DC-link current based position estimation and speed sensorless control of a BLDC motor used for electric vehicle applications

Abstract

Sensors of any kind contribute to extra space and electronics when they are used in any application. Besides, the sensor noise also has the effect of altering the overall gain of the system. This is more prevalent in non-linear systems like motor control. In applications which have strict space constraints like Electric vehicles, the use of sensors must be optimized, which, in turn, gave rise to many sensorless state estimation strategies. This paper proposes a novel sensorless control technique for brushless direct current (BLDC) motor used in electric vehicle applications. The concept of sensorless control in BLDC Motor drive eliminates the hall-effect position sensor, thereby giving better performance and improves the robustness of the overall drive system. The main objective of this work is to estimate the position of the motor at standstill condition using stator saturation effect concerning the rotor, accelerate the motor from standstill so that enough back EMF is generated. This acceleration technique speeds up the motor to a stage where a self-actuating control mechanism is used to generate control signals with back EMF or line voltages. The motor can be started with a load, which is a significant constraint for electric vehicle application. The proposed method will avoid the reverse rotation of the motor. The proposed work is simulated in Matlab/Simulink software, and results obtained show that it works well under dynamic conditions of starting, acceleration and load switching. The hardware setup of the proposed work is developed using the TMS320F2812 DSP processor. Simulation and experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed work for electric vehicle application.