A permanent magnet motor drive without a shaft sensor

A simple control for a permanent motor drive is described which provides a wide speed range without the use of a shaft sensor. Two line-to-line voltages and two stator currents are sensed and processed in analog form to produce the stator flux linkage space vector. The angle of this vector is then used in a microcontroller to produce the appropriate stator current command signals for the hysteresis current controller of the inverter so that near unity power factor can be achieved over a wide range of torque and speed. A speed signal is derived from the rate of change of angle of the flux linkage. A drift compensation program is proposed to avoid calculation errors in the determination of angle position and speed. The control system has been implemented on a 5 kW motor using Nd-Fe-B magnets. The closed loop speed control has been shown to be effective down to a frequency of less than 1 Hz, thus providing a wide range of speed control. An open loop starting program is used to accelerate the motor up to this limit frequency with minimum speed oscillation.<>