Unified sensorless vector control of synchronous and induction motors

In this paper, a unified theory for sensorless flux estimation and vector control of induction motors and nonsalient permanent-magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) is developed. It is shown that an estimator and vector controller for one of the motor types can also be applied to the other, with only minor modifications necessary. Two candidate estimators are considered: a variant of the well-known "voltage model" (VM) and a phase-locked-loop-type speed and position estimator. These are applied to both motor types, and evaluated experimentally. For the nonsalient PMSM, an important result is that synchronization can be guaranteed from any initial rotor position.