Unscented and extended Kalman filters study for sensorless control of PM synchronous motors with load torque estimation

This paper describes a study and the experimental verification of sensorless control of permanent magnet synchronous motors using Kalman filters. There are proposed two structures, extended and unscented Kalman filters, which use only the measurement of the motor current for on-line estimation of speed, rotor position and load torque reconstruction. The Kalman filter is an optimal state estimator and is usually applied to a dynamic system that involves a random noise environment. These structures are described in detail, starting with the selection of the variables state vector, the filters structure, and ending with in-depth laboratory tests. It has become possible, without using position and torque sensors, to apply these control structures as a cost-effective solution. Experimental results confirm the validity of the proposed estimation techniques.