Initial Rotor Position Estimation for

Sensorless Brushless DC Drives

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 45, NO. 4, JULY/AUGUST 2009

Student: G-E Lin

Adviser: Ming-Shyan Wang
Date : 25th-Dec-2009
Department of Electrical Engineering,
Southern Taiwan University
 Outline
Abstract
I. INTRODUCTION
II. PROPOSED INITIAL ROTOR POSITION ESTIMATION METHOD
A. Inductance Comparison Process
B. Polarity Determination Process
III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
IV. CONCLUSION
REFERENCES

Department of Electrical Engineering, Southern Taiwan University 2

 Abstract
This paper presents a method for determining the initial rotor position of a
brushless dc machine at standstill without a position sensor.

The key principle of the rotor position estimation is based on the simple
detection and comparison of phase voltage and current responses relating
to the stator inductance varied with the position of the rotor magnet.

In the proposed method, only three voltage-pulse injections are applied ,

and a 30◦ resolution can be achieved. Moreover, no knowledge of machine
parameters is required.

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 I. INTRODUCTION
brushless dc (BLDC) motors are widely used in a number of industrial
applications because of their high power density, durability, high
efficiency, silent operation, and high starting torque.

An inverter-driven three-phase BLDC motor, as shown in Fig. 1, needs rotor

position information to ensure stable operation by synchronizing the phase
excitation to the rotor position.

Startup is one of the major problems in sensorless BLDC drives, which are
mostly based on back-electromotive-force (EMF) estimation techniques.
The main reason is that the back-EMF voltage disappears at standstill.

To solve these startup problems, the initial rotor position should

previously be determined. Most popular techniques to estimate the
rotor position are based on the inductance variation, varying with the rotor
position.

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Fig. 1. Inverter-driven three-phase BLDC motor.

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II. PROPOSED INITIAL ROTOR POSITION
ESTIMATION METHOD
The basic principle of estimating rotor position is based on the saturation
effect of the stator core.

The key principle of the proposed method for detecting the rotor position
at standstill is to measure and then compare the stator inductance of each
phase.

The machine parameters are listed in Table I.

Fig. 2 shows the measured current response and calculated inductance

against the actual rotor position.

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 TABLE I
PARAMETERS OF THE TESTED BLDC MACHINE

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Fig. 2. Measured current response and calculated equivalent inductance
versus the actual rotor position of a surface-mounted BLDC machine.

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 A. Inductance Comparison Process

In this process, a sequence of two voltage pulses is injected to a pair of

selected windings. As shown in Fig. 3, each voltage-pulse injection
consists of two intervals.

The first voltage pulse is injected to the phase-A and phase-B

windings by turning “on” switches AH and BL, as shown in Fig. 3(a).

Therefore, the voltage across the phase-B winding can be detected

through the phase-C terminal and the negative dc bus. Its
equivalent circuit is simplified, as depicted in Fig. 4(a).

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Fig. 3. Switching states for the BLDC drive in Fig. 1 during the first
voltagepulse injection. (a) Pulse-injecting interval. (b) Freewheeling
interval.

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 Fig. 4. Terminal voltage detection. (a) Pulse-
injecting interval of the first
voltage-pulse injection. (b) Freewheeling
interval of the first voltage-pulse
injection. (c) Pulse-injecting interval of the
second voltage-pulse injection.
(d) Freewheeling interval of the second
voltage-pulse injection.

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 B. Polarity Determination Process

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 IV. CONCLUSION
A simple initial rotor position estimation method at standstill has been
introduced in this paper. It is based on the stator inductance variation
due to the influences of the saturation of the stator iron and the flux
due to the position of the rotormagnets.

In the proposed method, only three narrow voltage pulses have been
applied to the phase windings to determine the rotor position, and a
30◦ resolution has been achieved.

Additionally, only one sensing resistor has been added into a typical
BLDC drive. It is particularly suitable for sensorless BLDC drive
applications in which low cost is the major
requirement.Moreover, no machine parameters are required.

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 References
[1] STMicroelectronics, Application Note AN1276 BLDC Motor Start Routine
for the ST72141 Microcontroller. [Online]. Available: www.st.com
[2] S. Ogasawara and H. Agaki, “An approach to position sensorless drives for
brushless DC motors,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 27, no. 5, pp. 928–
933,Sep./Oct. 1991.
[3] P. B. Schmidt, M. L. Gasperi, G. Ray, and A. H. Wijenayake, “Initial rotor
angle detection of a non-salient pole permanent magnet synchronous machine,”
in Conf. Rec. IEEE IAS Annu. Meeting, New Orleans, LA, 1997,pp. 459–463.
[4] G. H. Jang, J. H. Park, and J. H. Chang, “Position detection and startup
algorithm of a rotor in a sensorless BLDC motor utilizing inductance variation,”
Proc. Inst. Elect. Eng.—Elect. Power Appl., vol. 149, no. 2,pp. 137–142, Mar.
2002.
[5] W.-J. Lee and S.-K. Sul, “A new starting method of BLDC motors without
position sensor,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 42, no. 6, pp. 1532–1538,
Nov./Dec. 2006.
[6] Y.-S. Lai, F.-S. Shyu, and S. S. Tseng, “New initial position detection for
three-phase brushless DC motor without position and current sensors,”
IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 485–491, Mar./Apr. 2003.
[7] J. Sugawara, T. Kaimori, and S. Nichikata, “A novel and simple initial rotor
position detecting method for PMSMs,” in Proc. IEEE PEDS, 2005,pp. 612–
617.

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 Thank you for your attention.

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