optimal lter can be found that has the following state-
space representation:
r = Q
opt
(s) [ M(s) N
u
(s) ]
_
y
u
_
(26)
934 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 61, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2014
Fig. 4. Block diagram of a PMDC.
where
Q
opt
(s) [ M(s) N
u
(s) ]
=
_
A+L
0
C L
0
B +L
0
D
R

1
2
1
C R

1
2
1
R

1
2
1
D
_
V
1
(s)N
d
(s) =
_
A+L
0
C B
d
+L
0
D
d
R

1
2
1
C R

1
2
1
D
d
_
.
In other words, the optimal H

/H

lter is the following

observer:

x =(A+L
0
C) x L
0
y + (B +L
0
D)u
r =R
1
2
1
(y C x Du). (27)
For a detailed description and proof of this estimator design,
see [11][14].
F. DC Motor Model
A permanent-magnet dc motor (PMDC) (see [1] and [17])
can be represented by the following two coupled linear time-
invariant continuous-time differential equations:
v
t
=R
a
i
a
+ L
a

i
a
+ K
v

m
+ v
d
K
t
i
a
=J
m

m
+ B
m

m
+
d
(28)
where
v
d
=R
a
i
a
+ L
a

i
a
+ K
v

m
tau
d
= K
t
i
a
+ J
m

m
+ B
m

m
+
L
. (29)
It is worth noting that
L
not only denotes the load torque
but also denotes any variations in the load that may be due to
other external disturbances acting on the motors shaft. A block
diagram of the PMDC is shown in Fig. 4.
In order to incorporate the disturbance torque and model
uncertainties into the state model of the PMDC so as to design
the estimators, the state-space representation in (1), (3), (8), and
(16) must be expanded. For the purposes of this paper, this will
be achieved by treating the disturbance torque as an unknown
input and assigning the disturbance voltage arising from the
variations in the electrical parameters to the vector w.
Thus, by choosing the state variables of the system as i
a
and

m
and having the sole measurement output of the system be
the armature current, three state-space models of the PMDCcan
be written.
For the H

lter design, the state-space model is written as

x =Ax +Bu +B
d
w
d
+B
1
w
y =Cx
z =C
1
x. (30)
Fig. 5. Disturbance torque estimator.
For the H

-Gaussian lter design, the state-space model is

written as
x =Ax +Bu +B
d
w
d
+B
0
w
0
+B
1
w
y =Cx +D
20
w
0
z
0
=C
0
x
z =C
1
x. (31)
For the H

/H

lter design, the state-space model is

written as
x =Ax +Bu +B
d
w
d
+B
1
w
y =Cx +D
21
w. (32)
In all cases, we have
A =
_

R
a
L
a

K
v
L
a
K
t
J
m

B
m
J
m
_
, B =
_
1
L
a
0
_
, C = [ 1 0 ]
B
d
=
_
0

1
J
m
_
, C
0
=
_
1 0
0 1
_
, C
1
=
_
1 0
0 1
_
x =
_
i
a

m
_
, u = v
t
, y = i
a
, w
d
=
d
.
B
0
and D
20
are weighting matrices used to dene the signif-
icance of the white noises acting on the system and output,
respectively. B
1
and D
21
are weighting matrices used to
dene the signicance of uncertainties acting on the system
and output, respectively. The structures of B
1
, D
21
, and w
change based on the combination of uncertainties being used
to calculate the observer gain and will be discussed, along with
the structures of B
0
, D
20
, and w
0
, in the next section.
III. DISTURBANCE TORQUE ESTIMATOR DESIGN
As mentioned previously, an observer in the form of (2) can
be designed under the assumption that the pair (A, C) is ob-
servable. Assuming that this condition is satised for a PMDC,
an equation that relates the disturbance torque estimation to the
state estimations is also required. This equation is

d
= K
t
i
a
J
m


m
B
m

m
. (33)
Note that the actual armature current is used as opposed to
the estimated armature current since it is assumed that the
measured value is more reliable than the estimated value. The
complete disturbance torque estimator is described by both (2)
and (33). A block diagram of the estimator is shown in Fig. 5,
and the complete system is shown in Fig. 6.
GRIGNION et al.: ESTIMATION OF LOAD DISTURBANCE TORQUE FOR DC MOTOR DRIVE SYSTEMS 935
Fig. 6. System with disturbance torque estimation.
By dening e
x
= x x = [e
i
e

]
T
where e
i
and e

denote
the error in the estimation of the armature current and motor
speed, respectively, the error dynamics for the disturbance
torque estimator can be dened as
e
x
= x

x = (ALC)e
x
+B
d
w
d
+B
1
w (34)
when using an H

lter, as
e
x
= x

x=(ALC)e
x
+B
d
w
d
+(B
0
LD
20
)w
0
+B
1
w
(35)
when using an H

-Gaussian lter, and as

e
x
= x

x=(ALC)e
x
+B
d
w
d
+(B
1
D
21
)w (36)
when using an H

/H

lter, where L = [L
1
L
2
]
T
for the
PMDC. Note that the gain L
0
described in Section II was
dened solely for the purpose of derivation. It can be considered
the same as the gain L in (2) and is dened as
L = L
0
= (B
1
D
T
21
+Y C
T
)R
1
1
(37)
for the purpose of implementation.
Having dened the error dynamics for each type of lter,
objectives for the calculation of the gain L for each lter can
be dened in the context of disturbance torque estimation. For
the H

lter, the objective is the same as dened previously in

(5). This objective can be achieved by solving the ARE in (6)
which yields the gain in (7).
For the H

-Gaussian lter, the objective is also the same as

dened previously in (10)(12). This objective can be achieved
by solving the coupled AREs in (13) and (14) which yields the
gain in (15).
For the H

/H

lter, the objective dened previously is

rewritten as follows: Let T
e
x
w
(s) and T
e
x
d
(s) denote the
transfer functions from uncertainty to error and disturbance
to error, respectively, and let > 0 be a given uncertainty
rejection level. Find a stable lter with gain L such that
T
e
x
w
(s)

and T
e
x
d
(s)

is maximized, i.e.,
max
L
_
T
e
x
d(s)
_
: T
e
x
w(s)

_
.
This objective can be achieved by solving the ARE in (24)
which yields the gain in (37). Note that this objective assumes
that there exists a relation between the error dynamics of the
lter and the residual signal dened previously. It will be
shown later in this section that, in fact, there does exist a
relation between the error dynamics and the residual signal,
thus justifying the use of such an objective.
Using (34)(36), certain criteria can be dened as to what
the estimator should yield in terms of performance. First, the
the design of the estimator must ensure that the eigenvalues of
(34)(36) are stable, i.e., the eigenvalues of (ALC) must lie
within the left-half plane. Second, the estimator must provide
an appropriate estimation of the disturbance torque. Third, the
estimation must be robust to model uncertainties (and white
noises in the case of the H

-Gaussian lter), i.e., the transfer

function from uncertainty to error (and the transfer function
from white noise to error in the case of the H

-Gaussian lter)
should be constrained.
The rst two criteria can be easily satised by a wide range
of values for the observer gain. Using this knowledge, we can
assume that there exists within that range an Lthat also satises
the third criterion. The difculty arises in the determination
of such a gain, which can be resolved using the estimation
techniques discussed in this paper.
Another issue that arises is that, in the cases of both the H

and H

-Gaussian lters, there is no systematic treatment of

the disturbance torque but rather only of the uncertainty and
white noise. This issue is addressed solely in the design of the
H

/H

lter, thus justifying the use of such a lter design. The

gain Lin this case not only constrains the transfer function from
uncertainty to error but also amplies the transfer function from
disturbance to error. The justication of this will be discussed
later in this section.
Since the value of L in all cases constrains the transfer
function from uncertainty to error (and also minimizes the
impact of white noise in the case of the H

-Gaussian lter),
it can be assumed without loss of generality that (34)(36) can
be reduced to
e
x
= (ALC)e
x
+B
d
w
d
. (38)
Solving this equation results in
e
x
= e
(ALC)t
e(0) +
T
_
0
e
(ALC)(t)
B
d
w
d
()d. (39)
It can be seen in (39) that, under steady-state conditions, the
estimation error is related to the disturbance. Note that steady
state does not imply constant as in the case of sinusoidal
steady state. Since this equation does not assume a constant
disturbance, therefore, it can be said that, with such an L, it is
possible to estimate a nonconstant disturbance that varies with
time at low frequency, i.e., the period of the disturbance should
not exceed the time that it takes for the error dynamics to settle.
For a PMDC, if the equation for


m
is substituted into (33),
the estimation equation becomes

d
= (K
t
L
2
J
m
)e
i
(40)
936 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 61, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2014
where e
i
= i
a

i
a
. Thus, we can see from (39) and (40)
that the disturbance torque is related to the error in current
estimation and can be estimated without the assumption of the
disturbance torque being constant. As such, we can justify the
need to constrain the transfer function from uncertainty to error,
minimize the impact of white noise on the error, and amplify the
transfer function from disturbance to error.
In order to fully implement an H

/H

lter, a relation
between the error in the estimation of armature current and
the residual signal must be found since the H

/H

lter
described in Section II operates on the transfer functions from
disturbance to residual and uncertainty to residual. Using the
residual equation from (27) and the output equation from (32),
we nd that
r = R
1/2
1
Ce
x
+ R
1/2
1
D
21
w. (41)
Since the lter is designed to constrain the transfer function
from uncertainty to residual, we can also assume without loss
of generality that (41) can be reduced to
r = R
1/2
1
Ce
x
. (42)
Substituting in the value of C from the state model in (32) and
rearranging results in
e
i
=
r
R
1/2
1
. (43)
Substituting back into (40) results in

d
= (K
t
+ L
02
J
m
)
r
R
1/2
1
. (44)
It can be easily shown that (33) and (44) are equivalent, and
thus, the complete disturbance torque estimator designed using
an H

/H

lter can be entirely described by (2) (with D = 0)

and (33) as is also the case for the estimators designed using an
H

lter and an H

-Gaussian lter.
Since the disturbance torque being estimated is assumed
either to be constant or to vary with a low frequency, the
armature current may also be assumed either to be constant or
to vary with a low frequency. As a result, the term L
a

i
a
can
be assumed to be small and negligible. Also, as shown in (29),
variations in any of the mechanical parameters of the motor and
the load can be considered as part of the disturbance torque. As
a result, the only two model uncertainties of signicance are
the variations in the armature resistance and the variations in
the electrical constant.
A special situation arises in the design of the H

/H

lter in that the matrix D

21
must be nonzero such that R
1
=
D
21
D
T
21
> 0 in order to ensure the existence of a solution to
the ARE in (24). This implies that the measurement output of
the system contains an uncertainty. As a result, the term i
a
is used to denote output uncertainty such that the measurement
output becomes y = i
a
+ i
a
. Hence, we assume that every
measurement taken from the system contains some inherent
uncertainty that the lter design must be robust against. The
use of such an output uncertainty can be justied by two
reasons. First, regardless of the actions taken to ensure the
TABLE I
STRUCTURES OF B
1
, D
21
, AND w
accuracy of a measurement and the actual degree of accuracy
of this measurement, there will always exist some degree of
uncertainty within that measurement, i.e., no measurement is
ever 100% accurate. Second, the measurement output of the
PMDC system considered in this paper is the armature current.
Acquisition of the armature current can be achieved through
the use of a current shunt resistor. Ideally, the current shunt
should have zero resistance at all times. In practice though, the
current shunt is not ideal and has some resistance that may vary
under different operating conditions. This will not only appear
as a variation in the armature resistance of the PMDC but also
introduce inaccuracies in the measurements acquired from the
current shunt.
Using all of this knowledge, three separate cases for the
structure of B
1
, D
21
, and w can be considered. In case 1,
only variations in the armature resistance are considered. In
case 2, only variations in the electrical constant are considered.
In case 3, both variations in the armature resistance and the
electrical constant are considered. In all cases for the H

/H

lter, the output uncertainty is also considered. The cases are

summarized in Table I. Note that, in all cases, w
1
, w
2
, and
w
3
are positive constants that represent the signicance of the
particular uncertainty. They are added to the system in order to
inuence the calculation of the observer gain.
Once determined, all of these parameters are used to solve
the AREs in (6), (13), (14), and (24) whose solutions are then
used to calculate the observer gains in (7), (15), and (37).
IV. SIMULATION AND TEST RESULTS
In order to verify the performance of the estimators, the
designs were tested using a PMDC attached to a dyno motor.
The dyno was used to provide the disturbance torque to the
test motors shaft. A current shunt resistor was used to measure
the test motors armature current for use in the estimators.
The estimation algorithms were implemented using an Opal-RT
real-time computer in conjunction with RT-Lab and Simulink.
The PMDC is shown in Fig. 7, and the test bench is shown
in Fig. 8. In all three cases, the motor was subjected to both
constant and low frequency disturbance torques, as well as
the described parameter variations. The performance of the
GRIGNION et al.: ESTIMATION OF LOAD DISTURBANCE TORQUE FOR DC MOTOR DRIVE SYSTEMS 937
Fig. 7. PMDC used to test the disturbance torque estimator.
Fig. 8. Test bench used to test the disturbance torque estimator.
estimators was validated using an in-line torque sensor. Also,
in all cases for the H

-Gaussian lter, B
0
, D
20
, and w
0
were
dened as
B
0
=
_
0.5
L
a
0
0 0
_
D
20
= [ 0 1 ] w
0
=
_
V
brush
I
a
noise
_
where V
brush
denotes the brush noise and i
a
noise
denotes the
measurement noise. For case 1, testing was executed using
nominal parameters and in the presence of variations in the
armature resistance of 10%. For case 2, testing was executed
using nominal parameters and in the presence of variations
in the electrical constant of 10%. For case 3, testing was
executed using nominal parameters and in the presence of
variations in both the armature resistance and the electrical
constant of 10%. Test results are also shown accordingly.
A. Test Results for Case 1
It can be seen in Figs. 911 that all of the estimators are
capable of delivering appropriate and robust disturbance torque
estimations in the presence of variations in the armature re-
sistance. This is seen in the fact that the difference between
all of the estimations is not even visible in the results. These
results are also reinforced by Fig. 12 which shows that there
are very small and negligible variations in the results due to the
variations.
It can also be seen in Fig. 13 that the estimation results of the
H

-Gaussian lter contain less noise in comparison to the H

and H

/H

lter estimation results. This is expected since

the H

-Gaussian lter is designed to make a tradeoff between

robustness and noise rejection.
Fig. 9. H

estimation with variations in R

a
.
Fig. 10. H

-Gaussian estimation with variations in R

a
.
Fig. 11. H

/H

estimation with variations in R

a
.
938 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 61, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2014
Fig. 12. Robustness results for case 1.
Fig. 13. Noise results for case 1.
Fig. 14. H

estimation with variations in K

v
.
Fig. 15. H

-Gaussian estimation with variations in K

v
.
Fig. 16. H

/H

estimation with variations in K

v
.
B. Test Results for Case 2
It can be seen in Figs. 1416 that all of the estimators
are capable of delivering appropriate and robust disturbance
torque estimations in the presence of variations in the electrical
constant. This is seen in the fact that the difference between all
of the estimations is hardly even visible in the results. These
results are also reinforced by Fig. 17 which shows that there
are very small and negligible variations in the results due to the
variations.
It can also be seen in Fig. 18 that the estimation results of the
H

-Gaussian lter contain less noise in comparison to the H

and H

/H

lter estimation results once again as expected.

C. Test Results for Case 3
It can be seen in Figs. 1921 that all of the estimators are
capable of delivering appropriate and robust disturbance torque
estimations in the presence of variations in both the armature
resistance and the electrical constant. This is seen in the fact
that the difference between all of the estimations is hardly even
GRIGNION et al.: ESTIMATION OF LOAD DISTURBANCE TORQUE FOR DC MOTOR DRIVE SYSTEMS 939
Fig. 17. Robustness results for case 2.
Fig. 18. Noise results for case 2.
Fig. 19. H

estimation with variations in both R

a
and K
v
.
Fig. 20. H

-Gaussian estimation with variations in both R

a
and K
v
.
Fig. 21. H

/H

estimation with variations in both R

a
and K
v
.
visible in the results. These results are also reinforced by Fig. 22
which shows that there are very small and negligible variations
in the results due to the variations.
It can also be seen in Fig. 23 that the estimation results of the
H

-Gaussian lter contain less noise in comparison to the H

and H

/H

lter estimation results as expected.

D. H

/H

Sensitivity Results
Since sensitivity to a disturbance is also a requirement in the
design of the H

/H

lter-based disturbance torque estimator,

a second set of tests was also conducted to ensure that this
requirement was achieved by the design of the H

/H

lter-
based estimators. It can be seen in Figs. 2426 that small
changes in the disturbance torque can be quickly reected in
the disturbance torque estimation in all cases. This conrms
that the H

/H

lter-based disturbance torque estimator not

only achieves robustness to model uncertainties but also simul-
taneously can maximize sensitivity to the disturbance torque.
Note that this level of sensitivity may also be achieved using
940 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 61, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2014
Fig. 22. Robustness results for case 3.
Fig. 23. Noise results for case 3.
Fig. 24. Sensitivity results for case 1.
Fig. 25. Sensitivity results for case 2.
Fig. 26. Sensitivity results for case 3.
the other lter designs discussed in this paper, although it is not
guaranteed and would be both coincidental and unique to the
particular system.
E. Observations
It can be seen that, in all three of the cases that were tested,
all of the designed estimators were shown to be capable of
delivering an acceptable disturbance torque estimation in the
presence of model uncertainties for both a constant and a low
frequency disturbance torque. Each estimator also produces
estimations that are robust to the various parameter variations
of interest. This can be seen in the fact that there is little
to no variation in the estimations delivered in the presence
of particular uncertainties when compared to the estimations
delivered with nominal parameters. The H

-Gaussian lter
was also shown to provide the best performance with respect
to white noise.
GRIGNION et al.: ESTIMATION OF LOAD DISTURBANCE TORQUE FOR DC MOTOR DRIVE SYSTEMS 941
It can also be seen that the H

/H

lter that was originally

designed for use in fault detection can also be applied to
the design of a disturbance torque estimator, thus providing
designers with another option for lter design when designing
an estimator. This lter design not only is robust to uncertainties
but was also shown to have the added benet of maximum
sensitivity to a disturbance.
In summary, the H

lter is suitable for an application that

requires the estimation to be robust to model uncertainties.
The H

-Gaussian lter is suitable for an application that

requires the estimation to be robust to model uncertainties and
to suppress white noise. The H

/H

lter is suitable for an

application that requires the estimation to be robust to model
uncertainties and sensitive to the disturbance torque.
Further improvement of the estimation may be done by ne-
tuning the parameters , w
1
, w
2
, and w
3
as needed so as to
vary the degree of tolerance of the observer or to vary the
signicance of the particular uncertainty on the disturbance
torque estimation.
V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we have carried out designs for three distur-
bance torque estimators that can be used to robustly estimate
the disturbance torque in a motor drive system in the presence
of parameter variations and/or noise. In particular, an H

lter,
an H

-Gaussian lter, and an H

/H

lter were used as the

basis for the designs from which the disturbance torque was
then estimated.
The H

/H

lter is a new and novel approach to distur-

bance torque estimator design since it was originally designed
for fault detection and has never previously been used in a
disturbance torque estimation application. This lter design
guarantees not only robustness to uncertainties but also max-
imum sensitivity to a disturbance and can be of great benet to
designers. Previous designs do not guarantee such performance.
It was shown that these designs can estimate not only a
constant disturbance torque but also one that varies at a low
frequency. This is guaranteed with these designs, and again,
previous designs do not guarantee this type of performance.
Hardware tests were conducted using a real PMDC that was
subjected to both a disturbance torque and parameter variations.
The estimators were implemented using a real-time computer.
Three cases of parameter variations were considered. In all
cases, the estimators were tested using both a constant distur-
bance torque and one that varied at a low frequency. The results
were validated using an in-line torque sensor and conrmed that
the estimators deliver a robust disturbance torque estimation in
the presence of parameter variations.
The following guidelines are proposed for the selection of
an appropriate lter design based on the requirements of the
system. If robustness to uncertainties is the only concern in
the design of the estimator, then an H

lter-based design is
recommended. If both robustness to uncertainties and noise are
concerns, then an H

-Gaussian lter-based design is recom-

mended. If both robustness to uncertainties and sensitivity to a
disturbance are concerns, then an H

/H

lter-based design
is recommended.
TABLE II
PARAMETERS OF THE TEST MOTOR
TABLE III
PARAMETERS USED TO DETERMINE THE OBSERVER GAINS
TABLE IV
OBSERVER GAINS FOR THE H

FILTER
TABLE V
OBSERVER GAINS FOR THE H

-GAUSSIAN FILTER
TABLE VI
OBSERVER GAINS FOR THE H

/H

FILTER
APPENDIX
The parameters of the PMDC used to test the designed
estimators are listed in Table II. The parameters used to cal-
culate the observer gains are listed in Table III. The calculated
observer gains are listed in Tables IVVI.
942 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 61, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2014
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Danny Grignion (S09M12) received the B.A.Sc.
and M.A.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from
the University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada, in
2010 and 2012, respectively.
He is working in industry in the eld of industrial
automation and control.
Xiang Chen (M98) received the M.Sc. and Ph.D.
degrees in systems and control from Louisiana State
University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA, in 1996 and
1998, respectively.
He was with Lakehead University, Thunder Bay,
ON, Canada, from 1998 to 1999. Since 2000, he has
been with the Department of Electrical and Com-
puter Engineering, University of Windsor, Windsor,
ON, Canada, where he is currently a Professor. His
research interests include robust control, control of
complex systems, networked control systems, and
industrial applications of control theory.
Narayan Kar (S95M00SM07) received the
B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technol-
ogy, Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 1992 and the M.Sc.
and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the
Kitami Institute of Technology, Hokkaido, Japan, in
1997 and 2000, respectively.
He is an Associate Professor in the Department of
Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of
Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada, where he holds the
Canada Research Chair position in hybrid drivetrain
systems. His research presently focuses on the analysis, design, and control of
permanent-magnet synchronous, induction, and switched reluctance machines
for electric and hybrid electric vehicle and wind power applications, testing and
performance analysis of batteries, and development of optimization techniques
for hybrid energy management systems.
Huijie Qian received the B.A.Sc. degree in electrical
engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University,
Shanghai, China, in 2010 and the M.A.Sc. degree in
electrical engineering from the University of Wind-
sor, Windsor, ON, Canada, in 2012, focusing on
discrete-time control systems.
He is currently with the Department of Electrical
and Computer Engineering, University of Windsor.