Position Locking for Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine Propeller Drives in Drones by Hall-Effect Sensor-Assisted Nonlinear Observer

The paper presents a hall-effect sensor-assisted non-linear observer-based solution for position locking of a surface-mounted permanent magnet synchronous motor (SMPMSM) propeller drive in drone applications. The purpose of the position locking is to ensure a fixed motor position at the landing instant to avoid mechanical damage to the propeller. To evaluate the proposed solution, the position locking sequence of the motor drive is studied for two cases, implemented with two different state machines. The first case is relying on an encoder to provide the position feedback signal and serves as a reference for assessing the performance of the proposed solution based on the position estimate from the hall-effect sensor-assisted nonlinear observer. Experimental results show how the proposed solution can provide sufficient performance of position locking without the encoder.