Hall-Effect Sensor Fault Diagnosis, Identification and Remedial Strategy in Permanent Magnet Brushless DC Drive

In this paper, a simple fault tolerant control for failure of one Hall Effect position sensor of PMBLDC drive is proposed in a closed loop control scheme to increase the reliability of drive. The proposed system is capable to detect and identify the breakdown of one Hall sensor and replaces the faulty sensor signal by a fictitious Hall signal which is generated by the microcontroller. Effectiveness of the remedial strategy is also proven by the correct performance of PMBLDC drive under faulty condition during various transition conditions. After occurrence of the fault, PMBLDC drive is unable to self-start with only two hall sensors. Therefore, a new starting methodology is also presented. The proposed control and starting method have been experimentally verified.