Position Sensorless Control of Switched Reluctance Motor Drives Without Pre-stored Magnetic Characteristics

A position sensorless control method for switched reluctance motors from standstill to running without pre-stored magnetic characteristics is proposed. For startup, diagnosing pulses are injected into all three phases, and the current magnitudes of all phases are examined to estimate the rotor position. Additionally, a phase current vector method is applied to eliminate the risk of locked-rotor and startup hesitations. In running condition, diagnosing pulses are injected to two non-torque productive phases to estimate the position and commutation instant. An angle tracking observer estimates the continuous angle from the acquired discrete position information. The proposed method does not require any prior knowledge of the switched reluctance motor except the pole configuration. Therefore, memory storage for magnetization curves of a switched reluctance motor is not needed. The experimental results show a hesitation-free startup, a good speed reference tracking, and an accurate position estimation performance under different load conditions.