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6, DECEMBER 2001
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I. INTRODUCTION
HE brushless dc motor (BLDCM) has trapezoidal electromotive force (EMF) and quasi-rectangular current waveforms. Three Hall sensors are usually used as position sensors
to perform current commutations every 60 electrical degrees. In
addition, for servo drive applications with high stationary accuracy of the speed and rotor position, the BLDCM requires a
rotor position sensor, such as resolver or absolute encoder. All
the sensors mentioned increase the cost and size of the motor
and reduce its sturdiness. Because of these reasons, the BLDCM
Manuscript received March 10, 2000; revised June 1, 2001. Abstract published on the Internet October 24, 2001.
The authors are with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical
Engineering and Naval Architecture, University of Split, 21000 Split, Croatia
(e-mail: bterzic@fesb.hr).
Publisher Item Identifier S 0278-0046(01)10269-8.
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Fig. 1. System configuration for speed and rotor position estimation of BLDCM.
them, the speed and rotor position are estimated with constant
motor parameters and, in the second variant, the motor variables
and stator resistance are estimated simultaneously. At the end
of this paper, the characteristics of the sensorless drive are analyzed.
II. DESCRIPTION OF THE ESTIMATION ALGORITHM
A. System Configuration
Fig. 1 shows the block diagram of the system for speed and
rotor position estimation of a BLDCM. The system can be functionally divided in two basic parts: the speed control system and
the estimation system. The first one consists of a power circuit (dc supply, inverter, and motor) and control circuits which
perform three functions: current commutation, current control,
and phase currents
and speed control. The measured speed
, as well as the estimated rotor position
,
are used as feedback signals. Although application of the estimated variables in the control circuits is not necessary for the
estimation procedure, it turned out that using the estimated rotor
position as a feedback signal improves the estimation results.
The main blocks of the estimation algorithm are the EKF
and the block for calculating average motor line voltages
during sampling time. The average line voltages vector, defined
on the basis of average line voltages in the -sampling time
, is calculated at the beginning of the
sampling time by means of terminal voltages to neutral-point
, the inverter transistors duty
vector
, the inverter dc voltage
, the estimated speed
cycle
, and measured currents vector
and rotor position
. Vector
forms, along with the measured
, a set of the EKF input variables,
currents vector
by means of which speed and rotor position are estimated.
The algorithm for determining line voltages (without filtering),
based on measurements and calculations, represents a peculiarity differing this estimation method from similar methods
dealing with estimation of the electric machine variables [6],
[8]. For this purpose, it was necessary to apply a discrete-time
, indispensable
current controller calculating duty cycle
TERZIC AND JADRIC: EKF FOR THE SPEED AND ROTOR POSITION ESTIMATION OF BLDCM
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Fig. 2. Disposition of the turn-on/off intervals within the sampling time. (a)
).
Correct ( = ). (b) Incorrect (
I >i
(6)
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TABLE I
RELATIONS FOR THE CALCULATION OF THE AVERAGE VALUES OF THE MOTOR TERMINAL VOLTAGES TO NEUTRAL POINT
TABLE II
COMMUTATION START ANGLES AND COEFFICIENTS OF THE SYSTEM (6)
AS A FUNCTION OF THE ROTOR POSITION
At the instant
, the predicted state variables and their
covariance are corrected using the following [11]:
(18)
(19)
(20)
To start the calculation, it is necessary to define the state
variables vector and the estimation error covariance matrix at
. Assuming all the currents to have
the initial instant
the same measurement error, the measurement noise covariance
matrix has the following diagonal structure:
(21)
is the measurement and A/D converting error of the
where
current.
The state noise covariance matrix also has a diagonal structure
(22)
,
, and
represent the estimation incerThe elements
titude of the machine currents, being equal for all the phases,
and are defined differently in the commutation interval and out
of it. Estimation incertitudes of the speed and rotor position
are determined by the change of the rotor speed
during one sampling time, so that different values are set in
steady-state and dynamic conditions [6]. The element
represents the estimation incertitude of the stator resistance.
Since the change of the resistance during a sampling interval is
should be very low or zero [10].
negligible,
III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
A. Laboratory Setup
For experimental verification of the proposed estimation
method, a laboratory setup has been designed and made. Its
configuration is shown in Fig. 3. The motor rating is: 1.5 kW,
118 V, 15.9 A, 2000 r/min, and the rating of the insulated
gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) inverter is: 300 V, 20 A. The
three-phase supply voltage is rectified by a three-pulse diode
TERZIC AND JADRIC: EKF FOR THE SPEED AND ROTOR POSITION ESTIMATION OF BLDCM
1069
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Fig. 4.
n
Phase currents (i
= 1000 r/min;
system disturbances, and the measurement errors of the voltages (sensors and A/D converting errors). The computation errors due to the fixed word length of the processor are considered
as additional sources of system noise. In this work, the following
selection procedure for the matrix has been applied.
1) First is the calculation of the matrix elements on the basis
of known inaccuracies of the discrete-time motor model
(quantization errors, assumption of the constant speed
during sampling interval) and of the voltage measurements (sensor noise, A/D converters quantization).
2) Then, is the simulation of the BLDCM drive together with
the estimation algorithm, including random noises which
have been added to the currents and voltages. The results
for the matrix elements calculated in the previous item
have been used as initial values. The simulations have
and
been used to investigate the influences of the
matrices on the EKF performance in transient and steadystate conditions.
3) Using the laboratory setup, by variation of the elements
and
matrices, their final values have been
of the
determined.
Using the presented procedure, the following elements of the
and matrices have been obtained:
A ;
measurement noise covariance:
system noise covariances:
A ,
rad /s , and
(electrical
degree) .
have been
The current noise covariances
changed adaptively in dependence of the operation mode
during a sampling interval. The above-mentioned ones have
been used in the two-phases mode, while in the commutation
their values have been ten times greater and, in the sampling
interval where these two modes interchange, they have been
even 100 times greater. It has been necessary because of the
increased system noise caused by the problem of the voltage
determination in the two intervals mentioned. By increasing
, the EKF becomes slower and, thus, the influence
of the voltage measurement error on the estimation results is
Fig. 5.
N1m.
= 1000 r/min;
= 4
= 0:8
TERZIC AND JADRIC: EKF FOR THE SPEED AND ROTOR POSITION ESTIMATION OF BLDCM
Fig. 7. Estimation results with the stator resistance estimation at various operating points. (a) n = 1000 r/min; T
N1m. (c) n = 100 r/min; T = 4 N1m.
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the stator resistance estimation, the speed estimation error is decreased from 10 to 5 r/min. Better still results are obtained at the
lower speeds, as one can see in Fig. 7(b), which shows the estimation results at 100 r/min and no load. Comparing Fig. 7(b)
with Fig. 6, it can be seen that the speed estimation error is decreased from 30 to 12 r/min, and the position estimation error
is slightly decreased, too. It is interesting to note that, after the
initial error has converged, the average values of the estimated
resistance in both considered operating points are significantly
different. As both experiments were made at the same temperature of the stator winding, it is obvious that differences obtained
in the estimated stator resistance do not actually exist. Therefore, introducing the stator resistance as the state variable, the
speed estimation accuracy is increasing, while the resistance
is becoming stationary on some fictitious value which can be
greatly distinguished from the actual one. However, it should
be noted that there is no difference between the estimated and
r/min,
measured resistance at operating point
N m [Fig. 7(c)].
Generally, the uncertainty in the stator resistance estimation
can be explained if a low influence of the stator resistance on
the BLDCM characteristics is taken into consideration, which
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Fig. 8. Estimation results at the speed reference step from 900 to 1000 r/min,
and at the load torque step from 0 to 3 N1m.
Fig. 9. Estimation results at the speed reference step from 100 to 1000 r/min,
T = 0.
IV. CONCLUSION
Using the presented method, which applies the EKF, it is possible to estimate the speed and rotor position of the BLDCM
with sufficient accuracy in both the steady-state and dynamic
modes of operation. By simultaneous estimation of state variables and stator resistance, the speed estimation accuracy is increased, particularly at low speeds.
Applying estimated speed as the feedback signal in the
control circuits, a sensorless speed control system has been
achieved. The maximum steady-state error between reference
and actual motor speed is 1% over a speed range from 5%
to 100% of the rated value. At lower speeds, the estimation
accuracy decreases so that at the speed of about 50 r/min
the rotor position estimation error becomes too big and the
sensorless drive is no longer possible.
REFERENCES
[1] K. Iizuka, H. Uzuhashi, M. Kano, T. Endo, and K. Mohri, Microcomputer control for sensorless brushless motor, IEEE Trans. Ind.
Applicat., vol. IA-21, pp. 595601, May/June 1985.
TERZIC AND JADRIC: EKF FOR THE SPEED AND ROTOR POSITION ESTIMATION OF BLDCM
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[17] Digital control applications with the TMS320 family, Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX, 1991.