Feasible Auto-Tuning Procedure for Mid-Performance Sensorless IPMSM and SynRM Drives

The adoption of Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (IPMSM) and Synchronous Reluctance Motors (SynRM) is gaining popularity in many fields, including simple industrial applications, where cost and efficiency are the main aspects. In those applications, sensorless control is usually desired and commissioning should be simple and relatively fast. While specific-purpose drives have been successfully addressed by sensorless drives based on PMSMs and SynRMs, the integration of these techniques in general-purpose drives is still limited and, when available, mostly linked to proprietary techniques. In fact, motor parameters are needed for tuning control parameters or characteristics, which are only partially available from standard nameplates. Moreover, manual setup requires specialized knowledge and can be very time consuming. In order to remove these barriers towards wider adoption of these efficient motors, considerable research effort is being devoted to fully automate the commissioning, i.e. “auto-tuning” of the drive. This paper proposes and analyzes a feasible way to obtain complete self-commissioning of a mid-performance IPMSM or SynRM drive.