A Robust Sensorless Controller-Observer Strategy for PMSMs with Unknown Resistance and Mechanical Model

In this work, we present a mixed sensorless strategy for Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines, combining a torque/current controller and an observer for position, speed, flux, and stator resistance. The proposed co-design is motivated by the need for an appropriate signal injection technique to guarantee full state observability. Neither the typical constant or slowly-varying speed assumptions, nor a priori mechanical model information are required. Instead, the rotor speed is modeled as an unknown input disturbance with constant (unknown) sign and uniformly non-zero magnitude. With the proposed architecture, we show that the torque tracking and signal injection tasks can be achieved and asymptotically decoupled. Because of these features, we refer to this strategy as a sensorless controller- observer with no mechanical model. Employing a gradient descent resistance/back-EMF estimation, combined with the unit circle formalism to describe the rotor position, we prove regional practical asymptotic stability of the overall scheme. In particular, the domain of attraction can be arbitrarily large, without including a lower-dimensional manifold. The effectiveness of this design is further validated with numerical simulations, related to a challenging application of UAV propellers control.