ADAPTIVE FIELD ORIENTED CONTROL OF

INDUCTION MOTORS
H. Rasmussen
Aalborg University, Fredrik Bajers Vej 7
DK 9220 Aalborg, Denmark
Fax : +45 98151739 and e-mail : hr@control.auc.dk

Keywords : Adaptive, Modelling, Induction Motors. years made these solutions attractive even for low cost
products (Leonhard [4]). Most of the servo drives produ-
ced today consist of an expensive motor with permanent
Abstract magnets and low inertia, controlled by a simple structure,
In systems without converters for measuring the stator based on direct eld position feedback (permanent mag-
voltages, only reduced order observers based on the cur- net synchronous motor, sinusoidal eld) or electronic com-
rent equations are seen. Full order rotor ux observers mutation (brush-less DC, trapezoidal eld). For low cost
are not applicable because stator voltage measurements applications, cheap standard induction motors and stan-
are used. This problem is in this paper managed by an dard inverters controlled by complex structures with eld
adaptive approach leading to a completely new method observers, are attractive alternatives (Tnnes and Ras-
called Field Angle Adaptation (FAA). The new contribu- mussen [10] and Vas [12]).
tion to the conventional current control system in rotor Because standard inverters must be able to operate on
eld oriented dq-coordinates is a signal added to the eld dierent motors the parameters of the motor have to be
angle in the transformation from rotor eld coordinates known before starting the drive. The parameters may
to stator xed coordinates. This signal adapts the eld be given either by the operator or by an automated pro-
angle estimate to the correct rotor eld angle. cess, where the required electrical parameters (stator and
rotor resistance, rotor time constant, transient stator in-
NOMENCLATURE ductance, etc.) are obtained from on-line measurements.
Self-commissioning described by Schierling [8] and with
a complex spatial operator ej2=3 some extensions by Sumner and Asher [9] and Vas [13] is
isA;B ;C the currents in stator phases A,B and C
ira;b ;c the currents in rotor phases a,b and c a novel feature for automatic tuning of the control loops
is; the stator current in the stator reference frame in modern high performance drives. All measurements are
ir the rotor current in the stator reference frame performed when the machine is at standstill and when the
usA;B ;C the voltages in stator phases A,B and C
ura;b ;c the voltages in rotor phases a,b and c inverter of the drive itself is used to generate the signals
us; the stator voltages in the stator reference frame required for the parameter estimation.
ur the rotor voltages in the stator reference frame
Rs ; Rr resistances of a stator and rotor phase winding Methods for parameter estimation concerning satura-
Ls; Lr self inductance of the stator and the rotor tion eects and the level of magnetization have been de-
Ts; Tr stator and rotor time constant
Lm magnetizing inductance veloped and veried both theoretically and experimentally
 leakage constant (1 L2m =(LsLr )) by Rasmussen [6].
Rr Referred rotor resistance (Rr = (Lm =Lr )2 Rr )
For eld oriented control of induction motors (gure
0 0

Ls0
Referred stator inductance (Ls = Ls )
0

Lm0
Referred magnetizing inductance (Lm = (1 )Ls )
0
1 shows a common concept), accurate knowledge of the
magnitude and vectorial position of the rotor
ux is ne-
cessary. In a standard induction motor no measure of the
1 Introduction rotor current is available, which means that the rotor
ux
has to be estimated by an observer and many types of ob-
Using eld oriented control theory, it is possible to achieve
control performance for an induction motor comparable
with the performance of a DC-motor (Leonhard [5]), i.e.,
it is possible to achieve a nearly perfect torque transducer
giving a torque proportional with a given voltage refe-
ux observers
rence. The trade o is a more complex control structure,
but the microprocessor development has in the last few
servers are proposed in the literature (Vas [12], Leonhard
[5], Wijesundera and Jackson [14], Roboam et. all. [7] and
Jansen and Lorenz [2]). Jansen and Lorenz [2] give an ex-
cellent overview, where a physically insightful approach
to the design and accuracy assessment of
is given and a closed-loop structure is developed combi-
ning the best features of known methods. Because such
 ωr,ref me,ref isq,ref usqref usAref
(1.5ZpL’mimR)-1
usBref
ωr isqmax usqff usqmax usdref usCref
me,max
1.5ZpL’mimR I -i
-1
ρ’
2 2
max mR
(TrimRp)
ωmRTdel

imR
(1+Trp)-1
ρ

isd,ref
FW

isdmax usdff usdmax isq isA

isB
isd isC

speed θr θmech
estimator Zp

Figure 1: Field Oriented Control

closed-loop observers are using measured stator voltages, theory for Model Reference Adaptive Systems (MRAS).
only simple feed-forward observers based on the current Originally MRAS was implemented analogously and used
equation are seen in systems without converters for mea- to solve problems with the specication given as a refe-
suring the stator voltages. This problem may however be rence model, specifying how the regulator and the system
overcome by introducing a completely new method called are to respond to an input as shown in gure 2. The basic
Field Angle Adaptation (FAA). principle for Model Adaptation is shown in gure 3. As
The basic principle of FAA is shown in gure 6. The new
contribution to the conventional current control system in y
rotor eld oriented dq-coordinates is the signal  added System
to the eld angle  in the transformation from rotor eld
coordinates to stator xed coordinates. The output  from
the FAA-block in the gure adapts  to the correct rotor -

ux angle for known motor parameters when the phase

MODEL Criterion
u yM e
has an error caused by the inverter.
θ Adjustment P

2 Model Adaptation Mechanism

yM Figure 3: Model Adaptation Principle

MODEL REFERENCE
the method may be interpreted as an adaptive "regula-
tor", tuning the parameters in the mathematical model
of the system so that a given Performance Function P is
minimized, choice of both P and Adjustment Mechanism
Regulator System Criterion
yref u y e
may be based on MRAS theory  Astrom [15].
θ P
The parameter adjustment mechanism used is a
Adjustment
Mechanism
gradient method usually called the MIT rule because the
work originally was done at MIT. The MIT rule in its
Figure 2: Basic principle for a Model Reference Adaptative simple form is
System d = e de
dt d
The basic principle for identication of continuous minimizing the Performance function P = 1 e2 . It is pos-
time systems by the means of Model Adaptation is the sible to obtain modied gradient procedures,2 in which the
adjustment rate does not depend on the magnitude of the Theorem 1 For the algorithm (2) subject to the system
input signal [15]. This method is in the following called given in (3), with
the modied MIT rule: sup jwk j 
, h = 1, c > 0 and  0 given it follows that
d = de (1) 1. kk  k   k 1   k0  k; k  1
T  e
dt 
c + dde de d
d N ak [e2k 4
2 ]
<1
P
2. Nlim
!1 k=1 c+'Tk 'k
In Goodwin and Sinh [1] it is found that in the presence
of bounded noise, the robustness of the algorithm given ak [e2k 4
2 ]
by equation (1) can be enhanced by introducing a dead 3. klim !1 c+'Tk 'k
=0
zone in the parameter update equation. For a sampling
time h, the discrete time model used is of the form: yk = 4. klim !1
sup  k k 1  2
pc
T
'k +wk , where  is a parameter vector, 'k is a regression 5. lim sup e  2

vector and wk is a limited disturbance mainly caused by k!1 k
imperfections in inverter modeling. As the motor is a
stable system with a limited input, 'k is limited too. It is now possible to answer some of the above questions.
The modied MIT-rule with dead zone, equation (1), is From
for lim sup ek  2

e = y 'T  k!1
it may be concluded that the algorithm converge to a mo-
with del giving a model error less than or equal to 2
, i.e the
' = d de outputs of the model converge to the outputs of the system
only in the noise free case.
given by The variation in parameter estimate  from one time
( step to the next is controlled by c, using the relation
d = c+' T ' '(y 'T ) if y 'T   > 2

 

dt lim sup

 
2

4
2
0 else k!1 k k 1 c
Transformation to discrete time gives i.e. the "convergence" is fast for small values of c.
k =  k 1 + c + a'kT ' 'k (yk 'Tk k 1)
k k
(2)
3 Induction Motor Model
with
(  
T
ak = h if jek j = yk 'k k 1 > 2

  i q

0 else
i s

i d
Rotor axis
If it is assumed that the chosen model structure corre- δ
ρ
sponds to the true system structure, we can ask questions θ
as:
r
Stator axis

 Do the outputs of the model converge to the outputs Figure 4: Denitions of transformation angles
of the system?
 How fast is the convergence? In a reference frame xed to the rotor magnetizing cur-
rent, we have with the angular denitions given in gure 4,
 Do the estimated parameters converge to the "true" the d-axis in the direction of the rotor magnetizing current
system parameters? imR ej and the q-axis orthogonal to the d-axis. Dening
!mR = d 0 0
dt , Tr = Lm =Rr and the dierential operator
d
For this purpose we assume a "true" system given by p  dt the motor model is given by:
yk = 'Tk   + wk (3) usd = (Rs + pL0s )isd !mR L0s isq + pL0m imR
usq = (Rs + pL0s )isq + !mR L0s isd + !mR L0m imR
where wk denotes a bounded sequence.
Because the parameter update algorithm (2) is equiva- imR = 1 +1T p isd
r
lent to the projection algorithm with dead zone analyzed
in [1] the following theorem from here is valid.  = r + i 1T p isq
mR r
(4)
with the developed electrical torque given by: usq usqref usAref

me = 32 Zp L0m imR isq

iq,ref
- usBref
usqff
usd usdref usCref
id,ref
-

4 Field Angle Adaptation

usdff ρ’
ε ωmRTdel

flux ωslip 1 α ρ
estimator p
q-axis
ωmR
F usdref
isA
usqref ε A isq
isB
isd
A isC

Us0
speed θr θmech
ωr Zp
Us0 estimator

ε0

φu
Figure 6: Field Angle Adaptation - basic principle.
d-axis
usdref usdpred
5 Simulation Results
Figure 5: Output voltages from the current controllers For a speed reversion from 1000rpm to 1000rpm gure
(usd;ref , usq;ref ) and predicted stator voltage Us0 eju based 7 shows
on the assumption of correct eld angle
 simulated minus estimated values for  and the eld
The angle  (gure 6) is compensating for the un- angle correction value 
modeled part of the motor especially the nonlinearity of  the reference value for the inverter usdref and predi-
the inverter. cted value usdpred
In the case with known motor parameters the steady
state d-axis reference value to an idealized inverter is given
by
usd;pred = Rsisd !mR L0s isq 0.03
alpha_sim-alpha & eps (dashed)

If a phase angle error 0 , caused by e.g a delay in the

control system or the inverter nonlinearity, is introduced,
0.02
[rad]

then the output from the current controller compensates

0.01

for this error by the stator voltage reference u^s shown in 0

gure 6. The voltage angle denitions are given in gure -0.01

0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4

5, from which it is seen that time [s]

u_sdpred & u_sdref (dashed)
40

e = usdref usd;pred = Us0 cos('u + 0) Us0 cos 'u 20

The angle  shown in gure 6 is updated in a way mini-

[V]

mizing e2 and the update rule follows from the gradient

-20

' = @e @e
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4

@ = @0 = Us0 sin('u + 0 ) = usqref

time [s]

Figure 7: Speed reversion from 1000rpm to 1000rpm with

and the modied MIT-rule with dead zone (2) then gives Field Angle Adaptation (simulation)
k = k 1 + ca+k uusqref
2
(k) e(k) (5)
sqref (k) The curves show how the phase angle error is compen-
sated by adding an -value to the transformation angle.
with In the gure 8 a step in the rotor resistance from Rr to
if je(k)j > 2



ak = h 0 else 1:5R r is given to the motor simulator. The curves show

that an error in the rotor time constant is compensated
A more detailed discussion is given in Rasmussen [6] by adding an -value to the transformation angle giving a
 alpha_sim-alpha & eps (dashed)
0.06

0.04
[rad]

0.02

0
eps
-0.02 1
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
time [s]
0.5
u_sdpred & u_sdpred (dashed)
15

[rad]
0

10 -0.5
[V]

-1
5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
time [s]
us_dpred & u_sdref (dashed)
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
time [s] 100

50

[V]
0

Figure 8: Step in simulated rotor resistance from Rr to 1:5Rr -50

with Field Angle Adaptation (simulation) -100

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3

time [s]

performance as a full-order observer using measured stator Figure 10: 4000rpm speed reversion on a real 1:5kW -motor
voltages. without Field Angle Adaptation

6 Experiments
IM
LOAD

Uinv usAref B C Sync iA iB iC θmech

Signal Conditioning

Timer / Counter Simultaneous

variable duty cycle Sample & hold
generation (PWM) +
ADC

I/O DMA
eps
0.2

PC486-66MHz 0.1
[rad]

Figure 9: Test setup 0

-0.1
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3

The test setup shown in g. 9 consists of a 1:5kW

time [s]
us_dpred & u_sdref (dashed)

induction motor with rated torque 10:1Nm and speed 100

1420rpm and a load simulator based on an permanent 50

magnet servo drive with 9:2Nm rated torque and 6000rpm

[V]

rated speed.Because the real rotor eld angle is not mea- -50

surable in the test setup, a comparison between estimated -100

and measured angle is not possible. The eect may howe- 0 0.5 1 1.5
time [s]
2 2.5 3

ver be shown by comparing actual stator voltage values

with values predicted based on correct rotor eld angle Figure 11: 4000rpm speed reversion on a real 1:5kW -motor
for a 4000rpm speed reversion experiment shown in gure with Field Angle Adaptation
10 and 11. Without Field Angle Adaptation (gure 10) a
great error in usd is seen. Field Angle Adaptation (gure
10) is shown to eliminate this error. Especially the steady
state oset in predicted and measured values of usd wit-
hout FAA is critical for higher values of the speed because
it may lead to a situation where the eld is "lost".
7 Conclusion [9] Sumner M. and Asher G.M.,\Auto commissioning for
voltage-referenced voltage-fed vector-controlled in-
The main problem with eld oriented control without eld duction motor drives", IEE Proc.-B, Vol.140, No.3,
measurement is getting a reliable estimate of the ampli- (1993).
tude and angle of the eld. Full-order closed loop
ux
observers give by proper design desirable properties in a [10] Tnnes M. and Rasmussen H.,\Self-tuning speed con-
speed range including both zero speed and eld weakening trollers for torque regulated AC-drives", EPE'93.
operation (Jansen and Lorenz [2]). The only drawback is Brighton, (1993).
that measurement of the stator voltage is implied.
The Field Angle Adaptation method, given in this pa-
per, using only reference values for these voltages is shown
to give a robust estimation of the phase error caused by
the inverter and the control system. Knowledge of this
phase error is the basis of estimation of the correct stator
voltage impressed on the motor, and the result is a new
implementation of a closed loop
ux observer. [13] Vas P.,\Parameter Estimation, Condition Monitor-
Simulations show expected performance of the FAA-
method and the experiments show that the method works
[11] Unbehauen H. and Rao G.P.,\Identication of Conti-
nuous Systems", North-Holland (ISBN 0-444-70316-
0), (1987).
[12] Vas P.,\Vector Control of AC Machines", Clarendon
Press - Oxford (ISBN 0-19-859370-8), (1990).
ing, and Diagnosis of Electrical Machines", Claren-
don Press - Oxford (ISBN 0-19-859375-9), (1993).
in a eld oriented control system on a real motor too. [14] Wijesundera D.S. and Jackson R.D.,\Observers for
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ful approximation to design and accuracy assessment
of
eld- oriented control of induction motor drives", IEE
Procedings-B, Vol.139, no. 4, pp.381-386, (1992).
[15] 
Astrom K. J. and Wittenmark B., \Adaptive Con-
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201-09720-6), (1989).
ux observers for eld oriented induction machine
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Madison, Dept. of Elec. and Comp. Engr., (1992).
[3] Kazmierkowski M.P. and Tunia H., \Automatic Con-
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(1991).
[5] Leonhard W.\Control of Electrical Drives", Springer
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[6] Rasmussen H.,\Self-tuning Torque Control of In-
duction Motors for High Performance Applications",
Ph.D. thesis, Department of Control Engineering,
Aalborg University, Denmark, (1995).
[7] Roboam X., Andrieux C., Fornel B. de and Hapiot
J.C., \Rotor
ux observation and control in squirrel-
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4, pp.363-370, (1992).
[8] Schierling H,\Self-commissioning - a novel feature of
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Speed Drives, (1988).