2574 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 50, NO.
4, JULY/AUGUST 2014
Novel Sensorless Control Strategy With Injection
of High-Frequency Pulsating Carrier Signal
Into Stationary Reference Frame
J. M. Liu, Student Member, IEEE, and Z. Q. Zhu, Fellow, IEEE
Abstract—In this paper, a novel sensorless control strategy with
the injection of a high-frequency pulsating carrier signal into a
stationary reference frame is proposed. Differing from the two
most commonly used conventional high-frequency carrier signal
injection methods, i.e., the injection of a rotating carrier voltage
into a stationary reference frame and the injection of a pulsating
carrier voltage into an estimated synchronous reference frame, the
new proposed strategy injects a pulsating high-frequency carrier
voltage into a stationary reference frame, which is as stable as the
rotating carrier signal injection method. Then, the rotor position
information can be retrieved from the carrier current response
that is amplitude-modulated by the machine saliency, which is as
simple as the pulsating carrier signal injection method. The signal
demodulation process, the compensation of the cross-saturation
effect, and magnetic polarity detection are also discussed and ana-
lyzed in detail. The experimental results on an interior permanent-
magnet synchronous machine demonstrate that the new proposed
strategy has a robust magnetic polarity detection and that it can
achieve an accurate rotor position estimation with good steady-
state performance and dynamic performance.
Index Terms—Carrier signal injection, magnetic polarity de-
tection, permanent-magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs),
saliency, sensorless.
I. I NTRODUCTION
P ERMANENT-MAGNET synchronous machines
(PMSMs) are widely applied due to their higher torque
density, power density, and efficiency. In order to improve the
output performance, a high-resolution vector control strategy
that depends on the accuracy of the rotor position information
should be implemented on the controller of a PMSM.
Generally, this rotor position information can be obtained from
Manuscript received June 18, 2013; revised August 18, 2013 and October 20,
2013; accepted November 9, 2013. Date of publication November 27, 2013;
date of current version July 15, 2014. Paper 2013-IDC-526.R2, presented at the
2013 IEEE International Electric Machines and Drives Conference, Chicago,
IL, USA, May 12–15, and approved for publication in the IEEE T RANSAC -
TIONS ON I NDUSTRY A PPLICATIONS by the Industrial Drives Committee of
the IEEE Industry Applications Society. This work was supported in part by the
Chinese Scholarship Council, in part by Siemens Wind Power plc, and in part
by the Royal Academy of Engineering.
J. M. Liu was with the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S1 3JD, U.K.
He is now with Siemens Wind Power plc, Keele, ST5 5NP, U.K. (e-mail:
eliujiaming@hotmail.com).
Z. Q. Zhu is with the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S1 3JD, U.K.
(e-mail: Z.Q.Zhu@sheffield.ac.uk).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIA.2013.2293000
0093-9994 © 2013 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
high-resolution sensors that may not only increase the system
cost and size but also tend to reduce the system reliability.
Various sensorless techniques have been developed, which
can be categorized into methods based on the fundamental
model and the machine saliency. The basic idea of fundamental-
model-based sensorless methods is to estimate the fundamental
or harmonic back electromotive force (EMF), or the flux-
linkage according to the machine model, which contains the
rotor position information [1]–[3]. Position estimation can be
performed through an open-loop calculation or a closed-loop
observer. Additionally, observers, including the sliding mode
observer [4], [5], the extended Kalman filter [6], [7], and the
model reference adaptive system [8], provide other options
to directly estimate the rotor position from the machine fun-
damental model without considering the back EMF or the
flux-linkage.
The machine-saliency-based sensorless control injects some
extra voltage or current signals into the motor and uses the
corresponding signals to detect the rotor position. It shows good
performance in the low-speed region, including zero speed.
According to the type of injected carrier signal, it consists of
a rotating sinusoidal signal injection [9]–[13], a pulsating sinu-
soidal signal injection [14]–[18], a square-wave signal injection
[19], [20], and an arbitrary injection [21].
Rotating signal injection schemes inject a balanced three-
phase voltage or a carrier current signal, which is normally a
voltage, into the stationary reference frame to form a rotating
excitation that is superimposed on the fundamental excitation.
The rotor position information can be obtained from the phase-
modulated carrier current response. By applying a synchronous
reference frame filter (SRFF), the negative-sequence carrier
current that contains the rotor position information can be
derived and used to obtain the rotor position. For the pulsating
signal injection methods, a high-frequency pulsating carrier
signal, which is also normally a voltage, is injected into the
d-axis or the q-axis into the estimated synchronous reference
frame. The position can be estimated through the minimization
of the amplitude-modulated carrier current response that is
measured along the axis that is orthogonal to the injection axis.
Sensorless methods that are based on rotating and pulsating
sinusoidal carrier signal injections have the advantage of simple
physical principles and a low implementation cost. However,
the limited dynamic bandwidth that is due to the signal de-
modulation process is a major drawback. A square-wave signal
is injected into the estimated d-axis, which eliminates the
LIU AND ZHU: CONTROL STRATEGY WITH INJECTION OF PULSATING CARRIER SIGNAL INTO REFERENCE FRAME
requirement of low-pass filters (LPFs) for demodulation; hence,
sensorless dynamic performance is remarkably enhanced [19].
In [20], an effective solution with the integration of the pul-
sating square-wave injection and the current control loop is
proposed for the sensorless control of a low salient surface-
mounted PMSM.
The information of the injected high-frequency carrier signal
should be predefined for the aforementioned methods. Instead,
an arbitrary injection with half-pulse width modulation fre-
quency square wave is presented in [21], which relies on the
presence of a current derivative, rather than the certain shape of
the injected signal.
In this paper, a novel sensorless control strategy with the
injection of a high-frequency pulsating signal into the sta-
tionary reference frame is proposed. Differing from the two
most commonly used high-frequency carrier signal injection
methods, i.e., the injection of a rotating carrier voltage into
the stationary reference frame and the injection of a pulsating
carrier voltage into the estimated synchronous reference frame,
the new proposed strategy injects a pulsating high-frequency
carrier voltage into the α-axis (or the β-axis) of the stationary
reference frame. Then, the amplitude of the carrier current
response will fluctuate with the position-dependent saliency;
hence, the rotor position information can be retrieved from the
amplitude-modulated high-frequency carrier current response.
The algorithm of the proposed strategy is analyzed and de-
scribed in this paper. Furthermore, the compensation of the
cross-saturation effect and magnetic polarity detection are also
discussed in detail. The effectiveness of the proposed strategy
will be validated by several experiments on a dSPACE platform
with a laboratory interior PMSM.
II. C ONVENTIONAL H IGH -F REQUENCY C ARRIER S IGNAL
I NJECTION S TRATEGIES
The most commonly used conventional high-frequency car-
rier signal injection methods are the rotating-signal-injection-
based and pulsating-signal-injection-based sensorless controls.
Rotating carrier signal injection schemes inject a balanced
three-phase carrier voltage signal, as shown in the following,
into the stationary reference frame to form a rotating excitation
that is superimposed on the fundamental excitation:
   
vαh cos α
= Vc , α = ωc t + ϕ (1)
vβh sin α
where Vc , ωc , and ϕ are the amplitude, angular speed, and
initial phase angle of the injected high-frequency pulsating
carrier voltage, respectively. Then, the resultant current in the
stationary reference frame, by using a complex vector, will be
i = if + i p + i n
= if + Ip · ej(α−π/2) + In · ej(−α+2θr +θm +π/2) (2)
where if is the fundamental current, ip and in are the positive
and negative sequences, respectively, and in is the phase that
is modulated by the rotor position information. To separate in
from the total current response, the SRFF is a typical solution
2575
[10], [12], [13]. First, the SRFF uses the frame transforma-
tion that is based on the feedback estimated rotor position to
transform the fundamental current to dc. With the aid of an
LPF, this dc component is obtained without phase lag. Then,
with the reverse frame transformation, this fundamental current
is obtained. By employing the same procedure, the positive-
sequence current can be derived. Then, by subtracting them
from the total current response, the negative-sequence current
can be obtained, and the rotor position can be estimated.
Pulsating carrier signal injection schemes inject a high-
frequency pulsating carrier voltage, i.e.,
 e   
vdh cos α
e = V c , α = ωc t + ϕ (3)
vqh 0
into the d-axis (or the q-axis) of the estimated synchronous
reference frame, which can be seen as the superposition of two
rotating carrier vectors with opposite rotating directions.
Then, the carrier current response is amplitude-modulated by
the rotor position information as shown follows:
 e   
idh Ip + In cos (Δθ + θm )
= · sin α (4)
ieqh In sin (2Δθ + θm )
where Ip and In have the same value as in (2). By applying the
synchronous detection technique [12], [23], the amplitude can
be demodulated from the carrier current response within only
one step of filtering, and the rotor position can be estimated
through the minimization of the amplitude that is measured
along the axis that is orthogonal to the injection axis.
III. N EW P ROPOSED H IGH -F REQUENCY P ULSATING
S IGNAL I NJECTION S TRATEGY BASED ON
S TATIONARY R EFERENCE F RAME
The conventional pulsating carrier voltage injection method
has a simple physical principle. However, since the carrier volt-
age is injected into the estimated synchronous reference frame,
the risk of divergence at the starting stage of the sensorless con-
trol is a drawback. The conventional rotating high-frequency
carrier voltage injection method has a stable performance of
carrier signal injection, since the carrier voltage is injected into
the stationary reference frame. However, the signal demodu-
lation procedure with the SRFF is relatively complicated to
implement, and two more LPFs will deteriorate the dynamic
performance. Differing from the conventional high-frequency
carrier signal injection methods, the proposed novel strategy
injects a high-frequency pulsating carrier voltage into the sta-
tionary reference frame, which is as stable as the rotating carrier
signal injection method. Since the high-frequency carrier cur-
rent response is amplitude-modulated as in the pulsating carrier
signal injection method, the synchronous detection technique
with one step of filtering is employed for signal demodulation.
A. High-Frequency Model of PMSM Accounting for
Cross-Saturation Effect
It is well known that the PMSM could be seen as a pure
inductive load when the frequency of the injected carrier
2576 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 50, NO. 4, JULY/AUGUST 2014

voltage is sufficiently higher than the fundamental excitation is injected into the stationary reference frame. Then, the differ-
[11]. If the cross-saturation effect is considered, the high- ential of the high-frequency carrier current response, as shown
frequency voltage equation of an interior PMSM in the syn- in (8), can be expressed as
chronous reference frame is given as [24]    1 + 1 cos(2θ +θ ) 1 
      iαh Lp Ln r m Ln sin(2θr +θm )
Vdh Ldh Ldqh i p =
= · p dh (5) iβh 1
Ln sin(2θr +θm ) Lp − Ln cos(2θr +θm )
1 1
Vqh Lqdh Lqh iqh
 
cos α
where p is the differential operator, and Ldh and Lqh are the · Vc . (11)
high-frequency incremental d-axis and q-axis self-inductances, 0
respectively, which are different from each other due to the Hence, the high-frequency carrier current response can be
machine saliency. Ldqh and Lqdh are the high-frequency in- derived by solving (11), i.e.,
cremental mutual inductances that are related with the cross-
   Vc + Vc cos (2θ + θ ) 
saturation effect. Normally, Ldqh = Lqdh ; however, in most iαh ω c Lp ω c Ln r m
practical applications, Ldqh = Lqdh is considered to simplify = · sin α
iβh Vc
the analysis [18], [22], and this is considered in this paper. ωc Ln sin (2θr + θm )
 
With the aid of transformation matrix T (θr ), i.e., Ip + In cos (2θr + θm )
  = · sin α (12)
cos (θr ) − sin (θr ) Ip sin (2θr + θm )
T (θr ) = (6)
sin (θr ) cos (θr )
where
the high-frequency voltage model of the interior PMSM in the Vc Vc
stationary reference frame can be derived as Ip = In = . (13)
ω c Lp ω c Ln
     
vαh Ldh Ldqh i
= T (θr ) T −1 (θr ) · p αh . (7) It is clearly shown that the carrier current response is
vβh Ldqh Lqh iβh amplitude-modulated by rotor position θr and cross-saturation
Solving this equation, the differential of the high-frequency angle θm . From the carrier current response, the rotor position
carrier current response in the stationary reference frame can be precisely retrieved by considering the cross-saturation
will be effect.
In order to demodulate the position-dependent amplitude
   1 1 1

from the carrier current response, the synchronous detection
iαh Lp + Ln cos(2θr +θm ) Ln sin(2θr +θm )
p = technique, which is also employed in the demodulation process
Lp − Ln cos(2θr +θm )
iβh 1 1 1
Ln sin(2θr +θm )
of the pulsating high-frequency carrier signal injection strat-
 
vαh egy [12], [23], is applied. Both sides of (12) are multiplied
× (8) by 2 sin α, and then by applying the signal to an LPF, the
vβh
amplitude of the carrier current response can be obtained with
where θm is the phase shift that is caused by the cross-saturation the noise suppression as
effect, and     
  |iαh | iαh
−Ldqh = LPF · 2 sin α
θm = tan−1 |iβh | iβh
(Lqh − Ldh )/2      ∗∗ 
Ip + In cos (2θr + θm ) Ip iαh
Ldh Lqh − L2dqh = = + ∗∗ . (14)
Lp = In sin (2θr + θm ) 0 iβh
(Lqh + Ldh )/2
With the aid of the encoder in providing the accurate rotor
Ldh Lqh − L2dqh
Ln =  . (9) position, the cross-saturation angle and the amplitude of the
((Lqh − Ldh )/2)2 + L2dqh carrier current response of the prototype machine, as described
in the Appendix, are demonstrated in Fig. 1. The amplitude
It can be seen that only the incremental self-inductances and loci of the carrier current response with and without full load
mutual inductances are in the high-frequency voltage model of are shown in Fig. 2, where the radius of the locus In has
the interior PMSM. Due to the magnetic saturation, Ldh , Lqh , a significant change due to the variation of the inductances
and Ldqh vary with different fundamental excitations. versus the fundamental excitation, whereas the change of the dc
offset Ip is much less since it is more robust to the inductance
variation.
B. New Proposed High-Frequency Injection Method If Ip and θm can be predetected and compensated, then
For the new proposed strategy, an α-axis pulsating carrier the following equation can be derived, from which the rotor
voltage signal, i.e., position can be easily retrieved by a proper position estimator:
     ∗   
vαh cos α iαh In cos (2θr )
= Vc , α = ωc t + ϕ (10) = . (15)
vβh 0 i∗βh In sin (2θr )
LIU AND ZHU: CONTROL STRATEGY WITH INJECTION OF PULSATING CARRIER SIGNAL INTO REFERENCE FRAME 2577

Fig. 3. Measured Ip versus different fundamental current levels.

Fig. 1. Amplitude of the carrier current response and the cross-saturation
angle compared with the actual rotor position.
Based on (9) and (13), Ip can be expressed as
Vc Vc · (Lqh + Ldh )/2
Ip = =
. (18)
ω c · Lp ωc · Ldh Lqh − L2dqh

As shown in (18) and Fig. 13, Ip is machine parameter

dependent and is proportional to the ratio of Vc /ωc , although
it can be eliminated by a lookup table that is designed based
on the premeasured inductances theoretically. The measured
Ip against different fundamental current levels in the sensored
mode is shown in Fig. 3, from which Ip could be treated as
constant at different q-axis currents for simplicity.
For general applications at zero and very low speed, id is
usually set as negative and is maintained constant. Hence, it
is possible to calculate Ip from the premeasured inductances
under that condition and then employ it for the starting from
Fig. 2. Amplitude loci of the carrier current response at a different load zero to very low speed. However, when the rotor speed is higher
condition.
than a certain value, e.g., 10 r/min in this paper, various id
If a β-axis pulsating carrier voltage signal, i.e., may be applied. Due to the variation of the self-inductances and
    the mutual inductances at different fundamental excitations, as
vαh 0 shown in Fig. 13, it is impractical to calculate every Ip at all
= Vc , α = ωc t + ϕ (16)
vβh cos α different current conditions. However, i∗∗ αh in (11) will appear
is injected into in the stationary reference frame, the resultant as an ac signal, where Ip is the constant dc offset. Therefore, if
carrier current will be the |iαh | signal goes through an LPF, the output should be Ip . To
    effectively filter the contained ac components, which are mini-
iαh In sin (2θr + θm ) mally at 1 Hz without phase lag, the cutoff frequency should be
= · sin α
iβh Ip − In cos (2θr + θm ) adjusted online with the feedback rotor speed, where the maxi-
   ∗∗  mum cutoff frequency is 20% of the ac component frequency.
0 iβh
= + · sin α. (17) Since the derived Ip by the LPF will remain the same with
Ip −i∗∗
αh fixed id , the value that is derived at the starting condition could
Similar to the α-axis injection, the carrier current response be derived, stored into the controller memory, and applied as Ip
is also amplitude-modulated by the rotor position informa- during the starting from zero to very low speed. The obtaining
tion, and the demodulation process will be the same. How- procedure is machine parameter free, which makes it superior
ever, Ip locates at the β-axis current, whereas the phase to the calculation from premeasured inductances.
sequence of i∗∗ ∗∗ After deriving Ip , i∗∗
αh can be derived by subtracting Ip from
αh and that of iβh are different. Hence, the Ip
compensation and rotor position estimation will be slightly |iαh | as
 ∗∗   
different. iαh In cos (2θr + θm )
= . (19)
i∗∗
βh In sin (2θr + θm )
C. Ip Predetection and Compensation
As shown in (19), the phase angle of i∗∗ αβh is modulated
As described earlier, with the α-axis pulsating injection, Ip by rotor position θr and cross-saturation angle θm . Hence, the
should be subtracted from |iαh | to get i∗∗αh in (14) and to get rotor position can be derived with the load-dependent position
(15) to track the rotor position information. estimation error −θm /2 due to the cross-saturation effect.
2578 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 50, NO. 4, JULY/AUGUST 2014

Fig. 4. Comparison of the cross-saturation angles measured in the sensored

operation, calculated from the parameters, and predicted based on iq .

D. Cross-Saturation Effect Compensation

In order to compensate for the estimated position error re-
sulting from the cross-saturation effect, either a proper machine
design [25] or a compensation control can be employed. Due to
its nonlinear behavior, the compensation methods considerably
depend on the machine parameters, which can be acquired from
finite-element calculation, offline self-commissioning [28], or
online parameter identification. A relatively straightforward
method is used in [26] and [27], whereas a more adaptive Fig. 5. Position estimator. (a) Block diagram of the TP-PLL. (b) Bode chart
compensation method that is based on parameter identification of the TP-PLL.
is developed in [22], and a neural network structure is used for is considered. Then, according to the diagram, the closed-
the cross-saturation compensation in [29]. loop transfer function between the actual and estimated rotor
In this paper, the compensation of the cross-saturation effect positions can be expressed as
follows the straightforward method in [26] and [27]. The angu-
lar error in the estimated rotor position can be compensated by θre 2In kp · s + 2In ki
= 2 . (20)
employing (9) and the pretested data, as shown in Fig. 13, or by θr s + 2In kp · s + 2In ki
using the experimental results in the sensored mode, which are
However, since the small signal assumption is considered,
shown in Fig. 4. From both the calculated and measured results,
once the operating point changes rapidly, the risk of divergence
it can be seen that the error in the estimated rotor position
might occur. This risk of divergence also exists in the con-
is approximately proportional to the q-axis current, i.e., θm ≈
ventional pulsating and rotating injection methods since they
Kr iq . Thus, for simplicity, the error can be simply compensated
both have the same assumption, and it can be minimized by the
for according to the q-axis current by applying compensation
optimization of the PI controller in the position estimator.
factor Kr . This significantly simplifies the implementation of
Based on (9), (13), and Fig. 2, it is shown that In is load
an error compensation scheme. The predicted θm based on iq
dependent. Hence, the kp and ki of the PI controller should be
is also shown in Fig. 4. After that, it can be directly used to
adjusted online with In to maintain the constant bandwidth.
compensate for the estimated position error online.
For simplicity in practical implementation, kp and ki could
After the compensation of the cross-saturation effect, (15)
be selected based on the typical value of In at the no-load
can be derived, and the rotor position could be retrieved by
condition. For the prototype system, the typical value of In is
applying the position estimator.
130 mA, and the parameters of the TP-PLL are kp = 500 and
ki = 1000. The Bode plot of the position estimator is shown in
E. Position Estimator Fig. 5(b), from which the loop bandwidth is around 20.8 Hz.
To obtain the rotor position from (15), a two-phase-type
IV. M AGNETIC P OLARITY D ETECTION
phase-locked loop (TP-PLL) is employed. The TP-PLL was
first proposed in [30] and has been widely implemented in Since the machine saliency periodically varies as a second
accurate position interpolation for servo controllers and modern spatial harmonic, the estimated position information that is
resolver-to-digital conversion. The theoretical principle can be based on the machine saliency is the rotor direction without the
simply described in Fig. 5(a), and it has the similar structure of magnetic polarity information, which has an angle ambiguity
the simplified extended Kalman filter. of 180◦ .
When signal In sin 2(θr − θre ), as shown in Fig. 5(a), is small If the estimated rotor direction, which should align at the
enough, the assumption that In sin 2(θr − θre ) ≈ 2In (θr − θre ) north magnetic pole position, is aligned at the south magnetic
LIU AND ZHU: CONTROL STRATEGY WITH INJECTION OF PULSATING CARRIER SIGNAL INTO REFERENCE FRAME
Fig. 6. Incremental self-inductances at different fundamental excitations.
pole position and is regarded as the rotor position, the sign
of the output torque will be changed, and the system will be
unstable. Therefore, it is important to identify the magnetic
polarity before the drive is put into operation. The initial rotor
direction can be estimated from the carrier current response
and can be used to calculate the initial rotor position. Once the
polarity information before the start-up is obtained, it can be
latched.
Generally, the polarity could be detected from the saturation
effect of the air-gap flux. Short-pulses injection [31], [32],
secondary-harmonics-based [33], and response high-frequency
current against different fundamental current [34] methods have
been proposed.
In the new proposed carrier signal injection method, the
phase angle of i∗∗
αβh in (15) is used to extract the rotor direction
information, whereas Ip has not been used in the control
algorithm and should be eliminated. However, in this section,
it is proven to be very useful in the magnetic polarity detection.
Based on (9) and (13), and considering that the mutual
inductance is very small, i.e., L2dqh  Ldh Lqh , (15) could be
simplified as
|iαh | = Ip + i∗∗
αh = Ip + In cos (2θr + θm )
 
Vc Vc Vc Vc
= + + −
2ωc Ldh 2ωc Lqh 2ωc Lqh 2ωc Ldh
× cos (2θr + θm ). (21)
For a given injected carrier voltage signal Vc /ωc , (21) indi-
cates that the α-axis amplitude of the carrier current response
is determined by Ldh and Lqh . Due to the magnetic satura-
tion, Ldh is significantly dependent on the d-axis fundamental
current; in the meantime, Lqh has the same trend but has less
significance, as shown in Fig. 6, for the prototype machine.
Consequently, it is possible to identify the magnetic polarity
from the variation of |iαh | against the d-axis fundamental
current, which is similar as in [34].
With the aid of the accurate rotor position information from
the encoder, the |iαh | current can be measured at different fun-
damental excitations, as shown in Fig. 7. From the experimental
results, it can be concluded that the magnetic polarity can be
reliably detected based on the comparison of |iαh | at different
d-axis fundamental current levels.
2579
Fig. 7. |iαh | at different fundamental excitations.
The procedure is described in detail as follows.
1) Before the drive is initially started, the rotor direction
information can be obtained from the proposed sensor-
less strategy without fundamental excitation (idf = iqf =
0 A); meanwhile, the value of |iαh | at this condition is
recorded. The estimated rotor direction either indicates
the correct one or is shifted by 180◦ .
2) Referring to the estimated rotor direction, a given d-axis
fundamental current reference is applied to the machine.
The fundamental current reference of (idf = 0.5 A, iqf =
0 A) is selected for the prototype machine. At the same
time, the value of |iαh | at this load condition is also stored
into the processor memory.
3) After that, the fundamental current reference is set back
to (idf = iqf = 0 A).
Finally, the values of |iαh | at a different load condition are
compared. The increase in amplitude indicates that the esti-
mated rotor direction is at the correct rotor direction; otherwise,
a phase shift of 180◦ should be added.
V. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS
Several experiments have been performed to validate the
new proposed strategy with the injection of high-frequency
pulsating carrier signal into the stationary reference frame. The
overall control scheme, including the new proposed strategy, is
shown in Fig. 8, which has been implemented on a dSPACE
platform with a 600-W interior PMSM. The specification and
measured parameters of the self-inductances and the mutual
inductances are shown in the Appendix. A 3-kW brushed dc
motor is used to provide the load torque. The testing rig is
equipped with an incremental encoder that can provide the
actual rotor position to the control system. The switching
frequency is 10 kHz, which is the same as the current sampling
frequency. Due to the output limitation of the dc power supply,
the dc bus voltage is selected to be 70 V, and the magnitude
of the injected carrier voltage is set as 12 V. In general, the fre-
quency of the carrier signal is typically between 250 and 850 Hz
since the operating speed is only within the low-speed range
and the zero-speed range [9], [10], [16]. In this paper, the max-
imum speed for the sensorless control that is based on the high-
frequency carrier signal injection is limited within 50 r/min,
which is equivalent to 2.5 Hz of the fundamental current.
2580 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 50, NO. 4, JULY/AUGUST 2014

Fig. 8. Block diagram of the overall control system.

Fig. 9. Related signals of the proposed high-frequency sensorless injection

method.

Hence, the carrier frequency is selected as 330 Hz, which is

sufficiently larger than 2.5 Hz.
Applying the new proposed high-frequency carrier signal
injection strategy, the amplitudes of the carrier current response
before and after Ip elimination, i.e., θm , and the estimated
rotor position before the θm compensation compared with the
actual value from the encoder are shown in Fig. 9. It is shown
that, without the cross-saturation effect compensation, there
is a significant error between the estimated and actual rotor
positions.
Based on the predicted θm that is based on iq , as shown
in Fig. 4, the estimated rotor positions before and after the
compensation under a steady state with about a q-axis current
of 1 A are shown in Fig. 10(a) and (b). This shows the dynamic Fig. 10. Compensation of the cross-saturation effect. (a) Steady-state perfor-
performance when the rotor speed step changes from −50 to 50 mance. (b) Dynamic performance.
and then back to −50 r/min. It can be found that the estimated
rotor positions have significant errors before the compensation,
whereas after the compensation, they can match the actual rotor The dynamic performance test is carried out when the rotor
position well, and the errors are close to zero. mechanical initial speed is zero and the step changes to 25
The experimental results shown in Fig. 11 validate the ef- and then to 50 r/min; the estimated and actual rotor positions
fectiveness of the magnetic polarity detection. Based on the and the estimation error are shown in Fig. 12(a). The dynamic
magnetic saturation effect of the d-axis fundamental current, performance under the step-load condition, where the q-axis
the magnitude of the α-axis carrier current response, i.e., |iαh | current step changes from 0.5 A to full load, which is at 4 A,
in (21), will change, as shown in Fig. 11(a) and (b). Comparing and then back to 0.5 A at 50 r/min, is shown in Fig. 12(b).
|iαh | before and after applying the fundamental d-axis current, From the experimental results, it can be concluded that the
the increase in |iαh | suggests that the estimated rotor position is new proposed stationary pulsating signal injection strategy has
correct, as shown in Fig. 11(a); otherwise, a phase shift of 180◦ a good dynamic performance against different speed and load
should be added, as shown in Fig. 11(b). conditions.
LIU AND ZHU: CONTROL STRATEGY WITH INJECTION OF PULSATING CARRIER SIGNAL INTO REFERENCE FRAME 2581

Fig. 11. Detection of the magnetic polarity. (a) Rotor direction without
ambiguity. (b) Rotor direction with an ambiguity of 180◦ . Fig. 12. Dynamic-state performance. (a) Dynamic performance under step
speed. (b) Dynamic performance under step load.

VI. C ONCLUSION TABLE I

S PECIFICATION AND PARAMETERS OF THE T ESTING M ACHINE
This paper has proposed a novel sensorless control strategy
with the injection of high-frequency carrier pulsating signal
into the stationary reference frame to provide an alternative
solution for high-frequency carrier signal injection. Differing
from the conventional pulsating and rotating high-frequency
injection methods, the new strategy injects a pulsating high-
frequency carrier voltage into the α-axis (or the β-axis) of the
stationary reference frame, which is as stable as the rotating
carrier signal injection method, and it estimates the rotor posi-
tion information from the amplitude-modulated carrier current
response, which is as simple as the pulsating carrier signal
injection method. However, to eliminate Ip and the cross-
saturation effect, which are parameter dependent, a lookup
table and an LPF are employed, which will increase the com-
plexity of the control strategy optimization and deteriorate
A PPENDIX
the dynamic performance, the robustness, and the parameter
independence. This is the disadvantage of the proposed method The specification and parameters of the testing interior
compared with the conventional pulsating and rotating carrier PMSM is listed in Table I [24]. The incremental self-
signal injection methods. Nevertheless, by applying proper inductances and mutual inductances that are shown in Fig. 13
detection and compensation procedures, the proposed strategy are measured by injecting the high-frequency signal into the
can achieve robust magnetic polarity detection and accurate d-axis and the q-axis, respectively [24]. The high-frequency
rotor position estimation with good steady-state performance signal vc = Vc cos (ωc t) is injected into the d-axis to obtain
and dynamic performance, which have been validated by the the relevant d-axis and q-axis high-frequency currents, i.e.,
experiments. idh1 and iqh1 , respectively, and is then applied to the q-axis to
2582 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 50, NO. 4, JULY/AUGUST 2014

self-inductances and mutual inductances of the d-axis and the

q-axis are obtained by solving (A2) as

    −1
Ldh Ldqh 1 Vc 0 Idh1 Idh2
= . (A3)
Lqdh Lqh ωc 0 Vc Iqh1 Iqh2

R EFERENCES
[1] J. X. Shen, Z. Q. Zhu, and D. Howe, “Improved speed estimation in
sensorless PM brushless AC drives,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 38,
no. 4, pp. 1072–1080, Jul./Aug. 2002.
[2] S. Morimoto, M. Sanada, and Y. Takeda, “Inverter-driven synchronous
motors for constant power,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 2, no. 6, pp. 18–
24, Nov./Dec. 1996.
[3] J. X. Shen and S. Iwasaki, “Sensorless control of ultrahigh-speed PM
brushless motor using PLL and third harmonic back EMF,” IEEE Trans.
Ind. Electron., vol. 53, no. 2, pp. 421–428, Apr. 2006.
[4] G. Foo and M. F. Rahman, “Sensorless sliding-mode MTPA control of
an IPM synchronous motor drive using a sliding-mode observer and HF
signal injection,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 57, no. 4, pp. 1270–
1278, Apr. 2010.
[5] S. Chi, Z. Zhang, and L. Xu, “Sliding-mode sensorless control of direct-
drive PM synchronous motors for washing machine applications,” IEEE
Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 582–590, Mar./Apr. 2009.
[6] E. Fuentes and R. Kennel, “Sensorless-predictive torque control of the
PMSM using a reduced order extended Kalman filter,” in Proc. Symp.
Sensorless Control Electr. Drives, 2011, pp. 123–128.
[7] J. D. Rivera, A. Navarrete, M. Meza, A. Loukianov, and J. Canedo, “Dig-
ital sliding-mode sensorless control for surface-mounted PMSM,” IEEE
Trans. Ind. Informat., vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 137–151, Feb. 2014.
[8] A. Piippo, M. Hinkkanen, and J. Luomi, “Analysis of an adaptive observer
for sensorless control of interior permanent magnet synchronous motors,”
IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 55, no. 2, pp. 570–576, Feb. 2008.
[9] P. L. Jansen and R. D. Lorenz, “Transducer less position and velocity
estimation in induction and salient AC machines,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl.,
vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 240–247, Mar./Apr. 1995.
[10] M. W. Degner and R. D. Lorenz, “Using multiple saliencies for the esti-
mation of flux, position, and velocity in AC machines,” IEEE Trans. Ind.
Appl., vol. 34, no. 5, pp. 1097–1104, Sep./Oct. 1998.
[11] D. Raca, M. C. Harke, and R. D. Lorenz, “Robust magnet polarity
estimation for initialization of PM synchronous machines with near-
zero saliency,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 44, no. 4, pp. 1199–1209,
Jul./Aug. 2008.
[12] D. Raca, P. Garcia, D. D. Reigosa, F. Briz, and R. D. Lorenz, “Carrier-
signal selection for sensorless control of PM synchronous machines at
zero and very low speeds,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 167–
178, Jan./Feb. 2010.
[13] P. Garcia, F. Briz, M. W. Degner, and D. Diaz-Reigosa, “Accuracy, band-
width, and stability limits of carrier-signal- injection- based sensorless
control methods,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 990–1000,
Jul./Aug. 2007.
Fig. 13. Measured incremental inductances. (a) d-Axis self-inductances. [14] M. J. Corley and R. D. Lorenz, “Rotor position and velocity estimation
(b) q-Axis self-inductances. (c) d-Axis and q-axis mutual inductances. for a salient-pole permanent magnet synchronous machine at standstill
and high speed,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 784–789,
Jul./Aug. 1998.
record idh2 and iqh2 . These voltages and currents are applied to [15] J. I. Ha and S. K. Sul, “Physical understanding of high frequency injection
(1), then method to sensorless drives of an induction machine,” in Conf. Rec. IEEE
      IAS Annu. Meeting, 2000, vol. 3, pp. 1802–1808.
vc 0 Ldh Ldqh idh1 idh2 [16] J. H. Jang, S. K. Sul, J. I. Ha, K. Ide, and M. Sawamura, “Sensorless drive
= ·p . (A1) of surface-mounted permanent-magnet motor by high-frequency signal
0 vc Lqdh Lqh iqh1 iqh2 injection based on magnetic saliency,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 39,
no. 4, pp. 1031–1039, Jul./Aug. 2003.
Both sides of (A1) are multiplied by 2 cos (ωc t) and applied [17] M. Linke, R. Kennel, and J. Holtz, “Sensorless position control of perma-
to an LPF to give nent magnet synchronous machines without limitation at zero speed,” in
Proc. 28th Annu. IEEE IECON, 2002, vol. 1, pp. 674–679.
      [18] Y. Li, Z. Q. Zhu, D. Howe, C. M. Bingham, and D. Stone, “Improved rotor
Vc 0 Ldh Ldqh Idh1 Idh2 position estimation by signal injection in brushless AC motors, accounting
= ωc · (A2)
0 Vc Lqdh Lqh Iqh1 Iqh2 for cross-coupling magnetic saturation,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 45,
no. 5, pp. 1843–1849, Sep./Oct. 2009.
[19] Y. D. Yoon, S. K. Sul, S. Morimoto, and K. Ide, “High bandwidth sen-
where Idh1 , Iqh1 , Idh2 , and Iqh2 are the amplitudes of the sorless algorithm for AC machines based on square-wave type voltage
corresponding high-frequency currents. Then, the incremental injection,” in Conf. Rec. IEEE ECCE, Sep. 20–24, 2009, pp. 2123–2130.
LIU AND ZHU: CONTROL STRATEGY WITH INJECTION OF PULSATING CARRIER SIGNAL INTO REFERENCE FRAME
[20] W. Hammel and R. M. Kennel, “Position sensorless control of PMSM by
synchronous injection and demodulation of alternating carrier voltage,” in
Proc. Symp. Sensorless Control Electr. Drives, 2010, pp. 56–63.
[21] D. Paulus, P. Landsmann, and R. Kennel, “Sensorless field-oriented con-
trol for permanent magnet synchronous machines with an arbitrary injec-
tion scheme and direct angle calculation,” in Proc. Symp. SLED, 2011,
pp. 41–46.
[22] D. Reigosa, P. Garcia, D. Raca, F. Briz, and R. D. Lorenz, “Measurement
and adaptive decoupling of cross-saturation effects and secondary salien-
cies in sensorless-controlled IPM synchronous machines,” IEEE Trans.
Ind. Appl., vol. 44, no. 6, pp. 1758–1767, Nov./Dec. 2008.
[23] A. Madani, J. P. Barbot, F. Colamartino, and C. Marchand, “Reduction of
torque pulsations by inductance harmonics identification of a permanent-
magnet synchronous machine,” in Proc. 4th IEEE Conf. Control Appl.,
1995, pp. 787–792.
[24] Y. Li, “Sensorless control of permanent magnet brushless AC motors
accounting for cross-coupling magnetic saturation,” Ph.D. dissertation,
Dept. Electron. Electr. Eng., Univ. Sheffield, Sheffield, U.K., 2009.
[25] N. Bianchi and S. Bolognami, “Influence of rotor geometry of an IPM
motor on sensorless control feasibility,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 43,
no. 1, pp. 87–96, Jan./Feb. 2007.
[26] Z. Q. Zhu, Y. Li, D. Howe, and C. M. Bingham, “Compensation for rotor
position estimation error due to cross-coupling magnetic saturation in
signal injection based sensorless control of PM brushless AC motors,”
in Proc. IEEE IEMDC, 2007, vol. 1, pp. 208–213.
[27] H. W. De Kock, M. J. Kamper, and R. M. Kennel, “Anisotropy compar-
ison of reluctance and PM synchronous machines for position sensorless
control using HF carrier injection,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 24,
no. 8, pp. 1905–1913, Aug. 2009.
[28] N. Teske, G. M. Asher, M. Sumner, and K. J. Bradley, “Suppression of
saturation saliency effects for the sensorless position control of induc-
tion motor drives under loaded conditions,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron.,
vol. 47, pp. 1142–1150, Oct. 2000.
[29] P. Garcia, F. Briz, D. Raca, and R. D. Lorenz, “Saliency-tracking-base
sensorless control of AC machines using structured neural networks,”
IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 43, no. 1, pp. 77–86, Sep./Oct. 2007.
[30] T. Emura, L. Wang, M. Yamanaka, and H. Nakamura, “A high precision
positioning servo controller based on phase/frequency detecting technique
of two-phase-type PLL,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 47, no. 6, pp. 1298–
1306, Nov./Dec. 2000.
[31] T. Aihara, A. Toba, T. Yanase, A. Mashimo, and K. Endo, “Sensorless
torque control of salient-pole synchronous motor at zero-speed opera-
tion,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 202–208, Jan. 1999.
[32] J. Holtz, “Acquisition of position error and magnet polarity for sensorless
control of PM synchronous machines,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 44,
no. 4, pp. 1172–1180, Jul./Aug. 2008.
2583
[33] Y. S. Jeong, R. D. Lorenz, T. M. Jahns, and S. K. Sul, “Initial rotor position
estimation of an interior permanent-magnet synchronous machine using
carrier-frequency injection methods,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 41,
no. 1, pp. 38–45, Jan./Feb. 2005.
[34] L. Gong and Z. Q. Zhu, “Robust initial rotor position estimation of per-
manent magnet brushless AC machines with carrier signal injection-based
sensorless control,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 49, no. 6, pp. 2602–2609,
Nov./Dec. 2013.
J. M. Liu (S’13) received the B.Sc. degree from
Tianjin University, Tianjin, China, in 2007, the M.Sc.
degree from Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China,
in 2010, and the Ph.D. degree from The University
of Sheffield, Sheffield, U.K., in 2013.
In 2010, he was an Electrical Engineer with Delta
Electronic (Shanghai) Company Ltd. He is currently
with Siemens Wind Power plc, Keele, U.K. His
research interests include the control of permanent-
magnet wind power generators.
Z. Q. Zhu (M’90–SM’00–F’09) received the
B.Eng. and M.Sc. degrees from Zhejiang Univer-
sity, Hangzhou, China, in 1982 and 1984, respec-
tively, and the Ph.D. degree from The University of
Sheffield, Sheffield, U.K., in 1991, all in electrical
and electronic engineering.
From 1984 to 1988, he was a Lecturer with
the Department of Electrical Engineering, College
of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering,
Zhejiang University. Since 1988, he has been with
The University of Sheffield, where he was initially a
Research Associate and was subsequently appointed to an established post as
a Senior Research Officer/Senior Research Scientist. Since 2000, he has been
a Professor of electrical machines and control systems with the Department
of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University
of Sheffield, where he is currently the Head of the Electrical Machines and
Drives Research Group. His research interests include the design and control
of permanent-magnet brushless machines and drives for applications ranging
from automotive to renewable energy.