Fundamental PWM Excitation Based Rotor Position Estimation for a Dual Three-Phase Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine

Two rotor position estimation methods for a dual three-phase (DTP) permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) are investigated in this article, where the rotor position is estimated by exploiting the saliency of the motor through the phase current derivative measurement during the fundamental PWM excitation of a standard six-phase two-level inverter. It is found that in a DTP PMSM, the wide speed range rotor position estimation is possible not only in the torque-producing subspace, but also in the harmonic subspace. The principle and practical implementation of the methods are explained in details. The experimental results verify the effectiveness of the proposed rotor position estimation methods.