Sensorless control of induction motor drives equipped with inverter output filter

This paper deals with the speed sensorless vector control of an induction motor in a special case where the output voltage of the pulsewidth-modulated inverter is filtered by an inductance-capacitance (LC) filter. The system states are estimated by means of an adaptive full-order observer, and no additional voltage, current, or speed measurements are needed. The rotor speed adaptation is based on the estimation error of the inverter output current. Quasi-steady-state and linearization analyses are used to design an observer that enables a wide operation region, including very low and very high speeds. A torque-maximizing control method is applied in the field-weakening region. Simulation and experimental results show that the performance is comparable to that of a drive without the LC filter.