A review on sensorless techniques for sustainable reliablity and efficient variable frequency drives of induction motors

Variable frequency drives (VFDs) can provide reliable dynamic systems and significant savings in energy usage and costs of the induction motors (IMs). Sensorless controlled IM drives have advantages in terms of efficiency enhancement and energy savings for critical applications such as electric vehicles, high performance machine tools, fans, compressors, etc. IM drives without having speed sensors or optical encoders mounted at the motor shaft are attractive because of their lower cost and higher reliability. When mechanical speed sensor is removed, the rotor speed information is estimated using the measured quantities of stator voltages and currents at the IM terminals. This paper highlights the sensorless techniques applied to the IM drives for sustainable reliability and energy savings. Overview on the IM mathematical model is briefly summarized to establish a physical basis for the sensorless schemes used. Further, the different types of IM-VEDs are presented in the paper. The main focus of this review is on the sensorless estimation techniques which are being applied to make IM-VFDs more effective during wide speed operations including very-high and very-low speed regions. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.