Robust Control of Synchronous Reluctance Motor Based on Automatic Disturbance Rejection

This article proposes the theoretical development and experimental application of the active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) to synchronous reluctance motor (SynRM) drives. The ADRC is a robust adaptive extension of the input-output feedback linearization control (FLC). It performs the exact linearization of the SynRM model by a suitable nonlinear transformation of the state based on the online estimation of the corrective term by the so-called extended state observers (ESO). Consequently, any unmodeled dynamics or uncertainty of the parameters are properly addressed. The control strategy has been verified successfully both in numerical simulations and experimentally on a suitably developed test set-up that provides the ADRC robustness versus parameters variations which cannot be obtained with other model-based nonlinear control techniques (e.g., FLC). Simulation results show the capability of the ADRC to maintain its dynamic performance, even in the presence of quick variations of the SynRM dynamic inductances. Experimental results confirm the robustness of the ADRC versus any model parameter uncertainty. The proposed ADRC has been experimentally compared with a previously developed FLC, in both a tuned and detuned working configuration, with the classic rotor oriented control, and with a finite state model predictive control (MPC), where speed control is integrated into the MPC. Experimental results show far better robustness versus any parameter variation.