A Sensorless Robust Vector Control of Induction Motor

Drives
O. Barambones, A.J. Garrido and F.J. Maseda
Dpto. Ingeniera de Sistemas y Automatica E.U.I.T.I Bilbao.
Universidad del Pas Vasco.
Plaza de la Casilla, 48012 Bilbao (Spain)
Tel: +34 946014459; Fax: +34 944441625; E-mail: ispbacao@ehu.es
Abstract: In this paper, an indirect eld-oriented
induction motor drive with a sliding-mode controller
is presented. The design includes rotor speed estimation from measured stator terminal voltages and
currents. The estimated speed is used as feedback in
an indirect vector control system achieving the speed
control without the use of shaft mounted transducers.
Stability analysis based on Lyapunov theory is also
presented, to guarantee the closed loop stability. The
high performance of the proposed control scheme under load disturbances and parameter uncertainties is
also demonstrated via simulation examples.

& Kim 1991, Chern et al. 1998, Benchaib & Edwards 2000). The sliding-mode control can oer many
good properties, such as good performance against
unmodelled dynamics, insensitivity to parameter variations, external disturbance rejection and fast dynamic response (Utkin 1993). These advantages of the
sliding-mode control may be employed in the position
and speed control of an AC servo system.
On the other hand, in indirect eld-oriented control of induction motors, a knowledge of rotor speed is
required in order to orient the injected stator current
vector and to establish speed loop feedback control.
Tachogenerators or digital shaft-position encoders are
usually used to detect the rotor speed of motors.
These speed sensors lower the system reliability and
require special attention to noise. In addition, for
some special applications such as very high-speed motor drives, there exist diculties in mounting these
speed sensors.
Recently, many research has been carried on the
design of speed sensorless control schemes, (Shauder
1992, Kubota 1993, Peng & Fukao 1994, Zamora 1998,
Huang 1998). In these schemes the speed is obtained based on the measurement of stator voltages and
currents. However the estimation is ussually complex
and heavily dependent on machine parameters. Therefore, although sensorless vector-controlled drives are
commercially available at this time, the parameter uncertainties imposes a challenge in the control performance.
This paper presents a new sensorless vector control
scheme consisting on the one hand of a speed estimation algorithm which overcomes the necessity of the
speed sensor and on the other hand of a novel variable
structure control law with an integral sliding surface
that compensates the uncertainties that are present
in the system.
The closed loop stability of the proposed scheme
is demonstrated using the Lyapunov stability theory,
and the exponential convergence of the controlled
speed is provided.

Key-Words: Vector control. Sliding mode controller. Induction drive. Speed sensorless.

Introduction

Indirect eld-oriented techniques utilizing microprocessors are now widely used for the control of induction motor servo drive in high-performance applications. With the eld-oriented techniques (Leonhard
1996, Bose 2001, Vas 1994), the decoupling of torque
and ux control commands of the induction motor is
guaranteed, and the induction motor can be controlled linearly as a separated excited D.C. motor. However, the control performance of the resulting linear
system is still inuenced by the uncertainties, which
usually are composed of unpredictable parameter variations, external load disturbances, unmodelled and
nonlinear dynamics. Therefore, many studies have
been made on the motor drives in order to preserve the
performance under these parameter variations and external load disturbance, such as nonlinear control, optimal control, variable structure system control, adaptive control and neural control (Lin 1993, Ortega et.
al. 1993, Marino et. al. 1998).
In the past decade, the variable structure control
strategy using the sliding-mode has been focussed on
many studies and research for the control of the AC
servo drive system (Sabanovic & Izosimov 1981, Park
1

This report is organized as follows. The rotor

speed estimation is introduced in Section 2. Then,
the proposed variable structure robust speed control
is presented in Section 3. In the Section 4, some simulation results are presented. Finally some concluding
remarks are stated in the last Section.

Calculation
speed

of

the

Substituting the equations (3) and (4) in the equation (6) it is obtained:



Lm dr iqs qr ids
(7)
we = wr
2 + 2
Tr
dr
qr
Then Substituting the equations (6) in the equation (7), and nding wr we obtain:


1
Lm

(dr iqs qr ids )

wr = 2 dr qr qr dr
r
Tr
(8)
2
2
where r2 = dr
+ qr
.

motor

Many schemes (Abbondanti 1975) based on simplied

motor models have been devised to sense the speed of
the induction motor from measured terminal quantities for control purposes. In order to obtain an accurate dynamic representation of the motor speed, it
is necessary to base the calculation on the coupled
circuit equations of the motor.
Since the motor voltages and currents are measured in a stationary frame of reference, it is also convenient to express these equations in that stationary
frame.
From the stator voltage equations in the stationary
frame it is obtained (Bose 2001):
dr

qr

Lr
vds
Lm
Lr
vqs
Lm

d
Lr
(Rs + Ls )ids
Lm
dt
d
Lr
(Rs + Ls )iqs
Lm
dt

Therefore, given a complete knowledge of the motor parameters, the instantaneous speed wr can be
calculated from the previous equation, where the stator measured current and voltages, and the rotor ux
estimated obtained from a rotor ux observer based
on equations (1) and (2) are employed.

qr

Lm
ids wr qr
Tr
Lm
iqs + wr dr
Tr

1
dr
Tr
1
qr
Tr

(1)

J w m + Bwm + TL = Te

(2)

(9)

where J and B are the inertia constant and the viscous friction coecient of the induction motor system
respectively; TL is the external load; wm is the rotor
mechanical speed in angular frequency, which is related to the rotor electrical speed by wm = 2 wr /p
where p is the pole numbers and Te denotes the generated torque of an induction motor, dened as (Bose
2001):
Te =

3p Lm e e
e e
( i qr
ids )
4 Lr dr qs

(10)

e
e
where dr
and qr
are the rotor-ux linkages, with the
subscript e denoting that the quantity is refereed to
the synchronously rotating reference frame; ieqs and
ieds are the stator currents, and p is the pole numbers.

(3)
(4)

The relation between the synchronously rotating

reference frame and the stationary reference frame is
performed by the so-called reverse Parks transformation:



cos(e )
sin(e )
xa
xb = sin(e 2/3) cos(e 2/3) xd
xq
xc
sin(e + 2/3) cos(e + 2/3)
(11)
where e is the angle position between the d-axix of
the synchronously rotating and the stationary reference frames, and it is assumed that the quantities
are balanced.

where wr is the rotor electrical speed and Tr = Lr /Rr

is the rotor time constant.
The angle e of the rotor ux vector (r ) in relation to the d-axis of the stationary frame is dened as
follows:



qr
(5)
e = arctan
dr
being its derivative:
dr qr qr dr
e = we =
2 + 2
dr
qr

robust

In general, the mechanical equation of an induction

motor can be written as:

where is the ux linkage; L is the inductance; v

is the voltage; R is the resistance; i is the current
and = 1 L2m /(Lr Ls ) is the motor leakage coecient. The subscripts r and s denotes the rotor and
stator values respectively refereed to the stator, and
the subscripts d and q denote the dq-axis components
in the stationary reference frame.
The rotor ux equations in the stationary frame are
(Bose 2001):
dr

Variable structure
speed control

(6)

Using the eld-orientation control principle (Bose

2001) the current component ieds is aligned in the direction of the rotor ux vector r , and the current
component ieqs is aligned in the direction perpendicular to it. At this condition, it is satised that:
e
= 0,
qr

e
dr
= |r |

Now, we are going to dene the sliding variable

S(t) with an integral component as:
t
(k a)e( ) d
(23)
S(t) = e(t)
0

where k is a constant gain.

(12)

In order to obtain the speed trajectory tracking,

the following assumption should be formulated:

Therefore, taking into account the previous results, the equation of induction motor torque (10) is
simplied to:
Te =

3p Lm e e
i = KT ieqs
4 Lr dr qs

(A 1) The gain k must be chosen so that the term

(k a) is strictly negative, therefore k < 0.

(13)

Then the sliding surface is dened as:

t
(k a)e( ) d = 0
S(t) = e(t)

where KT is the torque constant, and is dened as

follows:
3p Lm e

(14)
KT =
4 Lr dr
where

e
dr

The variable structure speed controller is designed as:

denotes the command rotor ux.

u(t) = k e(t) sgn(S)

With the above mentioned proper eld orientation, the dynamic of the rotor ux is given by (Bose
2001):
e
ddr
e
Lm e
+ dr =
i
(15)
dt
Tr
Tr ds

In order to obtain the speed trajectory tracking,

the following assumption should be formulated:
(A 2) The gain must be chosen so that |d(t)|
for all time.

(16)

where the parameter are dened as:

a=

B
,
J

b=

KT
,
J

f=

TL
;
J

Theorem 1 Consider the induction motor given by

equation (18). Then, if assumptions (A 1) and (A 2)
are verified, the control law (25) leads the rotor mechanical speed wm (t) so that the speed tracking error

(t) tends to zero as the time tends

e(t) = wm (t) wm
to infinity.

(17)

Now, we are going to consider the previous mechanical equation (16) with uncertainties as follows:
w m = (a +
a)wm (f +
f ) + (b +
b)ieqs (18)

The proof of this theorem will be carried out using

the Lyapunov stability theory.

where the terms
a,
b and
f represents the uncertainties of the terms a, b and f respectively.

Proof : Dene the Lyapunov function candidate:

Let us dene dene the tracking speed error as

follows:

(t)
(19)
e(t) = wm (t) wm

1
S(t)S(t)
2
Its time derivative is calculated as:
V (t) =

is the rotor speed command.

where wm

= S [(a e + u + d) (k e a e)]
= S [u + d k e]

(20)

= S [k e sgn(S) + d k e]
= S [d sgn(S)]

where the following terms have been collected in the

signal u(t),

(t) f (t) w m
(t)
u(t) = b ieqs (t) a wm

( |d|)|S|
0

(21)

and the uncertainty terms have been collected in the

signal d(t),
d(t) =
a wm (t)
f (t) +
b ieqs (t)

(26)

V (t) = S(t)S(t)
= S [e (k a)e]

Taking the derivative of the previous equation

with respect to time yields:

e(t)
= w m w m
= a e(t) + u(t) + d(t)

(25)

where the k is the gain dened previously, is the

switching gain, S is the sliding variable dened in eqn.
(23) and sgn() is the signum function.

Then, the mechanical equation (9) becomes:

w m + a wm + f = b ieqs

(24)

(27)

It should be noted that the eqns. (23),(20) and

(25), and the assumption (A 2) have been used in the
proof.

(22)
3

wr +

e-

6
wr -

VSC
Controller
6

iqs
-

iqs-

e
ids- dq abc

Limiter

e 6

Field
ids
e
Weakening dr Calculation
wr

iabc
-

Current
- Controller
Pulses
?
PWM
Inverter

we 6
 iabc
wr
Estimator  vabc

?
IM

Figure 1: Block diagram of the proposed sliding-mode eld oriented control

Using the Lyapunovs direct method, since V (t)
is clearly positive-denite, V (t) is negative denite
and V (t) tends to innity as S(t) tends to innity,
then the equilibrium at the origin S(t) = 0 is globally
asymptotically stable. Therefore S(t) tends to zero
as the time t tends to innity. Moreover, all trajectories starting o the sliding surface S = 0 must reach
it in nite time and then will remain on this surface.
This systems behavior once on the sliding surface is
usually called sliding mode (Utkin 1993).

Therefore, the proposed variable structure speed

control resolves the speed tracking problem for the induction motor, with some uncertainties in mechanical
parameters and load torque.

In this section we will study the speed regulation performance of the proposed sliding-mode eld oriented
control versus reference and load torque variations by
means of simulation examples.
The block diagram of the proposed robust control
scheme is presented in gure 1.

When the sliding mode occurs on the sliding sur

face (24), then S(t) = S(t)
= 0, and therefore the
dynamic behavior of the tracking problem (20) is equivalently governed by the following equation:

S(t)
=0

e(t)
= (k a)e(t)

The block VSC Controller represent the proposed sliding-mode controller, and it is implemented by
equations (23), (29). The block limiter limits the
current applied to the motor windings so that it remains within the limit value, and it is implemented
by a saturation function. The block dq e abc makes the conversion between the synchronously rotating
and stationary reference frames, and is implemented
by equation (11). The block Current Controller consists of a three hysteresis-band current PWM control,
which is basically an instantaneous feedback current
control method of PWM where the actual current
(iabc ) continually tracks the command current (iabc )
within a hysteresis band. The block PWM Inverter
is a six IGBT-diode bridge inverter with 780 V DC
voltage source. The block Field Weakening gives the
ux command based on rotor speed, so that the PWM
controller does not saturate. The block ie
ds Calculation provides the current reference ie
ds from the rotor
ux reference through the equation (15).

(28)

Then, under assumption (A 1), the tracking error

e(t) converges to zero exponentially.
It should be noted that, a typical motion under
sliding mode control consists of a reaching phase during which trajectories starting o the sliding surface
S = 0 move toward it and reach it in nite time, followed by sliding phase during which the motion will be
conned to this surface and the system tracking error
will be represented by the reduced-order model (28),
where the tracking error tends to zero.
Finally, the torque current command, iqs (t), can
be obtained directly substituting eqn. (25) in eqn.
(21):
iqs (t) =

[k e sgn(S) + a wm
+ w m
+ f]
b

Simulation Results

(29)

The block wr Estimator represent the proposed

rotor speed and synchronous speed estimator, and is
implemented by the equations (8) and (6) respectively. The block IM represents the induction motor.

100

The induction motor used in this case study is

a 50 HP, 460 V, four pole, 60 Hz motor having the
following parameters: Rs = 0.087 , Rr = 0.228 ,
Ls = 35.5 mH, Lr = 35.5 mH, and Lm = 34.7 mH.

60

20

The system has the following mechanical parameters: J = 1.662 kg.m2 and B = 0.1 N.m.s. It is assumed that there is an uncertainty around 20 % in
the system parameters, that will be overcome by the
proposed sliding control.

wm
wm

20

The following values have been chosen for the controller parameters, k = 100, = 30.

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1
Time (s)

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

Figure 2: Reference and real rotor speed signals

(rad/s)

In this example the motor starts from a standstill

state and we want the rotor speed to follow a speed
command that starts from zero and accelerates until
the rotor speed is 90 rad/s. The system starts with an
initial load torque TL = 50 N.m, and at time t = 1 s
the load torque steps from TL = 50 N.m to TL =
100 N.m.

500

400

300

200

100
isa (A)

Figure 2 shows the desired rotor speed (dashed

line) and the real rotor speed (solid line). As it may
be observed, the rotor speed track the desired speed
in spite of system uncertainties. Moreover, the speed
tracking is not aected by the load torque change at
the time t = 1 s, because when the sliding surface is
reached (sliding mode) the system becomes insensitive
to the boundary external disturbances.

100

200

300

400

500

Figure 3 shows the current of one stator winding.

This gure shows that in the initial state, the current
signal presents a high value because it is necessary a
high torque to increment the rotor speed. In the constant speed region, the motor torque only has to compensate the friction and the load torque and so, the
current is lower. Finally, at time t = 1 s the current
increases because the load torque has been increased.

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1
Time (s)

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

Figure 3: Stator Current isa (A)

based on stator voltage equations and rotor ux equations in the stationary reference frame. It is proposed a variable structure control which has an integral
sliding surface to relax the requirement of the acceleration signal, that is usual in conventional sliding
mode speed control techniques. Due to the nature of
the sliding control this control scheme is robust under
uncertainties caused by parameter error or by changes in the load torque. The closed loop stability of
the presented design has been proved thought Lyapunov stability theory. Finally, by means of simulation
examples, it has been shown that the proposed control scheme performs reasonably well in practice, and
that the speed tracking objective is achieved under
uncertainties in the parameters and load torque.

Figure 4 shows the motor torque. As in the case

of the current (g. 3), the motor torque has a high
initial value speed acceleration zone, then the value
decreases in a constant region and nally increases
due to the load torque increment. In this gure it
may be seen that in the motor torque appears the
so-called chattering phenomenon, however this high
frequency changes in the torque will be ltered by the
mechanical system inertia.

40

w* , w (rad/s)

80

Conclusions

In this paper a sensorless sliding mode vector control has been presented. The rotor speed estimator is

350

[8] Lin, F.K. and Liaw, C.M.,1993, Control of indirect eld-oriented induction motor drives considering the eects of dead-time and parameter
variations. IEEE Trans. Indus. Electro, 40, 486495.

300

250

[9] Marino, R., Peresada, S. and Tomei, P.,

1998, Adaptive Output Feedback Control of
Current-Fed Induction Motors with Uncertain
Rotor Resistance and Load Torque., Automatica,
34, 617-624.

150

T (N*m)

200

100

50

[10] Ortega, R., Canudas, C. and Seleme, I.S.,

1993, Nonlinear Control of Induction Motors:
Torque Tracking with Unknown Load Disturbances, IEEE Tran. on Automat. Contr., 38, 16751680.

50

100

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1
Time (s)

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

Figure 4: Motor torque (N.m)

[11] Park M.H. and Kim, K.S., 1991, Chattering

reduction in the position contol of induction motor using the sliding mode, IEEE Trans. Power
Electron., 6 317-325.

Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to the Basque Country University and to MCYT for partial support of this work
through the research projects 1/UPV 00146.363-E13992/2001 and DPI2000-0244 respectively.

[12] Peng, F.Z. and Fukao, T.,1994, Robust

Speed Identication for Speed-Sensorless Vector
Control of Induction Motors. IEEE Trans. Indus.
Applica.. 30, 1234-1240.

References

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