• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.491-497
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• 2004

This paper presents a new rotor position estimation method for brushless DC motors. It is clear that the estimation error of the rotor position provokes the phase shift angle misaligned between the phase current and the back-EMF waveforms, which causes torque ripple in brushless DC motor drives. Such an estimation error can be reduced with the help of the proposed neutral voltage-based estimation method that is structured in the form of a closed loop observer. A neutral voltage appearing during the normal mode of the inverter operation is found to be an observable and controllable measure, which can be dealt with for estimating an exact rotor position. This neutral voltage is obtained from the DC-link current, the switching logic, and the motor speed values. The proposed algorithm, which can be implemented easily by using a single DC-link current and the motor terminal voltage sensors, is verified by simulation and experiment results.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.1224-1234
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• 2019

Hybrid rotor position estimation methods that integrate a fundamental model and high frequency (HF) signal injection are widely used for the wide speed-range sensorless control of interior permanent-magnet synchronous machines (IPMSMs). However, the direct transition of two different schemes may lead to system fluctuations or system instability since two estimated rotor positions based on two different schemes are always unequal due to the effects of parameter variations, system delays and inverter nonlinearities. In order to avoid these problems, a seamless transition strategy to define and construct a virtual q-axis inductance is proposed in this paper. With the proposed seamless transition strategy, an estimated rotor position based on a fundamental model is forced to track that based on HF signal injection before the transition by adjusting the constructed virtual q-axis inductance. Meanwhile, considering that the virtual q-axis inductance changes with rotor position estimation errors, a new observer with a two-phase phase-locked loop (TP-PLL) is developed to accurately obtain the virtual q-axis inductance online. Furthermore, IPMSM sensorless control with maximum torque per ampere (MTPA) operations can be tracked automatically by selecting the proper virtual q-axis inductance. Finally, experimental results obtained from an IPMSM demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed seamless transition strategy.