A nonlinear state observer for the sensorless control of a permanent-magnet AC machine

This paper presents a sensorless speed regulation scheme for a permanent-magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) based solely on the motor line currents measurements. The proposed scheme combines an exact linearization-based controller with a nonlinear state observer which estimates the rotor position and speed. Moreover, the stability of the closed-loop system, including the observer, is demonstrated through Lyapunov stability theory. The proposed observer has the advantage of being insensitive to rotation direction. It is shown how a singularity at zero velocity appears in the scheme and how it can be avoided by switching smoothly from the observer-based closed-loop control to an open-loop control at low velocity. The system performance is tested with an experimental setup consisting of a PMSM servo drive and a digital-signal-processor-based controller for both unidirectional and bidirectional speed regulation.