Estimating the Parameters of an Induction Motor
in Open-Loop and Closed-Loop Operation
A.J. Netto, P.R. Barros, C.B. Jacobina and A.M.N. Lima
Dep. de Eng. Elétrica - CCT - UFCG - Campus II - Caixa Postal 10.105
58109-970 Campina Grande - PB - Brazil
Fax: +55-83-3101015; E-mail: netto@dee.ufcg.edu.br
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to present
two methods for estimating all the parameters
of induction motors operating in open-loop or in
closed-loop. The parameters are obtained by solv-
ing a recursive least squares minimization prob-
lem. The estimation procedure is performed in
two parts. First, the stator leakage inductance and
the stator resistance are determined by using the
homopolar machine model. Then, given the pre-
viously estimated homopolar parameters and by
using the dynamic dq model, all the other param-
eters are determined. The first method is derived
for open-loop operation. In the second method,
the model is derived for the case where the sta-
tor currents of the motor are regulated via a linear
feedback controller. Selected experimental results
are used to demonstrate the feasibility and perfor-
mance of the proposed methods.
I. Introduction
During the last years, several papers have been pub-
lished about induction motor identification [1–7].
In general, the use of linear estimation techniques based
on the dynamic model of induction motor, written in terms
of a dq reference frame, does not allow to determine all
the electric parameters of the machine. With this kind
of modelling approach one may only estimate four param-
eters [1, 3–5], namely the stator resistance, rs , the stator
inductance, ls , the transient inductance, σls , and the rotor
time constant, τr .
There are other techniques that provide estimates of all
electrical parameters of the machine [2,6,7], but at the ex-
penses of relatively high computational load for real-time
applications. In particular, in [6] all electrical parame-
ters were estimated with locked rotor. On the other hand
in [2, 7] the presented algorithms are quite complex and
involve too many parameters in the differential equations.
This may cause the non-convergence of the algorithm as
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well as multiple solutions.
Although many different solutions have already been
proposed, a relatively small number of papers has been
focused on the use closed-loop identification techniques
for determining the electrical parameters of induction mo-
tors. However, closed-loop identification techniques have
already been recognized as powerful design tools provid-
ing better models and simple controllers. Indeed, iterative
identification and real-time controller redesign can be con-
sidered the most reliable alternative to achieve high per-
formance feedback control systems. Recently, some pre-
liminary simulation results about off-line closed-loop iden-
tification of the electrical parameters of induction motor
were presented in [8].
The purpose of this paper is to present two methods
for estimating all the electrical parameters of induction
motors. The parameters are obtained by solving a recur-
sive least squares minimization problem. The estimation
procedure is split in two parts. First, the stator leakage
inductance and the stator resistance are determined by
using the homopolar machine model. Then, given the pre-
viously estimated homopolar parameters and based on the
dq model, all the other parameters are determined. In the
second method, a closed-loop identification technique for
determining in real-time all the electrical parameters of in-
duction motors is proposed. The proposed technique can
be easily included in the software of the induction motor
drive system to improve the achieved performance.
The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 introduces
the induction motor model. In Section 3 the estimation
strategy are used. In Section 4 the experimental results
obtained by using the set-up sketched in Fig. 1 are used
to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach.
Finally, in Section 5 concluding remarks are made.
0-7803-8486-5/04/$20.00 © 2004 IEEE
 d1 d2 d3 III. Parameter Estimation
R
S
C1 q1 q2 q3
vs1 is1 The use of recursive least squares (RLS) estimation tech-
0
T
vs3 i
niques requires that the system model should be defined
d1 d2 s3
d3
C2 as a regression equation like
q1 q2 q3 δr
L o a d
ŷ (t|θ) = ψ (t) θ (t) (10)
CA MOTOR
where ŷ (t|θ) , ψ (t) and θ (t) are the prediction vector, the
timer A/D regression matrix and the parameter vector, respectively.
PPI The basic equations of the RLS algorithm used to com-
microcomputer
puter θ can be found in [10].
Fig. 1. Induction motor drive system.
The proposed estimation procedure is split in two parts.
In the first part, stator resistance and leakage inductance
are determined based on the homopolar model. In the
second part, all the other electrical parameters are deter-
II. Induction Motor Model
mined based on the dynamic dq model. As shown in the
The induction motor is described, in a stator reference following Step 1 and Step 2 are executed for open-loop esti-
frame, by the following model [9]: mation. On the other hand Step 1 and Step 3 are executed
for closed-loop estimation.
d A. Step 1: Estimating rs and lls
vs φ
= rs is + (1)
dt s
It has been established that if rs is jointly estimated with
d
0 = rr ir + φr − jωr φr (2) all the other motor parameters one may obtain, in general,
dt
φs = ls is + lm ir (3) an ill-conditioned numerical problem [1]. An alternative
technique for determining solely the stator resistance (for
φr
= lr i r + l m i s (4)
dc and ac excitation) was presented in [6]. The proposed
lm
Te = P (isq φrd − isd φrq ) (5) technique [6] also provides an estimate of the stator leakage
lr inductance. In this paper, the regression model employed
d
P (Te − Tl ) = Jm ωr + Fm ωr (6) for estimating rs and lls is given by
dt
d ŷ (t) = vso (11)
vso = rs iso + lls iso .
dt
(7)
d

ψ (t) = iso dt iso (12)

T
The variables and parameters used in the above expres- θ = rs lls (13)
sions are defined as follows: i) vs = vsd + jvsq , is = isd +
and can be derived from (7). Here and elsewhere, deriva-
jisq , ir = ird + jirq , φs = φsd + jφsq and φr = φrd + jφrq
tives of signals will be obtained by using state variable
are the stator voltage, the stator current, the rotor current,
filters (SVF) [11].
the stator flux and the rotor flux vectors, respectively; ii)
ωr , Te and Tl are the angular shaft speed, the electromag- B. Step 2: Open-Loop Estimation
netic torque and the load torque, respectively and iii) P , Solving equations (1) to (4) for is and considering that
Jm , Fm , rs , rr , ls , lr and lm are the number of pole pairs, voltages, currents and speed of the machine are measur-
the moment of inertia, the viscous friction coefficient, the able, the regression model is
stator resistance, the rotor resistance, the self inductance
d2 d
of the stator, the self inductance of the rotor and the mu- ŷ (t) = is − jωr is (14)
dt2 dt
tual inductance between stator and rotor, respectively.

The homopolar voltage and current that are obtained
ψ (t) = − d is (vs − rs is )
 dt 
by transforming (power conservative odq transformation) d
vs − jωr vs + jωr rs is (15)
vs1 , vs2 , vs3 , is1 , is2 and is3 , are given by dt
 T
lr lr
θ = α βτ r β (16)
1
vso = √ (vs1 + vs2 + vs3 ) (8)
3 with α = rs lr +r
β
r ls 2
, τr = rlrr and β = lr ls − lm . For execut-
1 ing Step 2 we also consider that Step 1 was already been
iso = √ (is1 + is2 + is3 ) . (9)
3 executed to provide rs and lls .

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 i s*
15
ec is
+ C(s) G(s)
10
-

Fig. 2. Closed-loop configuration.

0

vso (V)
C. Step 3: Closed-Loop Estimation −5

In general, an induction motor drive system is a cascade

−10

multi-loop control system. In the following the closed-loop

estimation problem will be formulated for the case where −15
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5
only the stator current control loop is operating. In Fig. 2 time (s)

it is shown a block diagram illustrating the stator current

Fig. 3. Homopolar voltage.
control loop. The transfer function

1
lr
β s + lr
β τr − jω r 0.2

G (s) =  (17)
s + (α − jωr ) s + rsβlr τ1r − jωr
2 0.15

0.1

represents the relationship is /vs as obtained from the dq

model for constant rotor speed [1] and the controller 0.05

kd s2 + kp s + ki 0

C(s) = (18) iso (A)

s −0.05

is a standard PID controller. The initial values for the con- −0.1

troller’s gains ki , kp and kd are considered to be known.

−0.15
Such gains can be determined given the motor’s param-
eters as obtained from the standard locked-rotor and no- −0.2
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5
time (s)
load tests. Thus, given the values of the parameters of
the homopolar model (obtained by executing Step 1) and Fig. 4. Homopolar current.
that stator current and rotor speed are measurable, a re-
gression model for closed-loop estimation can be derived.
The regression model that can be employed for closed-loop D. Estimating the Other Electrical Parameters
parameter estimation is given by From the parameter vector given in (16) or (21) one may
d3 d2 determine α, τr and lβr by
ŷ (t) = i s − jω r is (19)
3 dt2

dt  α = θ (1) (25)
ψ (t) = ψ1 (t) ψ2 (t) ψ3 (t) (20)
 T θ (3)
lr lr
τr = (26)
θ = α βτ β (21) θ (2)
r
lr
with = θ (3) . (27)
β
2
d
ψ1 (t) = − is (22) Notice that rs , lls , α, τr and lβr were already estimated
dt2
d2 d d and that the stator and rotor inductances are given by
ψ2 (t) = kd 2 ec + kp ec + ki ec − rs is (23) ls = lls + lm and lr = llr + lm where llr denotes the rotor
dt dt dt
d3 d2 leakage inductance referred to the stator. Then, the other
ψ3 (t) = kd 3 ec + (kp − jωr kd ) 2 ec parameter may be computed from
dt dt
d θ (1) − rs θ (3)
+ (ki − jωr kp ) ec − jωr ki ec ls = (28)
dt θ (2)
d 2
+rs jωr is (24) θ (3) lm
dt lr = (29)
θ (3) ls − 1
where ec = i∗s − is . Note that the closed-loop estimator
don’t depends on voltages, therefore the voltages’s sensors with lm = ls − lls , rr = τlrr and llr = lr − lm . Thus, all
are not needed. electrical parameters of the machine model are estimated.

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 150 Current

1
100

time (s)
0.5
50

0
0.2
0.1 0.15 0.2
stator resistance

0 0.05 0.1
0 0
−0.1 −0.1 −0.05
−0.2 −0.15
isq (A) isd (A)
−50 Voltage

1
−100

time (s)
0.5

−150
0
40
20 20 30
0 0 10
−200 −20 −10
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2 −40 −20
−30
time (s)
vsq (V) vsd (V)

Fig. 5. Estimated stator resistance. Fig. 7. Stator currents and voltages in open-loop.

3500
Rotor Speed
400
3000

2500 350

2000
stator leakage inductance (H)

300

1500
250
1000

wr (rad/s) 200
500

0 150

−500
100

−1000

50
−1500
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
time (s)
0
0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4
time (s)

Fig. 6. Estimated stator leakage inductance.

Fig. 8. Rotor speed in open-loop.

IV. Experimental Results

voltage and current, respectively. Fig. 5 and Fig. 6 show
The experiments were done with the drive system shown
the time evolution of the estimated stator resistance and
in Fig. 1. The estimation algorithm used to process the
leakage inductance, respectively, as obtained from (13).
experimental data was the recursive least squares (RLS)
In the second part, the machine was supplied by sinu-
with forgetting factor. The sampling time was set to 50µs
soidal PWM voltages (fundamental frequency of 60Hz).
and forgetting factor to 0.999.
Fig. 7 and Fig. 8 show measurable waveforms of the dq
As mentioned before, the derivatives of the signals were
stator voltages, dq stator currents and rotor speed, respec-
obtained by using state variable filters (SVF). These filters
tively. Fig. 9 shows the time evolution of the estimated
were designed by obtaining the discrete-time equivalent of
parameters as obtained from (16).
ωc3
Gf (s) = 3 (30)
(s + ωc ) Parameters Standard Estimated Error (%)
rs (Ω) 29 28.10 3.10
where ωc = 60Hz.
rr (Ω) 30 30.80 2.60
The experiments were divided in three parts. In the first
ls (H) 0.83 0.85 2.40
part, the machine was supplied by three-phase pulse width
lr (H) 0.83 0.85 2.40
modulated voltages. The modulating signal employed in
lm (H) 0.80 0.82 2.50
the first test is composed of a fundamental component
lls (mH) 32.50 30 7.60
(fe = 60Hz) and an homopolar voltage (f0 = 10Hz) which
llr (mH) 32.50 30 7.60
amplitude is 5% of the fundamental. The neutral of the
machine was connected to the central tap of the capacitor TABLE 1. Parameters obtained by the standard tests and its esti-
mated values by using the open-loop algorithm.
bank. Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 show waveforms of the homopolar

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 Estimated Parameters Rotor Speed
4000 70

2000
θ(1)

60
0

−2000 50
0 0.05 0.1 0.15

5000
40

wr (rad/s)
θ(2)

30
−5000

−10000
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 20

200

150 10
θ(3)

100

50 0
0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4
time (s)
0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15
time (s)

Fig. 11. Rotor speed in closed-loop.

Fig. 9. Estimated parameters in open-loop.
Estimated Parameters
4000

Parameters Standard Estimated Error (%) 2000

θ(1)
rs (Ω) 29 28.10 3.10 0

rr (Ω) 30 30.70 2.30 −2000

0 0.05 0.1 0.15

ls (H) 0.83 0.85 2.40 5000

lr (H) 0.83 0.85 2.40 0

θ(2)

lm (H) 0.80 0.82 2.50 −5000

lls (mH) 32.50 30 7.60 −10000

0 0.05 0.1 0.15
llr (mH) 32.50 30 7.60 200

150
TABLE 2. Parameters obtained by the standard tests and its esti-
θ(3)

100
mated values by using the closed-loop algorithm.
50

0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15
time (s)
True and Reference Currents
0.4
True isd

0.2
Reference isd
Fig. 12. Estimated parameters in closed-loop.
isd (A)

−0.2
method.
−0.4
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25
time (s)
0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5 It is important to notice that the data obtained during
0.3
the speed transient from rest to steady-state speed have
True isq
0.2 Reference isq been exploited to estimate the electrical parameters of (16)
0.1
and (21). In Table 1 and Table 2 are shown the param-
isq (A)

−0.1 eters obtained from the standard tests and the estimated
−0.2

−0.3
values using the open-loop and closed-loop algorithms, re-
−0.4
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5 spectively. From the data in Table 1 and Table 2, it can be
time (s)
seen that estimation errors are quite small, and so that it
Fig. 10. Stator currents true and reference in closed-loop. is possible to estimate all the electrical parameters of the
induction motor with good precision. Moreover, the exper-
iment design is not a critical issue since good results were
Finally, in the last part, the closed-loop estimation was
achieved with relatively low persistence signals (sinusoidal
implemented by using a PID controller. In this exper-
signals).
iment, the values for the controllers’s gains kp , ki and
kd were 232, 56000 and 0.877, respectively. Fig. 10 and
V. Conclusion
Fig. 11 show waveforms of the dq stator true and refer-
ence currents and rotor speed, respectively. Fig. 12 show In this paper two techniques for estimating the param-
the parameters as obtained in the closed-loop estimation eters of an induction motor in open-loop and closed-loop

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 operation by means of recursive least square (RLS) were tems Technology, vol. 8, no. 6, pages 873–882, 2000.
presented. Results show that, differently of the most of al- [8] A. Besanon-Voda and M. Titiliuc. Issues on identifi-
gorithms presented in literature, all electrical parameters cation in closed-loop of induction motors. In European
of the motor can be retrieved from estimation of the stator Control Conference, pages 1940–1945, 2001.
resistance and stator leakage inductance jointly with the [9] W. Leonhard. Control of Electrical Drives. Springer-
estimation of only three parameters. The experimental Verlag, Inc, Berlin, Germany, second edition, 1996.
results have demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed [10] L. Ljung. System Identification. Theory for the User.
techniques. Prentice Hall, Inc, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey,
In particular, the methods proposed have the following second edition, 1999.
advantages with respect to other methods: [11] I. D. Landau. Adaptive Control: The Model Reference
Approach. Prentice Hall, Marcel Dekker, Inc., 1979.
• The algorithm is easy to implement and has a relatively
low computational load;
• The parameter vector has at the most three parameters
to be estimated;
• It is not critical in terms of persistence of excitation. This
is very useful in industrial applications;
• It allows the three electrical parameters to be estimated
during a speed transient of the machine;
• The method estimate on-line all electrical parameters of
the induction motor in closed-loop.

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