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Analyses and compensation of rotor position detection error in sensorless PM

brushless DC motor drives

Article in IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion · April 2003

DOI: 10.1109/TEC.2002.808339 · Source: IEEE Xplore

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 18, NO. 1, MARCH 2003 87

Analyses and Compensation of Rotor Position

Detection Error in Sensorless PM
Brushless DC Motor Drives
J. X. Shen, Senior Member, IEEE, and K. J. Tseng, Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract—In a permanent-magnet (PM) brushless dc motor,

the waveform of back electromotive force (emf) is related to
the rotor position; hence, the back emf can be used for position
sensorless control. However, in practical implementation, the
terminal voltage or phase voltage is used instead, as the back emf
is difficult to be sensed directly. Thus, detection error of the rotor
position can occur. This paper documents the calculations and
analyses on the detection error and the motor commutation angle,
and presents an error compensation circuit to ensure proper
commutation. Finite-element field simulation and experimental
results are also given to verify the calculations as well as the
compensation circuit.
Index Terms—Back emf, brushless machines, commutation,
error analysis, error compensation, permanent-magnet motors,
position detection, sensorless control.
I. INTRODUCTION
I N ORDER TO overcome the disadvantages of position or
speed sensors, various sensorless control methodologies
have been developed for permanent-magnet (PM) machines
[1]. For example, methods of detecting the back electromo-
tive-force (emf) zero-crossings [2]–[4] and free-wheel diode
conduction status [5] are suitable for brushless dc (BLDC)
motor drives, while the rotor saliency detection [6] and third
harmonic back emf sensing [7], [8] can be applied to BLDC
drives and PM synchronous motor (PMSM) drives. Some
other methods, such as the excitation-flux observer [9] and the
model-oriented adaptive control [10], are actually suitable for
PMSMs only, although in some publications, such sensorless
PMSMs are also called BLDCs.
In a BLDC motor, the back emf induced by the rotary PM ex-
citation field is approximately trapezoidal, as shown in Fig. 1.
The transient value of each phase back emf is relevant to the
rotor position. For example, at moment , the back emf of
phase- ( ) is at zero-crossing, and the -axis of the rotor aligns
with the -axis of the phase- winding. Therefore, the rotor
must be at a known position if any back emf zero-crossing is
detected, and no position sensor is necessary. However, in prac-
tical BLDC drive systems, it is difficult to sense the back emfs
Manuscript received March 6, 2002; revised July 13, 2002.
J. X. Shen is with the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engi-
neering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 3JD, United Kingdom (e-mail:
j.x.shen@ieee.org).
K. J. Tseng is with the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering,
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, Republic of Singapore
(e-mail: ekjtseng@ntu.edu.sg).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TEC.2002.808339
0885-8969/03$17.00 © 2003 IEEE
Fig. 1. Trapezoidal back emfs of BLDC motor.
Fig. 2. Main circuit of BLDC motor drive: inverter and windings.
directly. Instead, the back emf zero-crossings can be detected
from the free-wheel diode conduction status [5], but inherent
detection error exists due to the conducting voltage drop of the
free-wheel diodes and inverter switches. Also, as the zero-cross-
ings of phase back emfs occur at the same time as those of the
third harmonic back emf, they can be obtained from the third
harmonic sensing [7], [8]. Nevertheless, the required hardware
is complicated, and the method is suitable for nonsalient rotor
structure only. In contrast, the simplest and most widely ap-
plied method for the sensorless BLDCs is to detect the back
emf zero-crossings from the phase voltages or terminal voltages
[2]–[4], hereafter called phase voltage method (PVM) and ter-
minal voltage method (TVM), respectively.
The BLDC motor is usually supplied with a six-step 120
inverter, the main circuit being shown in Fig. 2. At any time,
there must exist one phase winding which is not energized if the
free-wheel diode conduction is not taken into account. For ex-
ample, during the time interval from to , phase- is not en-
ergized, and its phase voltage is the same as its back emf
if the effect of armature reaction upon the air-gap magnetic field
is assumed to be negligible. Then, it can be derived that at mo-
ment the phase voltage is equal to zero and the terminal
voltage is equal to half of the dc supply voltage ( ).
Therefore, the particular rotor position at moment can be ob-
tained by detecting the zero-crossing of or ( ).
Both PVM and TVM have been studied for many years. How-
ever, the tenability of the above-mentioned assumption about
the armature reaction has never been discussed in published lit-
erature. In actual fact, the armature reaction in some BLDC mo-
tors (such as copper motors) is so strong that it can distort the
88 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 18, NO. 1, MARCH 2003

air-gap field remarkably. In other words, the above-mentioned
assumption is untenable. Therefore, both PVM and TVM may
cause error to the detected rotor position. Obviously, the error
will cause a nonzero commutation angle of the BLDC motor
drive. Hereby, the rotor position detection error and the com-
mutation angle are expressed as and , respectively. Calcu-
lations and analyses on and will be presented in this paper.
On the other hand, in the phase voltages or terminal voltages,
there exist harmonics which can cause pseudo zero-crossings
in the PVM or TVM. Therefore, the phase voltage or terminal
voltage signals should be filtered, for example, by low pass fil-
ters [2]–[4]. The phase-shift of the filters varies with the in-
verter frequency, and consequently causes an additional portion
of commutation angle for the BLDC drive, which is hereby ex-
pressed as . Thus, the total commutation angle is
In most cases, (i.e., the current being in phase with
the back emf) is desired, hence, the BLDC drive is commutated
normally and the maximum electromagnetic torque per ampere
is achieved. However, in some cases, (i.e., advanced com-
mutation with electric degrees) is preferred for 1) compen-
sation of current phase delay due to the inductance influence,
2) utilization of reluctance torque, or 3) field-weakening con-
trol [11]. (i.e., retarded commutation) is hardly applied
in the practical BLDC drive systems. However, in any case, it is
necessary to determine accurately. Thus, an error compensa-
tion circuit will also be presented.
excitation field and the reaction emf due to the armature reac-
tion field. Similarly, the motor air-gap field mainly consists of
the excitation field and is distorted by the reaction field. The
armature reaction might change the saturation of the iron core
and, consequently, vary the winding inductance, but such varia-
tion is usually negligible. However, if interior permanent mag-
nets (IPMs) are employed on the rotor, the winding inductance
varies significantly with the rotor position. Then, the winding
inductance can be approximately expressed as
(2)
.
Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, during the time interval from
to , phase- is not energized, phase- is grounded, while
phase- is connected to the positive of the dc supply. Therefore,
the following relationships exist:
(3)
where is the dc link current.
From (1), (2), and (3), the following equations are derived:

II. CALCULATIONS OF ROTOR POSITION DETECTION ERROR

The calculations of the detection error of rotor position are
documented hereafter, with situation of phase- considered as a
default example. When is at zero-crossing, it is known that (4)
the angle between -axis and -axis, expressed as , is equal to where is the rotor speed in elec-rad/s.
zero. However, when or ( ) is at zero-crossing, At moment , and . However, around the rotor
the value of should be examined. If it is not equal to zero, its position of , there are
value would be just the detection error of the rotor position in
the PVM or TVM.
On the - - reference frame, the voltage equation of a BLDC (5)
motor is

(1) where is the back emf coefficient, and is the flat-top width
of the trapezoidal back emf.
where Since the zero-crossing of or ( ) occurs either
phase voltage vector ; around or at the rotor position of , by substituting (5) into
phase current vector ; (4), then expanding (4) with Taylor’s series and ignoring the
back emf vector ; high-order terms of the series expansion, the following equa-
tions are obtained:
inductance matrix ;
(6)
resistance of each phase winding, and .
Since there exists no winding on the rotor and the eddy cur- It can be seen from (6) that the zero-crossing of or (
rent inside the rotor is negligible, the rotor’s influence upon the ) might not occur at the rotor position of if is not
voltage equation is reflected in the back emfs as well as in the equal to zero. Hereby, stands for the saliency of the rotor.
variation of winding inductance due to the rotor saliency. On the Therefore, there might exist detection error of the rotor position
other hand, the influence of the stator armature reaction upon in both PVM and TVM.
the voltage equation is described with the phase currents and The error in PVM is
winding inductance. On the right side of (1), it is illustrated that
the total emf consists of the back emf corresponding to the PM (7)
SHEN AND TSENG: COMPENSATION OF ROTOR POSITION DETECTION ERROR IN SENSORLESS DC MOTOR DRIVES
Fig. 3. Influence of upon rotor position detection error.
Fig. 4. Motor model while phase-a is not energized.
while the error in TVM is
(8)
The rotor position error causes a same-valued commutation
angle for the BLDC motor drive, that is
(9)
A factor of 57.3 is applied in (9), as is in elec-rad while is
in elec-degree.
The basic cause of the rotor position detection error in PVM
or TVM is that the phase voltage of the nonenergized phase is
actually the same as the total emf, but it has been assumed to be
the back emf only. From (7) and (8), it can be seen that the rotor
position detection error is influenced by the motor parameters
and the load current, although the back emf zero-crossings are
not influenced by these. This can be explained below.
1) The real purpose of either PVM or TVM is to compare
the back emf with a zero potential level. However, the
armature reaction causes an error potential because of the
reaction emf, as shown in Fig. 3. Therefore, the smaller
is, the larger the error is.
2) The smaller is, the relatively greater the reaction emf
appears, and therefore, the larger the error is.
3) As an example, the motor model during the time interval
from to is shown in Fig. 4. The combined MMF
produced by the three-phase armature currents is orthog-
onal to the -axis. If the winding inductance is constant,
the armature reaction field is also orthogonal to the -axis,
while its magnitude might vary. As a result, no reac-
tion emf is induced inside the phase- winding. In other
words, the total emf is equal to the back emf, thus, the
zero-crossing of the total emf occurs at the same time as
that of the back emf. Consequently, no rotor position de-
tection error exists in the PVM or TVM. However, if the
89
winding inductance varies with the rotor position, the re-
action field not only has its amplitude varying, but also
cuts the conductors of phase- winding. Therefore, a re-
action emf is induced inside the winding. At the position
of , the phase- back emf is at zero-crossing, but
the reaction emf and the total emf are not equal to zero.
In contrast, when the total emf is at zero-crossing, neither
the back emf nor the reaction emf is equal to zero; in other
words, the rotor has drifted away from the particular posi-
tion of . Consequently, the rotor position detection
error exists in either PVM or TVM.
4) During the time interval from to , no current flows
inside phase- winding. Only the currents of phase- and
phase- produce flux linkage in phase- winding via the
mutual inductance. Therefore, the error is relevant to mu-
tual inductance only, but not to the self-inductance.
5) While the saturation of the iron core is neglected, the in-
fluence of armature reaction is in direct proportion to the
current , thus, the rotor position detection error is also
directly proportional to .
By the way, from the analyses and Fig. 3, it can be seen that
the rotor position detection error is sensitive to the slope around
the zero-crossing in the back emf waveform. Clearly, if the back
emf is trapezoidal, the slope can be expressed with the param-
eters and . However, if the back emf is sinusoidal (e.g.,
), it should be approximated to an equivalent
trapezoidal waveform, with the same slope around the zero-
crossing and average emf amplitude among the top 120 range.
Therefore, parameters of the equivalent trapezoidal waveform
can be derived as and elec-rad.
Moreover, if the back emf is nonstandard, approximation should
be made according to the particular waveform, but inaccuracy
of the calculation may arise.
III. FEM SIMULATION OF ROTOR POSITION DETECTION ERROR
From the calculations and analyses, it is seen that the rotor
position detection error has the same positive/negative sign as
, while is mainly determined by the rotor structure. For
further verification, three types of BLDC motors with different
were designed, and then simulated with an FEM software
(Maxwell® 2D Simulator). The software does not output the
waveform of emf directly. However, under different load con-
ditions, the waveform of the flux linkage inside the armature
winding versus the rotor position can be obtained with the soft-
ware. Obviously, when the flux linkage is at the peak value, the
total emf in the winding must be at zero-crossing. Therefore,
the phase shift of the peak flux linkage, which can be concluded
from the FEM simulation results, is equal to the rotor position
detection error in the PVM.
The three BLDC motors have same overall dimensions and
ratings (see Appendix ). They were originally designed for the
application of electric bicycles (EBs), which is the most afford-
able type of electric vehicle (EV) and has attracted much atten-
tion from both research institutes and industries. The stator of
the three motors is identical, with nonoverlapping concentrated
coil around each tooth. However, the rotor configuration is dif-
ferent so as to achieve some particular features, which will be
90 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 18, NO. 1, MARCH 2003

described individually later. Moreover, due to the different rotor

configuration, is 0, 0 and 0, respectively.
The first design possesses eight IPMs on the rotor, thus
. The motor cross-sectional view with the flux distribution ob-
tained from the FEM simulation is shown in Fig. 5(a). Such rotor
configuration provides good field-weakening control capability,
hence, it is suitable for the application of EBs. However, the
flux leakage between the adjacent magnets is remarkable, there-
fore, the utilization efficiency of the PMs is low, causing rel-
atively high cost. Moreover, the simulated waveforms of the
flux linkage in a phase- coil under different load conditions
are shown in Fig. 5(b)—(d), respectively. It can be seen that the
peak flux linkage drifts forward when the motor load increases.
During the time interval when phase- is not energized, de-
tails of the flux linkage in the phase- coil versus rotor position
are compared in Fig. 5(e). It is seen that the peak flux linkage
occurs at the rotor position of under no load, at
elec-degrees under the half load, and at elec-degrees
under the rated load. Therefore, the detection error of rotor po-
sition ( ) in the PVM would be 0, 4 and 8 elec-degrees in
cases of no load, half load, and rated load, respectively.
The second design has eight surface-mounted PMs (SPMs)
on the rotor, hence, . The motor cross-sectional view
with the flux distribution is shown in Fig. 6(a). Such rotor
structure is often applied for BLDC motors, because the back
emf is often close to the trapezoidal waveform. Moreover,
the rotor iron is cylindrical, thus, solid steel instead of lami-
nation stack can be employed, and the manufacturing is very
simple. Therefore, this rotor structure is beneficial for cutting
the manufacturing cost, which is critical in the EB motors.
However, the field-weakening control capability of this motor
is limited, and the flux leakage between the adjacent magnets
also exists, causing relatively inefficient utilization of the
magnets. The waveforms of the flux linkage in the phase- coil
under different load conditions are shown in Fig. 6(b)—(d),
respectively. As evidenced in Fig. 6(e), the peak flux linkage
in the nonenergized phase- coil always occurs at the rotor
position of under different loads. Therefore, the detection
error of rotor position ( ) in the PVM is 0.
The third design has a special rotor configuration with eight
SPMs, as shown in Fig. 7(a), such that . A particular
benefit provided by this rotor configuration is that the flux
leakage between the adjacent magnets is minimal, thus, the
magnet utilization is efficient and the magnet volume may
be reduced. However, the field-weakening control capability
of this motor is also limited. The waveforms of the phase-
flux linkage under different loads are shown in Fig. 7(b)—(d),
respectively, and compared in Fig. 7(e). It is seen that the peak
flux linkage gets more retarded when the load current increases,
occurring at under no load, elec-degrees under
half load, and elec-degrees under rated load. Therefore,
the rotor position detection error ( ) in the PVM is 0, 3.5, and
7 elec-degrees, respectively.
The three above-mentioned rotor configurations have their
unique features, and all can be used for practical applications. Fig. 5. FEM simulation results of BLDC motor with M < 0. (a) Cross-
sectional view with flux distribution. (b) Flux versus rotor position with no load.
However, the FEM simulation results prove again that two of (c) Flux versus rotor position with half load. (d) Flux versus rotor position with
these configurations bring inherent rotor position detection error a
rated load. (e) Fluxes in nonenergized phase- coil with indication of peaks.
SHEN AND TSENG: COMPENSATION OF ROTOR POSITION DETECTION ERROR IN SENSORLESS DC MOTOR DRIVES 91

Fig. 6. FEM simulation results of BLDC motor with M  0. (a) Cross-
sectional view with flux distribution; (b) Flux versus rotor position with no load;
(c) Flux versus rotor position with half load; (d) Flux versus rotor position with
a
rated load; (e) Fluxes in nonenergized phase- coil with indication of peaks.
Fig. 7. FEM simulation results of BLDC motor with M > 0. (a) Cross-
sectional view with flux distribution; (b) Flux versus rotor position with no load;
(c) Flux versus rotor position with half load; (d) Flux versus rotor position with
a
rated load; (e) Fluxes in nonenergized phase- coil with indication of peaks.
92
Fig. 8. Block diagram of compensation circuit.
to the PVM or TVM. Therefore, it is necessary to compensate
the error with either hardware or software.
IV. COMPENSATION CIRCUIT
In the IPM BLDC motor drives, varies with while
varies with the motor speed, thus the total commutation angle
is not constant, and usually . An error compensation
circuit, as shown in Fig. 8, is applied to the PVM or TVM.
First, the microprocessor (Intel 8051) computes from (7)
or (8) and (9), from the parameters of the low-pass filters
and, subsequently, from . Second, according to
the motor speed and , the microprocessor calculates the period
with which the original rotor position signals from the PVM
or TVM should be delayed.
(10)
Finally, is set to the timer, thus, the timer can control the
latch to postpone the position signals properly. As a result, the
influence of is overcome by the compensation circuit, and the
BLDC motor drive is normally commutated.
Moreover, in some special cases, such as in the field-weak-
ening constant-power operation, the BLDC motor drive is de-
liberately controlled with advanced commutation. Such control
can be easily implemented by modifying the microprocessor
software, that is, the actual is calculated as
(11)
where is the desired advanced commutation angle.
V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
In order to verify the above calculations and analyses on the
rotor position detection error, experiments were carried out with
a prototype IPM BLDC motor. It was similar to the first de-
sign in Section III, except that weaker magnets were applied and
the coils were rewound with thinner wire but with more turns,
such that, for the purpose of investigation, the influence of ar-
mature reaction could be magnified. The measured inductance
is mH. The back emf waveform is not purely
trapezoidal, as its top is almost flat with elec-rad
and V elec-rad s , but its slope is not of straight
line. The slope can be observed in Fig. 9 from the terminal
voltage waveform, which is mainly determined by the back emf
during the nonenergizing interval. The motor was sensorlessly
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 18, NO. 1, MARCH 2003
Fig. 9. Waveforms of terminal voltage u , 50 V/div, 1 ms/div. (a) Before
compensation, 3000 r/min; (b) After compensation, 2840 r/min.
TABLE I
COMPARISON BETWEEN CALCULATED AND MEASURED
VALUES OF COMMUTATION ANGLE
controlled with the TVM, but was also equipped with a set of op-
tical rotor position sensors for the experiment purpose, such that
the actual commutation angle under the TVM control could
be measured. Table I shows the comparison between and the
predicted , in which is calculated from (8) and (9) while
is from the filter parameters. There exists a slight difference be-
tween the calculated and experimental results, because, first, the
back emf waveform does not have a straight slope as assumed,
and second, the parameters of the filter components may vary
from the dominant values which were used for the calculation,
such that the difference between and is more or less related
to the motor speed (namely, the signal frequency). However, the
difference is minimal, proving that the calculations are reliable.
Further experiments were carried out with the compensation
circuit. First, the conventional TVM was applied. The motor
ran at 3000 r/min. From Table I, it is evident that the advanced
commutation angle was 15.0 elec-degrees. This can also
be seen from the waveform of the motor terminal voltage, as
shown in Fig. 9(a). It is noticed that the terminal voltage was
higher than the dc link voltage when the upper power electronic
device was switched off, because the back emf was greater
than the dc link voltage. This is a typical phenomenon of the
field-weakening operation, which is caused by the advanced
commutation. Second, the compensation circuit was applied,
consequently, the phenomenon of the advanced commutation
disappeared, as shown in Fig. 9(b), whilst the motor speed
decreased to 2840 r/min. The field-weakening capability
was not remarkable in the experiments, because, usually
the field-weakening influence becomes significant when the
advanced commutation angle is 30 elec-degrees; however, in
Fig. 9(a) the angle was only 15.0 elec-degrees.
SHEN AND TSENG: COMPENSATION OF ROTOR POSITION DETECTION ERROR IN SENSORLESS DC MOTOR DRIVES
Fig. 10. EB hub powered by internal BLDC motor and gears.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
In the PVM- or TVM-based sensorless BLDC motor drives,
armature reaction may cause rotor position detection error. This
paper has presented equations to calculate the error, which is
related to the motor parameters and load. Theoretical analyses
of how the motor parameters and load affect the error are de-
scribed. FEM simulation results on three BLDC motors with
different rotor configurations are also given, showing good cor-
respondence with the calculations. Finally, an error-compensa-
tion circuit is proposed to ensure the desired commutation an-
gles. Both of the calculation equations and the compensation
circuit have been verified with the experimental results.
APPENDIX
An EB can be driven with either a low-speed motor directly,
or a moderate speed motor via a simple and low-cost gearing
system. As the moderate speed motor has relatively smaller
volume, the cost of PMs can be significantly reduced; hence,
such mechanism was applied. The three BLDC motors under
study of FEM simulation have the same rated power (180 W),
voltage (36 V), torque (0.57 Nm), and speed (rated 3000 r/min,
maximum 4800 r/min), while the speed reduction ratio of the
planetary gearing system is 15. Either motor can be installed
inside the EB hub with the gears, while a prototype of EB hub
is shown in Fig. 10.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors wish to thank Prof. Y. X. Chen for his supervision
and support on the related research which was carried out at
Zhejiang University, China.
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J. X. Shen (M’98-SM’02) was born in Huzhou,
China, in 1969. He received the B.Eng. and M.Eng.
degrees in electrical engineering from Xi’an Jiao-
tong University, Xi’an, China, in 1991 and 1994,
respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical
engineering from Zhejiang University, Hangzhou,
China, in 1997. He was a post-doctoral fellow at
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore from
1997 to 1999.
Currently, he is with the University of Sheffield,
Sheffield, U.K. He is also Supervisor of the Power
Electronics and Drives Laboratory at Nanyang Technological University. He
was Visiting Porfessor to the University of Yangon, Yangon, Myanmar, and to
the Ecole Superieure. His current research interests include PM motor designs
and applications, sensorless controls, ultra-high-speed motors, and fuzzy logic
controls.
K. J. Tseng (S’85-M’88-SM’98) was born in
Singapore. He received the B.Eng. (first class) and
M.Eng. degrees from the National University of
Singapore, Singapore, and the Ph.D. degree from
Cambridge University, Cambridge, U.K.
Currently, he is an Associate Professor at the
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering,
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He
teaches power electronics and drives at undergrad-
uate level and supervises a number of research
students. He is also the Supervisor of the Power
Electronics and Drives Laboratory. He has been involved in research in power
electronics, drives, and motion control since 1988. He was Visiting Professor to
the University of Yangon, Myanmar, and to the Ecole Superieure d’Ingenieur
en Electrotechnique et Electronique, Amiens, France.
Dr. Tseng is a Fellow of the Cambridge Commonwealth Society and the Cam-
bridge Philosophical Society. He is a Member of the Institute of Engineers,
Singapore, and a Corporate Member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers
(U.K.). In 1996, he was awarded the Swan Premium by the Institution of Elec-
trical Engineers (U.K.), for his work on gate turnoff thyristors for use in traction
drives. From 1996 to 1998, he was the Chairman of the IEEE Industry Appli-
cations Chapter of Singapore. He has been listed in the Marquis Who’s Who in
the World and Who’s Who in Science and Engineering for his contributions to
engineering education and research.