Position detection and start-up algorithm of a rotor in a sensorless BLDC motor utilising inductance variation G.H. Jang, J. H. Park and J. H. Chang Abstract: A method of identifying the rotor position of a brushless DC (BLDC) motor and driving 4 motor smoothly from standstill without any position sensors is presented. This is done by monitoring the current responses to the inductance variation on the rotor position. The rotor position at standstill is detected by comparing the first and second differences of six current pulses, injected into every two phases of the motor. Once the motor starts up, a pulse train, composed of Jong and short pulses, is injected into the commutation phases corresponding to the maximum, torque production and the next commutation phases in alternating fashion. It provides not only the torque, but also information about the next commutation timing when the current responses of the long and short pulses cross each other in the same time delay, A controller for a BLDC motor is, developed using a PC, digital signal processor (DSP), inverter and communication circuits in order to verify the proposed algorithm experimentally. It shows that the proposed algorithm can drive a BLDC motor smoothly without any vibration or time delay up to medium speed compared with the conventional back-emf algorithm. Beyond this medium speed, a sensorless algorithm for rotor- position detection is switched! to the hack-emf method to drive a BLDC motor at high speed. 1 Introduction A brushless DC (BLDC) motor is used in various applications of eleciromechanical systems because of its high efficiency and good controllability over a wide range of speeds. It is composed of a permanent-magnet rotor and a stator with armature windings, as shown in Fig. 1, and requires the position information of the rotor in order to energise the correct armature windings. Position informa tion can be obtained by using hall sensors in stator, or an encoder in a rotor. However, they may increase the size and. cost of the motor, or may’ be affected by the operating conditions, such as temperature or humidity Fig. 1A BLDC motor with 8 poles and 12 slots A. sensorless algorithm has been considered as an alternative to run the motor without the above restrictions, © IEE, 2002 IEE Proceedings online no. 2003: ‘DOL: 10.1089 p-epa:20020022 Duper ft sesived 20h May 101 and in revised form 20th September 2001 The authors are withthe Department of Pression Mechanical Enuinecing, Hanyang University 17, Harglang-dore, Sungsong gu, Soul 133701, Su Kora {EE Prose, Power Appl, Vol 19, No 2. March 2002 ‘One of the popular sensorless algorithms utilises back-em? (back electromotive force). When a motor is running, back- emf is induced in the coil, and the position information of 2 rotor can be detected by the back-emf [I-4], However, back-emf is only generated while a motor is running, which, requires another initial position detection and a start-up algorithm when a motor is at standstill or at a low speed with insufficient back-emf. One of the start-up algorithms is, ‘align and go’ [I, 2]. It aligns the rotor to the specified position by energising any two phases of the motor, and then it aocelerates the rotor according to the given firing sequences with decreasing time intervals. It usually incurs a time delay to align the rotor owing to its inertia. Further time delay is caused during the start-up until sufficient back- ‘emf can be detected Another method is to utilise the inductance variation on the relative position of a rotor and stator, Cassat et al detected the rotor position at standstill, comparing the rise time of the currents due to the inductance variation after a Current pulse is injected into all six segments of an electrical yele, as shown in Table I [5-7]. Dunfield and Heine utilised the decreasing time of the non-energised phase voltage [8 9. However, itis very difficult to apply these methods, because ‘two of the responses are almost the same in the magnetic equilibrium positions where a rotor tends to stop owing 10 the minimised magnetic reluctance, Cassat also proposed a start-up algorithm to detect the next commutation timing by injecting a current pulse into every six segments of an clectrical cycle, and by energising the correct commutation phase atthe same time in order to identify the rotor position sand to accelerate the rotor [5]. However, it becomes difficult to inject six pulses into a single commutation time while the motor is speeding up, and some of the six pulses generate negative torque, This paper calculates the inductance of a BLDC motor bby using finite-element analysis, and it develops a position ryTable 1: Six segments of an electrical eycle Segment Current AB. cf BA, cA. g aC @ Be & ce. a detection and start-up algorithm of a rotor in a sensorless BLDC motor, utilising the inductance variation on the rotor position t0 overcome the above restrictions. This research also develops a sensorless driver of BLDC motors with PC, digital signal processor (DSP), inverter and communication circuits, and it verifies the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm by using the developed controll. 2 Inductance variation ‘The total flux linkage of the phase of a BLDC motor, Yphee, is the summation of the flux from the permanent ‘magnet, Amy, and the flux from the current, Li, as follows: Aytoe = drag + Li w where L is the inductance of the energised phase. It has nonlinear characteristics due to magnetic saturation, depending on the rotor position and current. Denoting i” and as the phase currents to generate the flux with the ame and opposite directions as the flux of a permanent ‘magnet, as shown in Fig. 2a, the change of ux linkage due to i, 4X*, is smaller than 4A~. From eqn. 1, the inductance L* and L~ corresponding to the current /* and 7- are expresed as follows: Data — dow _ AX" 7 Then, £* is smaller than L~ because 4A" is smaller than AN ‘The response of a phase current to the inductance Fig. 2. Flux variation and response of current due 10 the direction of the current ‘a Flux change Response of the current variation can be explained through a voltage equation as follows: di w= Ri+L +e 3) Wa RFLEt 8 where v,, Rand ¢ are the voltage, resistance of the phase and back-emf, respectively. When motor is at standstill there is no back-emf so that the phase current can be determined by integrating eqn. 3: B(t-et) 4 ‘The phase current shows a different response depending on the inductance variation, which is determined by the relative position of a rotor and the direction of the current. In Fig. 2b, 7* shows a faster response than ~ because L* is smaller than L-. Therefore, the position information of a rotor can be obtained by monitoring the phase currents i" and i~ in the appropriate time delay. 3 Theoretical developments 3.1 Finite-element analysis of a BLDC motor ‘The magnetic field in a BLDC motor is determined by the Maxwell equation, and it can be represented in the form of the magnetic vector potential as follows Vx (Wx A= J+ u(V XM) (3) where v, 4, J and M are the reluetivity of the material, magnetic vector potential, current density and magnetis tion of the permanent magnet. The finite-element method is, used to calculate the magnetic vector potential of a BLDC. ‘motor. The total flux linkage of the phase is the surface integral of the flux density over the coil area, and it can be converted to the line integral of the vector potential over the perimeter of the coil by the application of Stokes’ theorem, as follows: a= pas -/ (Vx A)-ds @ s of at Ee ‘The inductance is then determined by calculating the ffux linkage from the energised phase and permanent magnet, and the flux linkage from the permanent magnet only, as shown in eqn. 2. A two-dimensional finite-element program is developed to calculate the magnetic field of a BLDC motor with 8 poles and 12 slots, as shown in Fig. 1. Inductance due to the end winding cannot be calculated through this two- dimensional analysis, but its effect is included by introdu- cing a constant end-winding inductance (10), Table 2 shows Table 2: Major design parameters of the finite element model Description Value Outer diameter of stator, mm a Outer diameter of rotor, mm 2 Number of poles a Number of slots 2 Residual flux donsity of PM, T 07 Thickness of PM, mm 12 “Thickness of stator in axial direction, mm 27 Air gap length, mm 025 Inertia of a vator, kgm? 2.208% 10"* Resistance of col per phase, 2 29 IEE Proc-Buctr. Power Appl, Vl. 49, No.2, March 2002the major design parameters of the finite-element model and it has 4.971 nodes and 9,886 elements. Fig. 3 shows the inductance variation when the phase AB is energized. It shows that inductance changes, depending on the rotor position and current, 20 28 22 Inductance, mit 20 18 a ee ee ee a) lectical angle, dog Fig. 3 Inductance sariution due 10 the change of the current and the rotor pesition (OA Gi LOA Gi) (iv) 204, 3.2. Position detection of a stationary rotor AAs shown in Table 1, a three-phase motor has six segments of an electrical cycle, in which any two phases out of three are carrying currents. Fig 4a shows the calculated current responses with a time delay of 205 by using ean. 4, and, in this calculation, the inductance is determined whenever a rotor moves the elecirical angle of 4°. Relative rotor position with respect to the stator produces different responses of the six current pulses owing to the induetance variation, Fig. 4b shows the variation of the first difference between each pair of current responses, di, for the electrical period of 360°. The polarity of i can provide information ‘on the rotor position, because the polarity of one of three is changes every electrical angle of 60° However, it is very difficult to identify the polarity of Ai near the magnetic equilibrium positions (P; ~ Po) where a rotor tends to stop, because one of three is is zero in these positions, as shown in Fig. 4. In this case, the polarity of the second difference of the current responses, Ai, can be effectively used to identify the rotor position. Fig. 4e shows, the variation of di for the electrical period of 360°. The polarity of one of three 44is changes every electrical angle of 60° with the phase shift of 30°, compared with the variation of 4i in Fig. 4b. As shown in Table 3, the polarity of 44i provides information on the rotor position near the magnetic equilibrium positions. The stationary rotor position can be detected by monitoring the polarity of both i and Adi to energise the correct phases of the motor. 3.3. Start-up algorithm Once the stationary position of a rotor is identified, the ‘correct phases of a BLDC motor are energised to produce the maximum torque. Consequently, the next commutation position should be detected to energise the next phases Whenever a rotor rotates the electrical angle of 60°. The position-detection algorithm in the previous section cannot be effectively applied during start-up, however, because six pulses cannot be injected during a commutation period as the rotor is moving quickly. Another problem is that three pulses out of six generate negative torgue. Fig. 5 shows the torque curves for the electrical period of 360°, in which every two phases out of three are enengised in the positive and negative directions. Excluding the current {TEE Proe-Elec Power Appl. Vol 149, No 2. Mar 2002 ee ne letra angle, deg. cart Ab a a ee ) o| 1 180 20 a0 | 80 octcs ange, deg, Fig. 4 Calculated current (i) responses and their frst and second differences to the rotor positions ‘acarrent i () AB Gi) BA Gi) CA (is) AC (8) BC (wD CB beurent (4) @) 4 = if — i Gi) din = Gi a5 = i ccument (4) () Aah = iy — 4h (i) Adi, = di ~ Als (i) Adis ~ 4is ~ i Table 3: Polarity of 44% 0n the rotor position letra 4h ~ dh ah - dh ia 4h position Asi Adi dhe 30-80 + + 5 90-150" + =: = 150-210" + =: + 210-270 = =: + 270-330 == + ’ 330-390 : + = 9asnerating ore a re a er ee) lectca angle, dea Fig. 5 Torque curves () AC Gi) BC (ii) BA Gv) CA (9) CB (vi) AB energised phases, there are still two commutation phases to be able to produce positive torque in each commutation period. Position detection may be accomplished by comparing the current response of these positive torque- generating phases with that of the current energised phases without generating negative torque. For example, in Fig. 5, the energised phases AB should be switched to the phases AC when a rotor passes Sep, Before a rotor passes Sep, the phases AC and CB are the possible phases to produce the positive torque and the phases AC correspond to the next energised phases. As shown in the box of Fig. 4a, there are four intersections among the responses of the six current pulses near Sc, and one of them is the intersection between the responses of the current pulses injected into the current commutation phases AB and the next commutation phases, ‘AC. Energising the current commutation phases AB and the next commutation phases AC in an alternate manner overall produces a positive torque, and the next commu- tation position can be identified when the responses of the phase currents AB and AC cross each other. A pak train composed of long and short pulses, Pise and Phase in Fig. 6a, is injected to energise the current nd next commutation phases in an alternative manner_ to accelerate the rotor and detect the rotor position. For example, in Fig. 5, Phase and Phase correspond to the long vetage curert Fig. 6 The pulse ain and its response 4 Pase train 2 Current response at the commutation point M0 and short pulses to energise the current phases AB and the next commutation phases AC before a rotor passes Scx. Both Pyrow and Prue generate positive torque, but the former generates a bigger torque than the latter, as shown in Fig 5. The period of Ppus is selected to be as short as possible so that it only" provides comparison data with Pyiyyee When the current response of Phute is smaller than that of the Ppiae with the same time delay, the commuta- tion position is identified, as shown in Fig. 6b. Table 4 shows the composition of the pulse train on the rotor position. The pulse train can accelerate the motor to medium speed. Once the motor produces sufficient back- emf, the sensorless algorithm of the BLDC motor is, switched to a back-emf method by utilising the zero crossing, of the back-emf [I] Table 4:Composition of the pulse train on the rotor position Flecrical Pre Pre position 30-80 ac Bc 90-150 BC BA 150-210 BA cA 210-270 cA ce 270-330 cB. ry 220-290 AB Ac 4. System implementation and experimental verification 4.1 System implementation Fig, 7 shows the system configuration of a sensorless BLDC. motor controller used to verify the proposed method experimentally. The DSP (TMS320F240 by Texas Instru- ment) detects. the rotor position using the proposed algorithm, and it controls the speed of a motor using the Pl control method. Speed, phase voltage, phase current and back-emf are directly monitored on a PC through the communication circuits and a user-interface program. The current in the DC link of the inverter is measured through, the shunt resistor. An inverter circuit with 6 transistors, switches the phase current depencling on the pulse-width modulation (PWM) signal from the DSP. The proposed, sensorless algorithm is developed in assembly language, and, AD converting bse ce ioe = Pc Fig.7 The sysiem configuration of a sensorless BLDC motor controller IEE Proc-Blecir. Power Appl. Vol, No.2, March 2002the results of the experiment can be monitored in real time through the graphic user-interface. 4.2 Experimental verification ‘The proposed algorithm is verified for a BLDC motor with 8 poles and 12 slots used in a computer hard disk drive. Fig. 8 shows the measured current, and the first and second differences of six current responses with a constant time delay of 20, after a pulse of 12 volts is injected into all six segments of an electrical cycle whenever a rotor moves through the electrical angle of 8°. They have the same pattern of the calculated ones shown in Fig. 4 120 cuent mA uments ma 2 6 12080 ako lectsa angle, eg, ° 6 120 1 240 00 eo lcticl angle, dog Fig. 8 Measured current (i) responses and their frst and second differences 10 the rotor positions ‘a current (i) AB (i) BA Gi) CA (i) AC @) BC (vi) CB beatrent (4) (dis = ff ip Gin = i current (Adi) @) dai = Aly ~ dis (i) Ady (i) Adis = i, ~ 41, Fig. 9 shows six current responses when the rotor is at a standstill in a certain position, A pulse of 12vols is applied for all six segments, respectively, of an electrical eycle during {BE Proc-Blet Po Appl, Vol 19, No 2, March 202 = Em | E 540 __ op LY HLM co vw k= pon Lo = golf acne older iter ae ea 204, to detect the stationary position of a rotor. Based on. the polarity of 447 in Table3 and Fig. 8, the relative position of a rotor is found to be between 150° and 210° Fig. 10 shows the current response of the pulse train once the rotor starts up. Two pulses of 12 volts, Phase and Phute are applied to the current and next commutation phases Tor the period of 50 and 20us, respectively. It shows that the current response of Pruge decreases a8 the rotor rotates Fig. 11 shows the transition of the response of the pulse train at the commutation position. When the current response of Ppyse is smaller than that of Pytse with the same time delay of 20s, the next commutation phases are energised. The pulse train can accelerate this motor up 10 3.200 rpm. This speed limit is due to the difficulty of injecting a sufficient number of pulse trains at high speed. At 3,200rpm, a commutation period is 780 us, and 7 pulse trains can be injected into the energised phase during a single commutation period. a, t ° ‘zo 400 10 Fig. 10 Response of the pulse eran during the start-up Pot id Pie Fig. 12 shows the transient response of the speed of this ‘motor due to the switch of the sensoriess algorithm, i from the proposed method to the back-emf method, at 1000, 2000 and 3000rpm, respectively. The proposed algorithm can start the motor smoothly without any vibration. The circles in Fig, 12 show the transition states, of each case from the proposed method to the back-emf method. It shows that itis efficent to switch to the back- ‘emf algorithm as early as possible, in order to reduce the transient period once the back-emf is generated enough to detect the rotor position. The PI control method is used to control the speed, and it can regulate the speed within a 0.3% error at the reference speed of 4500:pm. tat= 5 CTT © 20 40 60 @0 100 0 20 40 60 80 100 time, us time, us a > Fig. 11 Transition of the response of the pulse train at the ‘commutation position 4a Before commutation At commutation speed, em o oC Fig. 12 Transient response ofthe speed of the motor to the switch of the sensorless algorithm 1000 rpm (i) 2000 rpm i) 3000 rpm 2 5 Conclusions A method of identifying the rotor position of a BLDC motor and of driving a motor from standstill smoothly without any position sensots, using the inductance variation of the rotor position is presented. It also introduces a sensorless BLDC motor controller developed using a PC, DSP, inverter and communication circuits in order to verily the proposed algorithm. It shows that the proposed algorithm can drive a BLDC motor to medium speed smoothly without any vibration or time delay, as compared, with the conventional back-emf sensorless algorithm. 6 References 1 IZUKA, K, UZUHASHI, Hl, KANO, M, ENDO, T. and MOHRL KS "Miocompute coat or ssrks Bante mot Teeb tran nd appl BAS 31, op 9S 01 2. OGASAWARA, Said AKAGI! He ‘An appioich (0 positon Serves dre for brushless De noon HER Ts ad a W537 mp Soe oes 3 LIN PE Sn RASHID. 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