ISCAS 2000 - IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, May 28-31, 2000, Geneva, Switzerland

SENSORLESS VECTOR CONTROL OF INDUCTION

MOTOR USING ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORK
Hung-Ching Lu, Ta-Hsiung Hung, and Cheng-Hung Tsai
Department of Electrical Engineering, Tatung University,
40 ChungShan North Road, 3rd Sec., Taipei, 10451, Taiwan
E-mail: luhung@ctr3.ee.ttu.edu.tw

ABSTRACT
2. FEEDFORWARD ARTIFICIAL NEURAL
This paper presents a novel approach to sensorless vector control NETWORKS FOR DYNAMIC SYSTEMS
of induction motor drives. The method is based on an adaptive flux
observer in the rotor-speed reference Erame, in which an artificial The feedfonvard neural networks adopted in this investigation are
neural network (ANN) is employed to modify the estimated rotor the most popular architecture used in the control field. The block
flux to improve the performance of speed estimation. The adopted configuration is shown in Fig. 1. In the figure, it presents a three-
ANN is a feedfonvard neural network identified off-line. It uses the layered network where input layer neurons introduce each input to
backpropagation leaming process to update their weights. The data the neurons of the hidden layer. Hidden neurons make a weighted
for training are obtained from a computer simulation and sum of all their inputs, and then apply a transfer (or activation)
experimental data file of a vector control system. Then, the function to this sum. Such a function can be linear or nonlinear (a
estimated rotor flux is used in the speed estimation that will threshold, sigmoid, sine or hyperbolic tangent function). The most
feedback to the vector control system. The proposed method has commonly used function is the sigmoidal one. An input equals 1,
the advantages of better accuracy at low speed 'range and speed which is considered to add a constant to the weighted sum. The
following under heavy loads. The whole system is implemented in output of a neuron is finally distributed to the neurons of the next
a TMS320C30 DSP chip and experimental results show the layer.
effectiveness of the proposed method. A three-layered neural network (see Fig. I ) is able to approximate
all continuous multivariable functions [ 9 ] . The quality of the model
1. INTRODUCTION depends on how well the leaming algorithm is able to extract the
characteristics of the data in order to obtain a representation of the
Adjustable speed vector-controlled induction motor drives have dynamic behavior of the process. The leaming method is based on
found wide popularity for high-performance motion control the backpropagation algorithm. This commonly used leaming
applications. Since the control and feedback signal processing for algorithm is briefly outlined in [IO].
the drives are very complex, a powerful microcomputer or digital
signal processor is invariably used for the computation. In the past
few years, artificial neural networks have been used in some power
electronic applications, such as inverter current regulation [I], dc
motor control [2]-[3], flux estimation [4], and observer based
control of induction machines [SI-[6]. However, in vector-
controlled induction motor drives, encoders are always required as
a speed feedback signal.
Recently, sensorless vector control is proposed to cope with the
speed-sensing problem. Various approaches of sensorless vector
control have been presented [7]. Kubota et al. [8] proposed an
adaptive flux observer to estimate the rotor flux and speed. The
computation process of estimating the rotor speed is simple, and
the estimated rotor flux is used to calculate the vector rotating
angle. However, experimental results show that large speed errors
appear under heavy loads. In this paper, we propose a new speed
estimation method which is based on an adaptive flux observer in
the rotor speed reference frame. An ANN is then employed to
modify the estimated rotor flux. The modified estimated rotor flux
is substituted into the flux observer to improve the performance of
the rotor speed estimation. The estimated speed takes place of the
W
feedback signal for conventional vector control, and thus a
sensorless vector control system is established. The proposed
method has better performances at low speed range and good speed
Figure 1. Feedfonvard neural network.
following ability under heavy loads.

0-7803-5482-6/99/$10 00 02000 IEEE

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 3. MOTOR MODEL AND ADAPTIVE FLUX
OBSERVER
where A signifies the estimated quantities and G is the observer
This section is divided into two subsections: the first one
gain matrix which is to be determined so that (3) can
introduces the basic motor model and the other describes the
be stable. Then, the speed estimation equation is derived as:
adaptive flux observer developed by Kubota et al. [8].

3.1 Motor Model

The state equations of an induction motor in the rotor-speed
reference frame can be expressed as follows: where K, is a proportional constant and eidr= i d s -/ds,

W t )- e,, = iqs -iqs

- - A ' X ( t )+ B . U ( t ) ;
dt
4. NEURAL NETWORK BASED ROTOR
Y ( t ) = c.X ( t ) ,
FLUX ESTIMATOR
where
The estimated rotor flux id,,i,, used in equation (4)is obtained
x =[ id$ i, 4dr 4y, I r , by using the state observer and under the assumption that the state
variables x(t) and input variables u(r) are constant during a
y=li, i,, Ir, = [ "ds sy' 1'
discrete step period. These estimated values may suffer large errors

{e+%)
A= if the state variables change rapidly. For example, the measured
stator currents (sinusoidal) can change rapidly under heavy-load
Lm Lm
Or o L,L,T, o L,Lr
Or---- conditions, especially in high-speed commands. In another
condition, due to the small stator currents in low speed range, the
Lm rotor flux is difficult to estimate correctly. Therefore, we
implement an ANN to learn the behavior of the rotor flux model
under various conditions in order to obtain precise performance.
-
Lm 0 By rewriting eqn. (1) in discrete form.
'r
0 &I

'r

.=[I O O 01
0 1 0 0
1
-At 0

stator current
+
04
O L A t
U
0 0
4
[e], (5)

rotor flux 0 0

R,, R, stator and rotor resistance and defining the rotor flux model as
4 ,L, stator and rotor self inductance
Lm mutual inductance
U leakage coefficient, U = 1- L,' /(L,J,)
77 rotor time constant
U, motor angular velocity L

3.2 Adaptive Flux Observer

The state observer in the rotor-speed reference frame is written as
+
follows :

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where At is the sampling time interval. The principle of training
the ANN flux estimator is shown in Fig. 2.
5. SYSTEM SIMULATION AND
EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
In Fig. 2, the neural network is located in parallel with the plant to
be identified. This is in essence an identification task. However,
there is no general way to determine the optimal number of
neurons for a given system to obtain a good compromise between
the network accuracy and the number of neurons. The neural
network chosen in this paper is a three layered ANN containing 4
neurons in the input layer, 13 neurons in the hidden layer and 2
neurons in the output layer. At k-stage the input vector
[ @ , ” ( k ) o q , ( k ) i d s ( k ) i,,(k)] is applied to both the flux
model and the ANN, then the weights are updated by means of
backpropagation algorithm on the basis of the output errors. The
input components are selected randomly by the simulation program
of the proposed sensorless vector control scheme. The training
procedure continues for about 500,000 steps with a leaming rate of
0.1. The convergence threshold error level was set to 0.01. The
design and training of a neural network for satisfactory
performance requires a very time consuming iterative procedure
with a large training data table. Once the neural network based flux
estimator performance is found to be satisfactory, it is decided to
correct the weights by the experimental data file of a vector control
system.
To test the performance of the proposed estimator, it was decided
to estimate the rotor flux only with a simple four-five-two network
to validate the feasibility of estimation. The simulation results are
shown in Fig. 3. The network performance, although somewhat
crude in comparison with the reference command, indicates the
correct trend for estimation. The ripple amplitude can be attenuated
to some extent with a low pass filter of small time constant. Fig. 4
shows improvement of the estimator performance when the hidden
layer neurons were increased from five to ten.
Once the neural network based flux estimator performance is found
to be satisfactory, it is decided to operate the drive system with
sensorless vector control scheme. The machine under study is a 3-
HP, 4-pole squirrel-cage induction motor, whose parameters are
shown in table I. The inverter switching frequency is 3.3kHz. The
speed control loop has a sampling time of I S m s while the current
loop has a sampling time of 3 0 0 ~ The . whole system is
implemented in a TMS320C30 DSP chip. The performances at
both the conditions with the neural network based estimator are
shown in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6. Fig. 5 shows the performance of abrupt
load change with the set speed of 18 rpm. The left column of the
figures indicate the simulation performances of the well trained
neural network based estimator whereas the right side indicates the
experimental results of the neural network based sensorless method.
The performances are found to be excellent, but the ripple in the
practical experiments is somewhat large. Evidently, the torque and
flux ripples have little effect on the drive because of inertia
filtering. Fig. 6 shows the results of all the signals when the speed
was cycled with a bi-directional profile in the constant torque mode.
In summary, the neural network approach provides the advantages
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of learning input-output relations, fast execution speed, fault
tolerance; but has the disadvantages are time-consuming training
and design iteration.
6. CONCLUSIONS
The paper successfully demonstrates the application of neural
networks in the estimation of rotor flux for a sensorless vector-
controlled induction motor drive system. A three-layer feedfonvard
neural network of the structure four-thirteen-two has been trained,
and the performance of the neural net estimator is found to be
excellent in the wide speed region. As a result, the pratical
experiments have illustrated that the behavior of the proposed
speed and rotor flux estimation is good both during severe
transients and under steady-state conditions.
7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was supported by the National Science Council of
Taiwan, under contract NSC 89-2213-E-036-024,
8. REFERENCES
M. R. Buhl and R. D. Lorenz, “Design and implementation of
neural networks for digital current regulation of inverter
drives,” in Conf: Rec. IEEE Ind. Applicat. Soc. Annu. Meeting,
Oct. 1991, pp. 415-421.
L. E. Borges da Silva, G. L. Torres, E. C. Satumo, A. P. Alves
da Silva, and G. Olivier, ‘Weural net adaptive schemes for dc
motor drives,” in Con$ Rec. IEEE Ind. Applicat. Soc. Annu.
Meeting, Oct. 1993, pp.2043-2048.
S. Weerasooriya and M. A. El-Sharkawi, “Identification and
control of a dc motor using back-propagation neural
networks,” IEEE Trans. Energy Conversion, vol. 6, pp.663-
669, Dec. 1991.
K. P. Toh, E. P. Nowicki, and F. Ashrafzadeh, “A flux
estimator for field oriented control of an induction motor
using an artificial neural network,” in Con$ Rec. IEEE Ind.
Applicat. Soc. Annu. Meeting, Oct. 1994, pp. 585-592.
J. Theocharis and V. Petridis, “Neural network observer for
induction motor control,” IEEE Control System Magazine, pp.
26-37, Apr. 1994.
M. T. Wishart, and R. G. Harley, “Identification and control
of induction machines using artificial neural networks,” IEEE
Ind. Applicat. vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 612-619, 1995.
T. Ohtani, N. Takada, and K. Tanaka, “Vector control of
induction motor without shaft encoder,” IEEE Trans. Indl.
Applicat., vol. 28, no. 1,pp. 157-164, 1992.
H. Kubota, K. Matsuse, and T. Nakano, “DSP-based speed
adaptive flux observer of induction motor,” IEEE Trans., Ind.
Applicat. vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 344-348, 1993.
Cybenco, G., 1989, Approximation by superpositions of a
sigmoidal function, Mathematics and Ciontrol Signals
Svstems. Vol. 2.,..
DD. 303-314.
[ l o ] Rumelhart, D. E., Hinton, G. E. and Williams, R. J., 1986,
Leaming intemal representation by error propagation.
Parallel Distributed Processing Explorations in the
Microstructures of Congnition, Vol. 1, pp. 31 8-362.
 1 . . . .
state cqn. (5) to obtain estimated i , , i , , #*, , e,,.

I
measurc stator Currents to
to obtain I , , 1". .
Table I
Data of the induction motor used for experiment

Nameplate Data Nominal Parameters

220 V 60 Hz 8 2.7 Q
ANN for cstjmated rotor flux
Three phase R, 2.4 Q
Y connected L, 342mH
four poles Lr 354 mH
speed cstimation eqn. (4) to Rated power 2.2 kW L,,, 354 mH
Rated speed 1720 rpm J 0.00825 N-m-s2
Rated current 8.6A B 0.001 N-n?Jruds
I

Figure 2. Flowchart of proposed neural net based speed

estimation method.

Q!w
v. T"WW
, U
T*&
d . ~ ~ ~
TW=*
, . ,o ~ l a ~
T*(a
' . . . . ~

Figure 4. Estimator performance (a) estimated speed and

Figure 3. Estimator performance (a) estimated speed and
(b) estimated rotor flux.
(b) estimated rotor flux.

30
20
10

U 2 4 6 8 10 12 0 2 4 6 8 1 0 1 2
tme(rec)

10

20.0 IS00 101. ,.#I .>a. ,000

(a) llmC(ICE) (b) tme(rcc)

Figure 5. (a) Simulation results; (b) Experimental results.
Figure 6. (a) Simulation results; (b) Experimental results

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