Disturbance/Uncertainty Estimation and Attenuation Techniques in PMSM Drives—A Survey

This paper gives a comprehensive overview on disturbance/uncertainty estimation and attenuation (DUEA) techniques in permanent-magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drives. Various disturbances and uncertainties in PMSM and also other alternating current (ac) motor drives are first reviewed which shows they have different behaviors and appear in different control loops of the system. The existing DUEA and other relevant control methods in handling disturbances and uncertainties widely used in PMSM drives, and their latest developments are then discussed and summarized. It also provides in-depth analysis of the relationship between these advanced control methods in the context of PMSM systems. When dealing with uncertainties, it is shown that DUEA has a different but complementary mechanism to widely used robust control and adaptive control. The similarities and differences in disturbance attenuation of DUEA and other promising methods such as internal model control and output regulation theory have been analyzed in detail. The wide applications of these methods in different ac motor drives (in particular in PMSM drives) are categorized and summarized. Finally, the paper ends with the discussion on future directions in this area.