A Nonlinear Observer for Rotor Flux Estimation of Induction Motor Considering the Estimated Magnetization Characteristic

This paper proposes a nonlinear observer for induction machine drives based on space-vector dynamic model of induction machine, expressed in state form, which presents the peculiarity of taking into consideration the magnetic saturation of the iron core. This observer is particularly suitable in order to obtain high accuracy in rotor flux estimation, in both amplitude and phase position, during working conditions characterized by varying flux, among which the most important are those during electrical losses minimization. A Lyapunov-based convergence analysis is proposed in order to suitably compute the numerical observer gain guaranteeing the convergence of the estimation error. The proposed nonlinear observer has been tested by means of simulations and experiments carried out on a suitably developed test setup. Its behavior has been compared with that obtained with a standard full-order Luenberger observer that assumes the linearity of the magnetization characteristic. The paper shows the capability of the proposed nonlinear observer to correctly estimate amplitude and phase of the rotor flux under flux varying conditions. Moreover, the proposed observer exhibits a higher accuracy than that obtained with the standard observer, which does not consider the estimated magnetization characteristic.