Sensorless Sliding mode Control of PM Synchronous Machine

Evgen Urlep, Karel Jezernik, Dejan Kos

Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
University of Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia
Phone (386) 220-7311 Fax (386) 220-7315 E-Mail: evgen.urlep@uni-mb.si WWW: http://ro.feri.uni-mb.si


Abstract This paper develops the ideas of speed and flux
sensorless sliding - mode control of PM synchronous machine. A
sliding - mode observer / controller is proposed in this paper. The
convergence of the nonlinear time - varying observer along with
the asymptotic stability of the controller is analyzed. Pulse width
modulation implementation using sliding - mode concepts is also
discussed. The major attention is paid to torque control and then
the developed approach utilized for speed control. Special
attention is paid in linearization of the power stage. Computer
simulations and experiments have been carried out to test the
proposed estimation and control algorithm. The experimental
results demonstrated high efficiency of the proposed estimation
and control method.

I. INTRODUCTION.

In the recent years, remarkable effort has been made to the
development of state variables reconstruction of an AC motor
such as: rotor and stator flux vectors, rotor speed,
electromagnetic and load torque. Most of the methods
developed so far utilize either physical approach or different
methods developed originally in the control theory and could
be categorized as follows:
1. Methods utilizing magnetic saliencies of the AC
machine,
2. Methods utilizing direct or indirect calculation methods
based on the mathematical model of the AC machine
algorithmic method and
3. Methods based on fuzzy or neural network approach.
The main goal in the control of an AC machine is the
estimation of the rotor flux vector and in the case of speed
sensorless control estimation of both rotor flux and speed.
Recently, permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs)
have been widely used in industrial applications for their high
efficiency. To control PMSMs, information of the rotor
position and the speed is necessary. However, position and
speed sensors are expensive and mechanically bulky.
Therefore, position and speed sensorless control has been
required and several methods have been proposed [1].
In this paper, a sliding - mode control based on the rotor flux
observer is designed and a sliding - mode approach is applied
to the torque and speed tracking control of the PMSM. This
control method is based on estimation of an Extended
Electromotive Force (EMF) and is robust against load,
parameter variations and external torque disturbances.

II. DYNAMIC MODEL AND DISCRETIZED CURRENT
CONTROL OF PMSM

A. PMSM model

The vector - controlled system for PMSM drive was based on
the following motor differential equations (1) - (5) in the
stationary coordinate system (a,b):
s s r
d
R L
dt
= + +
s
s s
i
u i e (1)

2
( )
PM r
p

= +
r
e R (2)
( )
PM r
=
r
R (3)

3
2
l
d
J p T
dt

=
r s
i (4)
cos
( )
sin
r
r
r

| |
=
|
\ .
R
(5)
The meaning of the symbols in (1) - (5) is as follows:
us
T
=[u
sa
, u
sb
] - stator voltage vector,
is
T
=[i
sa
, i
sb
] - the vector of stator current,
e
s
T
=[e
sa
, e
sb
] - electromotive force vector,

r
T
=[
ra
,
rb
] - the vector of rotor flux,
R(
r
) - rotational term,
T
l
- load torque,

PM
- excitation of permanent magnet,
R
s
- stator resistance,
L
s
- stator inductance,
p - number of pole pairs,
J - system inertia.

B. Discretized current control of PMSM

The proposed discrete current control is designed to assure
fast dynamic responses in transient states, minimal current
variation in the steady stated and a stable behavior in the case
of R-L parameter operating variations.
Let us use d to denote the desired value of the stator current
that determines the desired voltage:
s s
d
R L
dt
= + +
d
d d d s
s s s
i
u i e (6)
If (6) is subtracted from the (1) the difference is obtained:
( )
s
d
R L
dt
= +
d
s s s s s
u e e i i (7)
On the left side of (7) is the vector of unknown stator voltage
error along with induced voltage feed-forward compensation
error that will be determined by stator current controller and
on the right side of (7) is the vector of the stator current error.
The current controller is made robust to R-L parameter
variations by introducing the negative feedback loop. Due to
its outstanding robustness, a discrete variable structure
controller (VSC) will be used. Consequently, the switching
function is chosen:
0;
d
dt
+ = =
d I
I I I s s

D i i (8)
In the discrete form the continuous signal is replaced by its
difference in the first step of approximation:

( ) ( ) ( 1) d k k k
dt T

(9)






Fig. 1. Rotor Field Oriented Speed Control

The feedback part of nonlinear sliding - mode is generated in
the discrete form (10).
| |
( ) ( 1) ( ) ( ) ( 1) k k I T k k
T
= + +
Is
s s I I I
K
u u D (10)
In analogy with continuous systems, the control law that
represents the solution to the systems motion is called
equivalent control [2]. The advantage of introducing the
discrete control law in the sliding mode is twofold. Firstly,
the chattering of the control function is eliminated by
replacing the discontinuous hysteresis term with the
continuous one with discrete time equation.
The plant transfer function written from (1) in stationary
coordinate system for corresponding components in the
z-plane including the sample time delay, disregarding
compensated induced voltage:
1
1
1
( )
( )
O
S S S
T z
F z z
z TR L L

=
+
(11)
The transfer function of the sliding mode controller in
stationary coordinates in the z-plane obtained from (10) is
1 2 2
( )
1
S
z
C z
z

=

K K K
, where (12)
1 2
, 1
S
T
T
= = +
K
K K D
The feedback gain matrix K
S
is chosen in such way, that the
eigenvalues of the system lay in the unity circle of the
z-plane, even by R-L parameter variation.
The asymptotic stable transient phenomena are obtained and
near ideal sliding mode of the systems operation is
realized.

Now the vector of the complete supply voltage remains to be
found. It is composed of the feed forward part in which the
electromotive force of the PMSM is taken into account and
the feedback part from current controller (C
s
). The unknown
real electromotive force is replaced with estimated one from
rotor flux observer:
| | | | | |
1 k k k + = +
d
s s s
u e u (13)
The equation (12) gives full expression of the total desired
stator voltage used to control the PWM, composed of the
feed forward part, which takes into account the induced
voltage, depending on the rotors flux and the rotor speed .
The feedback part of the current controller compensates for
the voltage drops in stator windings. To compensate time
delay due measurement and computation time we introduce
the rotation matrix in the control scheme to affect the
algorithm predictability:
| | | |
cos sin
sin cos
1
r r
r r
r r r
k k



| |
=
|

\ .
=
C
, (14)

III. CLOSED LOOP EMF AND ROTOR FLUX
OBSERVER

A. Rotor Flux Observer

Controlled PMSM motor drives without speed sensor extract
information on the mechanical shaft speed from measured
stator voltages and currents at the motor terminals. The
majority of speed identification methods rely on the
approximated fundamental model of the machine. The use of
stator equations, particularly the integration of the stator
voltage vector is common for all methods. Its solution is
fairly accurate when the switched stator voltage waveform is
measured at high bandwidth, and when the parameters that
determine the contributions of the resistive and the leakage
voltage components are well known. As the influence of
these parameters dominates the estimation at lower speed, the
steady state accuracy of speed sensorless operation tends to
be poor in the lower speed region. The dynamic performance
depends on the accuracy of field angle estimation that is also
parameter depended. Proposed control scheme is presented in
Fig. 1 and used rotor flux observer is featured in Fig. 2.
Controller in the rotor flux observer (C
r
) is used for the
compensation of rotor flux error, caused by the uncertainty of
stator resistance and stator inductance parameter. The
principle is featured in Fig. 2.
If the loop is closed around the rotor flux calculation, the
rotor and stator fluxes will converge to desired values even at
near zero speed. The estimated value used for zero speed and
low speed convergence is obtained from the closed - loop
rotor flux observer (Fig. 2). The transformation angle is
calculated using estimated rotor flux:


arctan 2( , )
rb ra
= (15)



Fig. 2. Rotor flux observer

B. Discretized Current Control of PMSM

Rotor speed is expressed with vector product obtained from
derivation of (15).
2

r
r
r
z
d
dt
p

(16)
The limitation is in obtaining the derivative of the rotor flux
that can be calculated in several ways
1. Discrete derivation
2. PLL loop
3. Estimators

When dynamic performance and accuracy is not the most
important issue stator flux rather than rotor flux can be used.
That assumption is possible in case of low stator inductance
Ls.
The estimated speed can be calculated as vector cross product
between the estimated stator flux and the estimated derivative
of the stator flux.
2 2 2


1 1

s sb sa
s sa sb
sa sb
s
z z
d d d
dt dt dt
p p

=
+

(17)
EMF is expressed based on (2) by using estimated speed. In
stationary coordinates can be rewritten assuming that the
speed is constant within the time frame.

rb
ra

(
=
(

r
e (18)

B. Observer Controller Design

The VSC is used as the observer controller, where the
switching function is set as:
0;
d
dt
+ = =
d O
O O O r r

D (19)
The controller in the discrete form is:
| |
( ) ( ) ( ) ( 1)
Os
k O O O
k I T k k
T
= +
K
u D (20)
The success of the estimated stator and rotor flux depends on
the current controller error as shown by the following
equation.
( ) ( ) ( )
d
s s s s s r r
L = + i i (21)
The torque error can be evaluated by the cross product of the
current error and the estimated rotor flux. The current
controller minimizes the current error and ensures 90 degrees
angle between the current and the estimated rotor flux vector,
while the observer minimizes the rotor flux error.
When the angle between the estimated rotor flux and the
current are not 90, the result of (22) becomes non zero.
3

( ) 0
2
e r
z
T p =
i
e (22)
In stationary regime of the system operation the mean value
indicates the observer static error that comes from the
uncertainty of the observer parameters. While the voltage and
the current are known, the parameter that influences the most
to the result is estimated stator resistance.
The information can be used for the adaptation of the stator
resistance in case of loaded machine, where the adaptation
term is calculated as
0

( ( ) )
t
d
S A r S S
z
R k dt =

i i (23)
The term k
A
is the stator resistance adaptation factor.

IV. LINEARIZATION OF THE BRIDGE POWER STAGE

Real switching elements of power stage contributes to the
non-linearity in the power stage that depends on the
switching elements characteristics and switching frequency.
Real switches need finite time for transition from one discrete
state to another that is declared only typical and varies
depending on the working conditions. Due that phenomena so
called dead-time is introduced in switching transitions of the
switches branch that contributes mostly to the non-linearity.
Additional non-linearity in the power stage is due voltage
drop on the switching elements and its internal resistance that
appears to be added to the stator resistance of the machine.
Control algorithms mostly depend on the linear model of the
power switching stage, therefore non-linear characteristics of
the power stage needs to be considered and/or compensated.
Several methods are developed to cope with power stage
non-linearity, and can be categorized to the following:
1. Phase current dependent voltage compensation that
depends on the exact knowing of the bridge
parameters, phase current magnitude and sign,
2. Measurement of the power stage average of the
branch voltage during the switching period,
3. Closed loop compensation using measurement of
the switching delay [5],
Phase current dependent voltage compensation besides the
measurement of the phase currents requires known
characteristics of the bridge, described by the parameters T
k

and R
td
used for compensation. The correction term of the
switching time of each power stage branch is calculated by
(24).
,
, 1, 2, 3
,
k i td k i td
i
i td k k
T i R T i R
t i
i R T T
< <
= =

>=

(24)
The success of the compensation depends on the accurate
modeling, assuming that the parameters of the power stage
during the operation are not changing.
Besides that, it is sensitive to the offset of the phase current
measurement, but on the other side it does not need additional
sensors.
The closed loop compensation uses measurement of the
actual switching transitions delays of the power stage
branches using voltage comparators as shown on Fig. 3.



eq 1
SVM
u
s
u
dc
M
3~
u
s
*
u
2
dc
meas
t
i
z
-1
t
i
*
u
s
^
t
i
c

Fig. 3. Closed loop compensation using measurement of the point of
actual switching of the power branch
u
*
u
c
u i >0
t
m
t
*
t
4
c
t
1
c
t
4e
t
1e
T
s

Fig. 4. Typical compensating technique showing the compensation of
both switching edges
The switching-on delay and switching-off delay are measured
using digital timers. The measured switching delay t
e
is used
for compensation as shown in Fig. 4. The measured delay is
used for compensation as described in (25) in the next
switching period, assuming that the switching conditions are
not significantly changed during the switching period T
s
.
The resulting voltage output is centered and compensated
pulse.
*
*
3 3 ( 3)
( ) ( ) ( 1), 1, 2, 3
( ) ( ) ( )
C
c
i i ie
i i i e
t k t k t k i
t k t k t k
+ + +
= =
=
(25)
The approximation of the mean value of the branch voltages
on the switching period T
s
can be calculated as
0
1
( )
T
dc
i i i
s s
U
u u t dt t
T T
=

(26)
Estimated branch voltage in the discrete form (Eq 1) that can
be used in observer is calculated as
( ) ( ) ( ( ) ( ))
c dc
i i ia ib
s
U
u k u k t k t k
T
= (27)
Described technique is not parameter depended, needs only
additional power stage branch voltage comparators and
digital timers. It is robust to parameter changes, has
possibility to detect correct switching of the power switches,
but requires modulator, where the switching times can be set
for both rising and falling edge of the PWM modulator.
The measurement of the switching delays is implemented by
using digital timers in FPGA circuit along with the modulator
with required additional feature.

V. SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

Observer and controller behavior was tested with both
simulations and experimental system. Simulations were
performed using MATLAB / Simulink on parameters of the
PMSM AMG6308 with parameters described below.
Experimental results are obtained by using DSP2 board [3],
based on TMS320C32 floating point controller on PMSM
using MOSFET power bridge stage. Bridge non-linearity was
compensated by the algorithm based on the measurement of
the switching points of the transistors. Algorithm execution
time is set to the switching period 166 s.
Data of motor AMG6308 used in simulation and
experiments:
R
s
=0.15 , L
s
=237 H,
PM
=0.02 Vs, p=6, U
n
=48 V, P
n
=0.8
kW.

A. Simulation results

Simulations are performed in order to test the behavior of the
current controller and speed observer in a way that can not be
evaluated by the experiments since some of the state
variables can not be measured. Simulations are performed
using the following test condition; the reference speed step to
speed of 50 rad/s and torque step to 1 Nm at the time 0.6 s in
order to test the behavior of the observer at low speed, where
observer task is more challenging.
In Fig. 5 rotor flux estimation error of the a-component in the
stationary coordinates is shown small when the observer
resistance R
SE
=R
S
. The resulting flux estimation error
becomes bigger when the R
SE
differs from R
S
, and is
especially evident when the load torque is applied.
Rotor speed estimation error shown in Fig. 6 is lower in
stationary state of the system, where the assumption for (17)
is valid. It is also shown that observer R
SE
matching to actual
R
S
plays a significant role in successful rotor speed
estimation.
The response of the torque error based on the (22) is shown
on the Fig. 7 and represents the matching of the observer
parameters at the especially at the torque disturbances, where
the static error can be used for R
s
adaptation.

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
-0.02
-0.015
-0.01
-0.005
0
0.005
0.01
0.015
0.02
t (s)
e
p
s
i
r
a
e
R
S
=R
SE
R
S
=1.1R
SE
R
S
=1.2R
SE

Fig. 5. The a-component of the rotor flux estimation error at Rs
variation


0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
20
t (s)
e
w

(
r
a
d
/
s
)
R
S
=R
SE
R
S
=1.1R
SE
R
S
=1.2R
SE

Fig. 6. Rotor speed estimation error at RS variation
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
-0.1
-0.05
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
t (s)
d
T
e
R
S
=R
SE
R
S
=1.1R
SE
R
S
=1.2R
SE

Fig. 7. Torque error
e
T
dependency on the Rs variation at startup
and load variation

A. Experimental results

Initial conditions are set by forcing the position of the rotor to
the reference angle by applying the correct voltage vector at
system initialization.
Step response on Fig. 8 shows the initial error of the observed
speed due to the result of current controller, generating
reference voltage compensating mostly stator inductance
voltage drop that influence to the term

s
d
dt

in observer. The
initial speed error can be minimized by using the reference
torque signals with limited bandwidth. The damping of the PI
speed controller for this experiment is set to 1. On the Fig. 9
the tracking errors of the rotor flux are shown, calculated as a
difference between the observer reference rotor flux and the
estimated rotor flux and is used for compensation of the
parameter deviations.
The phase diagram Fig. 10 show successful estimation of the
rotor flux during the step response, when the initial
conditions are set. The transient during the slow reversing at
no load condition is shown on the Fig. 11, where the
advantage of the observer becomes evident. The speed
tracking error is shown on the Fig. 12 at reversing. The
observed rotor flux in a-b coordinates at low speed operation
during no load is shown on Fig. 13.
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16
-10
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
t (s)
w
m
,

w
m
o
,

i
q
w
m
d
(rad/s)
w
m
(rad/s)
w
mo
(rad/s)
i
q
(A)

Fig. 8. Reference speed
d
, actual speed , estimated speed
and torque producing reference current
d
q
i
at step speed response.
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16
-0.02
-0.015
-0.01
-0.005
0
0.005
0.01
0.015
0.02
t (s)
p
s
i
r
a
,

p
s
i
r
b
psi
rae
psi
rbe
psi
ra
-psi
rae
psi
rb
-psi
rbe

Fig. 9: The a-b components of the estimated rotor flux and observer
tracking error during step response
-0.03 -0.02 -0.01 0 0.01 0.02 0.03
-0.025
-0.02
-0.015
-0.01
-0.005
0
0.005
0.01
0.015
0.02
0.025
psi
ra
p
s
i
r
b

Fig. 10: Phase diagram of the estimated rotor flux

during step
response

Fig. 14 shows the observed speed tracking error and torque
producing current at nominal torque disturbance on the motor
axis, where the speed tracking is best in stationary state
where the torque change is low.


0 2 4 6 8 10 12
-10
-5
0
5
10
t (s)
w

(
r
a
d
/
s
)
w
d
(rad/s)
w
m
(rad/s)
w
o
(rad/s)

Fig. 11. Slow reversing at 10 rad/s, where reference speed is
d

, actual
speed , estimated speed .
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
t (s)
w

(
r
a
d
/
s
)
w
d
-w
m
(rad/s)
w
d
-w
o
(rad/s)

Fig. 12. Tracking error of speed controller
d
and observer
during slow reversing
d

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
-0.025
-0.02
-0.015
-0.01
-0.005
0
0.005
0.01
0.015
0.02
0.025
psi
rae
psi
rbe
u
ka

Fig. 13. Estimated rotor flux

and correction term

ka
u
at low
speed operation
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
t (s)
T
d
,
w
m
-
w
m
o
,

i
q
T
d
(Nm)
w
m
-w
mo
(rad/s)
i
q
(A)

Fig. 14. Load torque T
d
,observer speed tracking error at the reference
speed 10 rad/s and torque producing current at the load torque
disturbance.

VI. CONCLUSION

Sensorless control of PMSM based on unique sliding - mode
flux observer is presented in this paper. Sliding mode rotor
flux observer based on PMSM model is used to obtain rotor
position and speed. Estimated induced voltage and speed
rotation prediction component is included in current
controller to improve its dynamic performance. Rotor speed
is estimated by using observed stator flux and its derivative
that is already a part of rotor flux observer. Initial rotor
position is obtained by rotor position detection procedure.
Operating range of sensor-less control is extended using
inverter linearization implemented by dead-time
compensation and sliding-mode controller that gives besides
described features robustness on parameter variation. The
stator resistance adaptation is also described. Proposed
control and observer performance was tested successfully
with simulations and experiments.

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