A low memory disturbance elimination method for sensorless control of induction motor
drive using test vector injection
P. Makyš, G.M.Asher, M.Sumner, Q. Gao
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
University of Nottingham
Nottingham,
UK
eezmak@gwmail.nottingham.ac.uk
Abstract – This paper presents an enhanced method for
both speed and rotor position estimation in induction
motor drives. A modified INFORM method is used to
excite magnetic saliencies in the motor created by
saturation and rotor slotting, from which position signals
can be derived. A new method is proposed for the
elimination of second order saturation effects from
position signals. This method significantly improves the
quality of the rotor position estimate such that it can be
used for indirect rotor flux vector control of 30kW
induction machine, but does not require extensive look-
up tables stored within the controller. This “low
memory” approach is suitable for both star and delta
connected machines. Experimental results for the shaft
sensorless control showing the tracking of rotor speed
and position are presented.
I. INTRODUCTION
It is well known that shaft sensorless controlled induction
motor drives have the attraction of low cost and high
reliability. There are many approaches to the estimation of
rotor or flux position. A special group is the use of non-model
based observers, which have the unique advantage of being
able to work at low and zero frequency. For this speed range,
conventional model based observers are known to give poor
and unstable performance. Therefore, there is a keen interest
to use natural geometric or magnetic rotor anisotropy (or
saliency) within the machine. Note that the induction machine
is almost geometrically symmetric, hence all methods rely on
magnetic anisotropy, usually identified by variation of phase
leakage inductance Lσ. The variations are caused mainly by
machine saturation and by the interaction of the rotor and
stator teeth (known as rotor slot effect or rotor slotting). In
order to measure this saliency, a balanced three-phase high
frequency signal can be generated by the inverter and
superimposed upon the fundamental frequency. This allows
the independent tracking of speed and load [1],[2]. In [3],
Shroedl proposed another method - indirect flux-detection by
online reactance measurement (INFORM). Each phase of the
machine is periodically subjected to voltage test pulses,
applied in different directions as shown in Figure.1. During
these pulses the current derivations that contain the useful
position information are measured. Whilst the implementation
of high frequency injection is easier, the subsequent signal
processing is more complicated. On the other hand, test vector
injection is more difficult to implement, but provides a
1-4244-0136-4/06/$20.00 '2006 IEEE 1071
J. Vittek
Faculty of Electrical Engineering
University of Žilina
Žilina
Slovakia
Jan.Vittek@fel.utc.sk
position signal, which does not need such complicated signal
processing. For these reasons, a modified INFORM method
was chosen as the method to excite rotor saliencies in this
work.
The modification to the INFORM method is the approach
to the elimination of the back-emfs. The elimination utilizes
the null vectors compared to opposite vectors of the standard
INFORM method. The sampling of current derivatives during
null vectors is easier because of the length of the null vectors
is much longer then the length of opposite vectors. This
reduces noise and improves the elimination of back-emfs.
However, the problems with unwanted second order
saliencies which distort the position signal still remain. For
example the machine main flux path saturation and rotor
slotting modify the leakage inductances. The first effect
contains information on rotor flux position and the second
effect contains information on rotor slot position. If the aim is
to estimate rotor position, the magnetic saturation acts as a
disturbance. It creates an unwanted saliency effect which must
be eliminated.
Several techniques have been reported which eliminate
corrupting harmonics. All using a pre-commissioning or self-
commissioning process to derive the machine characteristics,
which are then subsequently stored in DSP memory
(Harmonic Compensation [4], neural network [5], SMP [6],
Spatial Filtering [7] or Synchronous Filters with memory [8]).
These methods require large memory space, which is
unacceptable when using low-cost DSPs.
This paper introduces a new “low memory” method based
on synchronous filters [8] to reduce the deteriorating effect on
the position estimation due to saturation. The method has
been implemented on an experimental 30-kW induction
machine drive and the resulting sensorless speed and position
control is shown to be robust under different transient and
load conditions.
Fig. 1. Definition of Space Vectors
 V1 V4 V3 V6 V5 V2
ia iab
rs ec
lσ a
lσ c
Ud ea rs
ib ica
ic ibc rs lσ b eb
Fig. 2. Application of Voltage Test Vectors Fig. 3. Equivalent circuit with u1 being applied

II. ANISOTROPY IDENTIFICATION ( u0 )

( u0 ) d ibc ( u0 )
0 = ibc rs + l σ b + eb (8)
The modified INFORM method used in this work dt
superimposes a series of voltage test vectors Vk, k=1-6, on the
normal PWM waveform as shown in Figure.2. The ( u0 )
d i ca
( u0 ) ( u0 ) (9)
implementation of the test signal method is described in [9]. 0 = ica rs + l σc + ec
Phase current derivations were measured by air-core coaxial dt
di/dt sensors [10] during these pulses. The signals from di/dt If the sampling instants, at which u0 and u1 are applied, are
sensors reflect the anisotropy of rotor, which introduces close, it can be assumed that:
unbalance in the phase values of the stator leakage
( u0 )
inductances. The leakage inductances may be assumed to vary e(au 0 ) ≈ ea( u1 ) , eb ≈ eb( u1 ) , ec( u 0 ) ≈ ec( u1 )
according to:
Additionally, the voltage drops across the stator resistance
lσ a = l 0 + Δl cos( nan θ an ) (1) can be ignored due to their small values compared with Ud.
Hence, (4) – (7) give:
lσb = l 0 + Δl cos( nan( θan − 2π 3 )) (2)
( u1 ) ( u0 )
d i ab d i ab Ud
− = (10)
l σ c = l 0 + Δl cos( n an ( θ an − 4 π 3 )) (3) dt dt l σa
where l0 is the average inductance, and Δl is its variation ( u1 ) ( u0 )
caused by the rotor anisotropy (nan = 2 for saturation induced d ibc d ibc
− =0 (11)
anisotropy or nan= nrs =Nr/p for rotor slotting, where Nr is dt dt
rotor slot number and p the pole pairs).
The equivalent circuit when vector u1 is applied to the ( u1 ) ( u0 )
d i ca d i ca Ud (12)
machine is shown in Figure 3. For this case the following − =−
dt dt lσa
equations can be derived:
Expressing (10) to (12) in terms of line currents yields:
( u1 )
( u1 ) d iab (4)
U d = iab rs + lσ a + ea( u1 ) ( u1 ) ( u0 ) l σ a + l σc
dt d ia d ia (13)
− = Ud
dt dt l σ a l σc
( u1 )
( u1 ) d i bc ( u1 ) (5)
0 = i bc rs + l σ b + eb
dt d ib( u1 ) d ib( u 0 ) 1 (14)
− =− Ud
dt dt lσ a
( u1 )
( u1 ) d i ca ( u1 ) (6)
− U d = i ca rs + l σ c + ec
dt d ic( u1 ) d ic( u 0 ) 1 (15)
− =− Ud
where Ud is the DC link voltage, rs is the stator per phase dt dt lσc
resistance, ea is the back emf in phase a, iab etc are the phase Substituting (1) to (3) into (13) to (15) yields:
currents in the delta connected machine, and the subscript u1,
u0 etc relates to the switching vector imposed at that instant dia( u1) dia( u0 ) Ud Δl 2π (16)
− = ( 2 + cos(nan( θan − )))
in time. Similar, if inactive voltage vectors u0 or u7 are dt dt l0 l0 3
applied, the following equations can be derived:
( u0 ) ( u1 ) ( u0 )
( u0 ) d i ab ( u0 ) (7)
d ib d ib Ud Δl
0 = i ab rs + l σ a + ea − =− ( 1 − cos( n an θ an )) (17)
dt dt dt l0 l0

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 d ic( u1 ) d ic( u 0 ) U Δl 4π Restricting the analysis to operation at low speed and
− = − d ( 1 − cos( nan( θan − ))) (18)
assuming that the implementation of V1, V3, V5 is nearly
dt dt l0 l0 3
instant,
from which three balanced position scalars pa(V1), pb(V1) and p = p α + jp β = p a + ap b + a 2 p c
pc(V1) can be defined as follows:
⎡ d ic( u 5 ) d ic( u 0 ) di a( u 1) di a( u 0 ) ⎤ (31)
p a (V 1)
d i ( u1) d i ( u 0 )
= 1 + c1 ( b − b ) (19) ⎢ ( d t − d t ) − a ( dt − dt ) ⎥
dt dt = c1 ⎢ ⎥
⎢ 2 di b
(u 3)
di b( u 0 ) ⎥
⎢− a ( − ) ⎥
d ia( u1) d ia( u 0 ) ⎣ dt dt ⎦
pb (V 1) = −2 + c1 ( − ) (20)
dt dt where a = e j 2π / 3 , and rotor slot position estimation p is
assumed. The slot-passing angle is obtained from arc tan
d ic( u1) d ic( u 0 ) (21) (pα/pβ) from which the rotor position angle can be constructed
pc (V 1) = 1 + c1 ( − )
dt dt [9].
It is well known that in most cases the leakage inductances
where c1 = l0 / U d The analysis for the other active vectors,
are dependent on the machine saturation and rotor slotting.
noting (7) to (9), follows in the same manner, so for V3: The first effect contains rotor flux position information and
dia( u 3) dia(u 0 ) the second one contains rotor slot position information. The
p a (V 3 ) = 1 + c1 ( − ) (22) equations of (1) – (3) are ideal, and in practice harmonics of
dt dt
the saturation component will exist at 2kωe, (k=2,3…) due to
dic( u 3) dic( u 0 ) (23) non-linear converter effects, saturation space harmonics etc.
pb (V 3 ) = 1 + c1 ( − )
dt dt In addition, the machine saturation rotating at fundamental
frequency will interact with the rotor slotting to create
dib( u 3) dib( u 0 ) (24) sideband rotor slot harmonics. Therefore further signal
pc (V 3 ) = −2 + c1 ( − )
dt dt processing is required to obtain useable rotor flux position or
rotor position signals. This is considered in Section III.
and for V5:
dic( u 5) dic( u 0 ) III. SEPARATION OF THE ANIZOTROPY
p a (V 5 ) = −2 + c1 ( − ) (25)
dt dt SIGNAL

dib( u 5) dib( u 0 ) (26) The separation and elimination of unusable harmonics

pb (V 5 ) = 1 + c1 ( − )) cannot be achieved using real-time filtering since drive
dt dt
operating conditions exist where 2kωe=nrsωr. In addition, the
dia( u 5) dia( u 0 ) (27) 2kωe harmonics can converge to dc value when the applied
pc (V 5 ) = 1 + c1 ( − )
dt dt stator frequency is zero. Several techniques have been devised
This approach considers the line currents and hence only to eliminate the corrupting harmonics (Harmonic
three injections are required and one measurement is taken Compensation, Neural network, SMP, Spatial Filtering or
from each. Effectively, the procedure is: Synchronous Filters with memory), but as stated before, have
a significant memory requirement. For example [10] employs
• Inject vector V1 and read dia/dt
a memory array which stores instantaneous compensation
• Inject vector V3 and read dib/dt values for discrete steps of field angle δk (a basic step of one
• Inject vector V5 and read dic/dt degree was used i.e. 360 values) and for discrete steps of the
The vectors V2, V4, V6 are used to balance the voltage torque current component Isq (steps of 1A in this work).
time area applied and eliminate current disturbances The method used in this paper is also based on
introduced by the injection vectors. To eliminate the DC Synchronous Filters and is called the “low memory method”.
offset, three position signals pa, pb and pc can be defined as The proposed structure is displayed in Figure 4. The structure
follows: is used to eliminate 3 disturbing harmonics associated with
dic(u 5 ) dic( u 0 ) the saturation harmonics ωe, 2ωe and 4ωe, leaving just the
p a = −2 + c1 ( − ) (28) rotor slotting signal. The structure comprises:
dt dt
1) Synchronous filters
d ia( u1) d ia( u 0 ) (29) 2) Memory associated with each filter
pb = −2 + c1 ( − )
dt dt Consider the compensation of the ωe component. The
synchronous filter can only be used at higher frequencies and
dib( u 3) dib( u 0 ) (30) under steady state conditions. In these cases it provides a d
pc = −2 + c1 ( − )
dt dt axis component and a q axis component (i.e. both are DC

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 instantaneous demand for θi (where θi is the instantaneous
angle of the stator current vector) and torque current isq to
access the desired dq compensation terms for each harmonic,
and then modulate them to create an ac signal which can be
+ used directly for harmonic cancellation.
ejθ e-jθ - - In order to commission the array, the following procedure
Memory
is followed. Firstly, the memory array is ENABLEd, i.e. is set
to be rewritten. The k-th filter bank transforms the position
signals into a synchronous dq frame rotating at kθi,:
p dq _ k = pαβ _ k e kjθ i (32)
e
jθ
e -jθ + Each of the k = 2,4...n disturbing harmonic is now at dc and
is smoothed with a low pass filter of cut-off frequency of 0.5
Memory
Hz. After filtering, the disturbing signals are stored in the
memory. The memory is filled for different values of torque
current component Isq. After this commissioning process the
current component Iq drives the selection of values chosen
from memory for the elimination of each disturbing harmonic.
ejθ In the next step signals are transformed back into the
-jθ
e

stationary frame and added to form a total disturbance signal:

Memory n
p dis _ αβ = ∑ pαβ _ k e kjθ i (33)
Fig. 4. Structure of synchronous filters with low memory k =0
Once the disturbance signals have been completed, an
enhanced signal can be obtained as follows:
values) of the required compensating signal. It is assumed that
for a given load level these components remain constant with pαβ _ filt = pαβ _ pdis _ αβ (34)
frequency or speed. Therefore if the load range is divided into This structure significantly decreases the memory required
56 steps (isq stepped between ±28A in 1A steps), then a total as only two values for every corrupting harmonics are needed
of 112 memory locations are required to store the d and q axis (d and q component of every harmonic). Thus, the final size
compensation terms for this disturbing harmonic. To of memory is dependent on the number of disturbing
compensate for 3 disturbing components, 336 memory harmonics and the size of torque current component step. For
locations are required. As the synchronous filter can only be example 336 locations are required for this work, compared to
used under restricted conditions, it is used only to commission 56*360=20160 in the example quoted earlier.
the look up table. Subsequent operation of the system uses the

udcomp
*
*
ud
i sd

-
d,q PWM
V3 V2 AC/AC
ωr
∗
i
*
sq
uqcomp * V4
V0
V1
inverter
uq a,b,c
V7

θr
∗
V5 V6

θr - - -
a,b,c
ωr ia,b,c
flux ωslip ωe
model

d,q
isqr dia,b,c/dt
d Position
dt estimation

Fig. 5. The experimental induction motor drive.

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 Alpha component of position signal pab before elimination
2000 Real and Estimated position
10

position[rad]
paplha

0
5

-2000 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Alpha component of position signal pab after elimination time[s] time[s]
Rotor flux position
2000 10

position[rad]
palpha

0 5

-2000 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Frequency spectrum before ad after elimination time[s] time[s]
Position error

pos. error[el.degree]
5
400
amlitude

0
200

-5
0 0 2 4 6 8 10 12
0 5 10 15 time[s]
frequency [Hz] Torque component Isq
10

Fig. 6. Filtering with low memory method,

current[A]
0
10rpm, 35% load. -10

-20
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
time[s]
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

The proposed method has been implemented on an indirect Fig. 7. Sensored control 9rpm, load step 35% (fe= 0)
rotor field orientation (IRFO)-controlled 30kW induction
machine with an open slot rotor having 28-slots per pole. The - for a speed of 100rpm only 7 values of estimated position
structure of position control is displayed in Fig. 5. The were available for one rotor slot position. Increasing the speed
above this limit led to an increase in estimated speed ripple.
sensored or sensorless mode was chosen by switching
The operation at zero speed and approximately 35% load is
between measured position θrm and estimated position θr. shown in Fig. 9. Speed and position estimation is still
Three di/dt sensors were placed in the line currents to track excellent. The low-pass filter with cut-off frequency 30Hz
the anisotropy caused by the slotting effect. The switching was added to improve estimated speed.
frequency of the IGBT inverter was 2.5 kHz. The minimum
vector duration was set at 25μs. C.Shaft sensorless position control

A. Rotor speed and position estimation Figures 9 and 10 show the transient behaviour of the
sensorless position control. In Fig. 9 the drive is subject to a
In order to verify good quality of elimination with the low 35% load step. The response time is limited by the bandwidth
memory method, sensored speed control was used and a of the speed controller, and note that the position controller is
comparison made between encoder and estimated position as proportional only. Fig 10 illustrates a 180 degree step change
shown in Fig. 6. This figure shows the differences of pα
component before and after elimination the first, the second, 200
Real speed

the fourth and side band harmonic when operating at 10rpm.

speed[rpm]

The machine was working with full flux but it can be seen 100

that the rotor slot harmonic is the main effect. After filtering, 0
the unwanted corrupting harmonics had a magnitude of less 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
than 10% of the rotor slotting effect. Estimated speed
time[s]
200
A positive load step was applied to get fe=0 in Fig. 7. The
speed[rpm]

error between real and estimated rotor position is about ±2 100

electrical degrees. 0

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
B. Shaft sensorless speed control Torgue component Isq time[s]
10
current[A]

In the following experimental results the estimated rotor 0

position angle was used in the dq axis transformation and its
derivative was used for the speed control. The induction -10
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
motor was fed from a 22kW inverter, and therefore the load time[s]

was restricted to 35% full load torque. Fig. 8 shows a speed

Fig. 8. Shaft sensorless speed control, speed steps 5rpm-
step from 5rpm to 100rpm and back to 5rpm without load. 100rpm-5rpm,no load
The maximum speed used was limited by sampling frequency

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 C o m m a n d , r e a l a n d e s t im a t e d r o t o r p o s it io n C om m and, real and es tim ated pos ition
300 300

position[el.degree.]
position[el.degree]

Com m and Com m and

250
200
200 E s tim ation
100
150 E n c o d e r a n d e s t im a t io n E nc oder
100 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
t im e [ s ] tim e[s ]
R o to r s p e e d R otor s peed
50 100
S peed S peed
25

speed[rpm]
speed[rpm]

50
0
0
-2 5

-5 0 -50
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
t im e [ s ] tim e[s ]
E r r o r o f e s t im a t io n Error of es tim ation
5 5
E rror

error[el.degree]
error[el.degree]

2.5 2.5

0 0

-2 . 5 -2.5
E rro r
-5 -5
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
t im e [ s ] C urrent c om ponents Is d and Is q tim e[s ]
C u r r e n t c o m p o n e n t s Is d a n d Is q 20
20
10

current[A]
10
current[A]

Id Id
0
0
Iq
Iq
-1 0
-10
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
t im e [ s ] tim e[s ]

Fig. 9. Shaft sensorless position control,
load step 0-30-0 %
in position reference at no load. Good performance of the
system is achieved noting the controller limitations. It should
be noted that the results presented indicate the potential of the
new compensation method. Work is ongoing to revise the
drive system to be capable of 100% load, and also improve
the position controller.
V.
The paper has presented a new compensation technique for
test vector injection sensorless position detection. The method
provides excellent quality of rotor position estimation,
improved by low memory harmonic elimination. It has been
demonstrated that these features enable precise and dynamic
speed or position control at low and zero speed. A
commissioning process was used to derive the memory values
from synchronous filters, under operating conditions where
the synchronous filters are valid. Research is continuing to
implement a self on-line commissioning process for the low
memory method and implement this method on low cost DSP.
VI.
This research was funded by Marie Curie Research
Training Fellowship program.
VII.
Induction motor parameters: Brook Cromton, Δ-connected,
415V, 50Hz, 30KW, 53A, 1480 rpm, 56-slot rotor, moment of
inertia, J=0.69Nms-1
VIII.
[1] P.L. Jansen and R.D. Lorenz, “Transducerless field
orientation concepts employing saturation induced
saliencies in induction machines,” IEEE IAS Annual
Meeting, 1995, no. 30, vol.1, pp 174–181.
[2] J.I. Ha and S.K. Sul, “Sensorless field orientation of an
induction machine by high frequency signal injection,”
Fig. 10. Shaft sensorless position control,
position step 20-200 el. degree, no load
IEEE IAS Annual Meeting, 1997, pp. 426–432. M.
Schroedl, “Sensorless control of AC machines at low
speed and standstill based on the INFORM method,”
IEEE IAS Annual Meeting, 1996, pp. 270–277
[3] M. Schroedl, “Sensorless control of AC machines at low
speed and standstill based on the INFORM method,”
CONCLUSIONS IEEE IAS Annual Meeting, 1996, pp. 270–277
[4] N. Teske, G. M. Asher, M. Sumner, and K. J. Bradley,
“Suppression of Saturation Saliency Effects for the
Sensorless Position Control of Induction Motor Drives
Under Loaded Conditions,” IEEE Transactions on
Industrial Electronics, no. 5, vol. 47, pp. 1142-1150,
Oct. 2000
[5] Th.M. Wolbank, J.L. Machl, Th. Jäger, “Combination of
Signal Injection and Neural Networks for Sensorless
Control of Inverter Fed Induction Machines,” 35th
Annual IEEE PESC, Aachen, 2004, pp. 2300-2305.
[6] N. Teske, G. M. Asher, M. Sumner, and K. J. Bradley,
“Encoderless position estimation for symmetric cage
induction machines under loaded conditions,” IEEE
ACKNOWLEDGMENT Transactions on Industrial Applications, no. 6, vol. 37,
pp. 1793-1800, Nov/Dec. 2001
[7] J. Holtz and H. Pan, “Elimination of Saturation Effects
in Sensorless Position Controlled Induction Motors”,
IEEE IAS Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, Oct. 13-18, 2002
APPENDIX [8] Qiang Gao, Greg Asher and Mark Sumner, “Sensorless
Position and Speed Control of Induction Motors Using
High Frequency Injection And Without off-line Pre-
Commissioning”, the 31st Annual Meeting of IEEE, IES
2005
REFERENCES [9] C. Spiteri. Staines, G. M. Asher and M. Sumner,
“Sensorless Control of Induction Machines at Zero and
Low Frequency using Zero Sequence Currents”, IEEE
IAS Annual Meeting, 2004
[10] Jorge Juliet and Joachim Holtz, “Sensorless Acquisition
of the Rotor Position Angle for Induction Motors with
Arbitrary Stator Windings”, IEEE IAS Annual
Meeting,,2004

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