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TITLE : Vector Control of AC Induction Motor

The Vector Control

The vector control is referring not only to the magnitude but also to the phase of these
variables. Matrix and vectors are used to represent the control quantities. This method
takes into consideration not only successive steady-states but real mathematical
equations that describe the motor itself, the control results obtained have a better
dynamic for torque variations in a wider speed range. The space phasor theory is a
method to handle the equations. Though the induction motor have a very simple
structure, its mathematical model is complex due to the coupling factor between a large
number of variables and the non-linearities. The Field Oriented Control (FOC) offers a
solution to circumvent the need to solve high order equations and achieve an efficient
control with high dynamic.

The FOC Algorithm Structure

The FOC consists in controlling the components of the motor stator currents,
represented by a vector, in a rotating reference frame d,q aligned with the rotor
flux. The vector control system requires the dynamic model equations of the
induction motor and returns to the instantaneous currents and voltages in order to
calculate and control the variables.

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TITLE : Vector Control of AC Induction Motor

The electric torque of an AC induction motor can be described by the interaction between
the rotor currents and the flux wave resulting from the stator currents induction.

Since the rotor currents cannot be measured with cage motors, this current is
replaced by an equivalent quantity described in a rotating system coordinates called d,q
and following the rotor flux. The instantaneous flux angle ρ is calculated by the motor flux
model. isd and isq, the stator current components in the d,q frame, are obtained directly
from ia, ib and ic, the fixed coordinate stator phase currents, with the Park transformation:

Then the torque can be expressed as follow:

In steady-state conditions the stator current is defined in the above mentioned

rotating system is considered constant as well as the magnetizing current imr
representing the rotor flux and isq being equivalent to the motor torque. δ is the load
angle that equals to zero when no load, isd is linked to imr with the above equation.

TR is the rotor time constant. This system together with the angle transformations change
the induction motor into a machine very similar to a DC motor where imr corresponds to
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TITLE : Vector Control of AC Induction Motor

the DC motor main flux and isq to the armature current. The field orientated control
method achieves the best dynamic behavior, whereby the disturbance behavior can be
improved with shorter control cycle times. The field orientated control method is a de facto
standard to control an induction motor in adjustable speed drive applications with quickly
changing load as well as reference speeds. Its advantage is that by transforming
measurable stator variables into a system based on field coordinates the complexity of
the system can be enormously reduced. As a result a relatively simple control method
very similar to a separately exited DC motor can be applied.
Sensored Rotor Flux Oriented Control of Three Phase AC Induction Motor

Following is the complete FOC AC induction drive structure. Two phase currents feed the
Clarke transformation module. These projection outputs are indicated iSα and iSβ. These
two components of the current provide the input of the Park transformation that gives the
current in the d,q rotating reference frame. The iSd and iSq components are compared to
the references iSdref (the flux reference) and iSqref (the torque reference). The torque
command iSqref corresponds to the output of the speed regulator. The flux command
iSdref is the output of the field weakening function that indicates the right rotor flux
command for every speed reference. The current regulator outputs are vSdref and vSqref
; they are applied to the inverse Park transformation.
The output of this projection are vSαref and vSβref, the components of the stator vector
voltage in the α,β orthogonal reference frame. These are the input of the Space Vector
PWM. The outputs of this block are the signals that drive the inverter. Note that both Park
and inverse Park transformations require the rotor to be in flux position which is given by
the current model block. This block needs the rotor resistance as a parameter. Accurate
knowledge and representation of the rotor resistance is essential to achieve the highest
possible efficiency from the control structure.

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TITLE : Vector Control of AC Induction Motor

Sensored Rotor Flux Oriented Control of Three Phase AC Induction

Motor

Advantages of Sensored Rotor Flux Oriented Control:

• full motor torque capability at low speed
• better dynamic behavior
• higher efficiency for each operation point in a wide speed range
• de-coupled control of torque and flux

Disadvantages of Sensored Rotor Flux Oriented Control:

• performance dependent on motor parameters.
• higher system cost
• require very high processing power due to complex mathematics

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TITLE : Vector Control of AC Induction Motor

Sensorless Rotor Flux Oriented Control of Three Phase AC Induction Motor

The FOC structure needs the rotor flux position as the core control variable. The
sensored control needs a rotor speed sensor and the current model software module to
compute the rotor flux position, the Sensorless speed control replaces both these
elements by a single software module. The resulting drive no longer requires the speed
sensor and its associated costs (connector, buffer, filters, etc.) yet still offers the same
precise performance. The observer theory tells that by computing one system model in
parallel with the real system, and by correcting the model state vector with help of the
weighted error between model and system output, it is possible to adjust the model such
that it converges to the real system. This technique is particularly useful for determining
any required control algorithm state variable that can neither be measured nor directly
calculated from the measurements. It assumes only that both the model and the real drive
are fed with the same input. When applied to the AC induction drive, the motor can be
considered as the real system, the (α,β)voltages as its input, the phase currents as
output and rotor speed, rotor flux and (α,β)currents as state vectors. The corresponding
observer (which needs the induction motor model) gives the rotor flux as a component of
its state vector and thus makes it possible to compute the field oriented control without
the rotor speed feedback. This dedicatedAC induction motor observer-controller structure
is depicted below:

Flux Observer for sensorless vector control

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TITLE : Vector Control of AC Induction Motor

θ are respectively the estimated rotor flux position and the estimated
Where nˆ and ˆθ
rotor electrical speed.
The accuracy of such an estimator depends mostly on precise setting of model
parameters, and on precise input quantity measurements. In the case of the induction
motor, there are always uncertainties in the motor parameters (for example, changes with
the temperature) and in the phase voltage and current measurements. This factor causes
the observer state variable vector (i.e. the rotor speed and flux position estimation) to be
different from that of the real one, thus leading to unstable or at least inefficient control.
To overcome these problems the Kalman filter strategy has been used because this
structure not only supports observer but also deals with the input and parameter noise.
Furthermore, this statistical observer needs to be augmented by the necessary induction
motor linearization. The complete observer structure is called the Extended Kalman Filter.
The following diagram depicts the sensorless technique. Notice that the FOC structure is

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TITLE : Vector Control of AC Induction Motor

the same as that of the sensored FOC . The only change is the presence of the EKF
instead of the current model and the speed sensor.

Sensorless Rotor Flux Oriented Control of Three Phase AC Induction Motor

Advantages of Sensorless Rotor Flux Oriented Control:

• no need of speed sensor hence less expensive
• full motor torque capability at low speed
• better dynamic behavior
• higher efficiency for each operation point in a wide speed range
• de-coupled control of torque and flux

Disadvantages of Sensorless Rotor Flux Oriented Control:

• performance highly dependent on motor parameters.

• full motor torque not available at zero speed ( for speed estimator some minimum
speed is required )
• speed estimation requires very high processing power due to complex mathematics.
• Speed accuracy is less compared to sensored FOC.

5760, Dovnick Dr., Lilburn, GA 30047, USA

Phone : 770-638-5545 Fax : 770-638-0544
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