Fully FPGA-based sensorless control for AC drive using an extended kalman filter

The aim of this paper is to present a fully FPGA (field programmable gate array) based sensorless controller for a synchronous motor (SM). The estimation of the rotor position and speed is achieved using an extended Kalman filter (EKF). The drive also incorporates a PI-based controller for stator currents and a hysteresis-based controller for rotor current. The objective of this work is to prove the ability of a FPGA to ensure the required performances in terms of execution time, consumed resources and sensorless control quality. The developed architecture of the EKF is presented and a discussion about the time/area performances is made. Some experimental results are provided in order to prove the reliability and the efficiency of the developed control system.