Position sensorless operation of a switched reluctance drive based on observer

It is known that the operation of the switched reluctance motor (SRM) requires the knowledge of the rotor position for current control and commutation. This information is generally provided by a shaft encoder or resolver. In some cases, the environment in which the motor operates may cause difficulties in maintaining satisfactory performance. Therefore, the elimination of position sensor has gain wide attention. In this paper a new algorithm for estimation of rotor position and speed are described for an SRM. The method uses a reduced-order extended Luenberger type nonlinear observer model. The algorithm uses the information obtained from the measurements of input voltages and currents. The algorithm was implemented with a TMS320C30 DSP. The results obtained from the online operation prove that the observer is able to control the drive in steady state conditions as well as in transient