Computation of Self-Sensing Capabilities of Synchronous Machines for Rotating High Frequency Voltage Injection Sensorless Control

Abstract

Performance achievable in sensorless control of electrical drives strictly depends on the adopted synchronous machine. The combination of cross-saturation and saliency, both dependent by the current load and the rotor position, makes always the position estimation afflicted by an estimation error. When the machine is highly saturated, the sensorless control can even diverge resulting in a useless drive. Thus, it is of primary importance to know in advance the convergence region of the sensorless drive, i.e., the operating points, where the motor can be successfully controlled without a position sensor. The aim of this article is to show how to compute the estimation error, the saliency, and the convergence region (hereafter called self-sensing capabilities) starting from the flux linkages maps or, more generally, from the incremental inductances. The dependence on the rotor position is also considered. Finite element simulations and experimental measurements validate the proposed model. The code used to compute the self-sensing capabilities is available as an open source package.