This paper compares pulsating- and rotating-vector carrier-signal injection for self-sensing (or sensorless) control of permanent-magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs). The main focus of this paper is the evaluation of estimation errors due to the physical nonideal attributes of both the machine and the inverter. Initial-position and magnet-polarity estimations are analyzed as well. Transient response and signal processing for both techniques are discussed for completeness. The theoretical analysis is supported by experimental and simulation evidence obtained using interior PMSMs.

This paper proposes a method to estimate the magnet temperature in surface permanent-magnet machines using high-frequency carrier signal injection. The injection of a high-frequency signal, superimposed on the fundamental excitation, allows the estimation of the stator high-frequency impedance, which is a function of both the stator and rotor impedances. The temperature of the magnets is shown to have a significant weight on the overall stator high-frequency impedance, from which it can be estimated. The high-frequency carrier signal is injected intermittently in order to minimize potential adverse effects on the normal operation of the machine. This paper first explains the physics behind the magnet temperature dependence. Then, the principles of the method, as well as its practical implementation, are discussed. Experimental verification of the method is provided.

Islanding detection is of great importance for reliable operation of smart grids. Islanding-detection methods can be classified into three different groups, i.e., active, passive, and communication-based methods. Active methods inject a disturbing signal (typically a voltage) and analyze the system response (typically in the current). These techniques have a low nondetection zone (NDZ) but present the inconvenience inherent to injecting a disturbing signal. Passive methods monitor the grid condition from the grid variables. These techniques are easy to implement but present a large NDZ. Communication methods have the inconvenience of relying on communications, currently being of limited use. This paper proposes a new active islanding-detection method, based on the measurement of the grid high-frequency impedance by means of the injection of a high-frequency voltage. The advantages of the method are almost negligible adverse effects due to the injected high-frequency voltage and accurate and fast islanding detection, i.e., in the range of a few milliseconds. Furthermore, the estimated high-frequency impedance can be used for the adaptive control of the power converter.

This paper analyzes the effects of magnetic saturation, including cross-saturation and secondary saliencies, on the saliency-based sensorless control of interior permanent magnet synchronous machines. These effects are mitigated by adaptively decoupling saturation-induced saliencies via a structured neural network. This paper includes the identification of the dominant saturation-induced components of the carrier-signal current interfering with the rotor-position-dependent component being tracked, characterization of these components, and implementation of a nonlinear adaptive saturation-induced-component structured neural network model to perform their decoupling.

This paper analyzes saliency-based sensorless control methods for AC machines. The paper focuses on three different methods, which utilize the following signals: negative-sequence carrier-signal current, zero-sequence carrier-signal voltage, and pulse width-modulation-switching zero-sequence voltage. Applicability of these methods for both rotor position estimation (tracking of rotor-position-dependent saliencies) and flux position estimation (tracking of flux-dependent saliencies) is studied for each method, as well as aspects of their implementation.

This paper analyzes the effects of the high-frequency resistances in saliency tracking-based sensorless control methods of permanent-magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs). A high-frequency model of the PMSM, including stator high-frequency resistance, is presented. From this model, potential sources of error in the estimated position due to the high-frequency resistances are analyzed, and their compensation by means of an adaptive decoupling mechanism is proposed. This paper also addresses the influence and compensation of temperature effects in carrier-signal-injection-based sensorless techniques.