Electric Power Systems Research 72 (2004) 21–32

A sensorless variable structure control of induction motor drives

O. Barambones∗ , A.J. Garrido
Dpto. Ingenieria de Sistemas y Automatica E.U.I.T.I Bilbao, Universidad del Pais Vasco, Plaza de la Casilla, 48012 Bilbao, Spain

Received 29 September 2003; received in revised form 29 January 2004; accepted 13 February 2004

Available online 2 June 2004

Abstract

In this paper, an indirect field-oriented induction motor drive with a sliding-mode controller is presented. The design includes rotor speed
estimation from measured stator terminal voltages and currents. The estimated speed is used as feedback in an indirect vector control system
achieving the speed control without the use of shaft mounted transducers. Stability analysis based on Lyapunov theory is also presented, to
guarantee the closed loop stability. The high performance of the proposed control scheme under load disturbances and parameter uncertainties
is also demonstrated via simulation examples.
© 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Sensorless variable structure; Sliding-mode controller; Lyapunov theory

1. Introduction dynamics, insensitivity to parameter variations, external dis-

Indirect field-oriented techniques microprocessors are
now widely used for the control of induction motor
servo drive in high-performance applications. With the
field-oriented techniques [3,7,16], the decoupling of torque
and flux control commands of the induction motor is guar-
anteed, and the induction motor can be controlled linearly
as a separated excited dc motor. However, the control per-
formance of the resulting linear system is still influenced
by the uncertainties, which are usually composed of unpre-
dictable parameter variations, external load disturbances,
unmodelled and nonlinear dynamics. Therefore, many stud-
ies have been made on the motor drives in order to preserve
the performance under these parameter variations and ex-
ternal load disturbances, such as nonlinear control, optimal
control, variable structure system control, adaptive control
and neural control [8–10].
In the past decade, the variable structure control strategy
using the sliding-mode has been focussed on many studies
and research for the control of the ac servo drive systems
[2,4,11,13]. The sliding-mode control can offer many good
properties, such as good performance against unmodelled
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +34-94-6014459; fax: +34-94-4441625.
E-mail address: ispbacao@ehu.es (O. Barambones).
turbance rejection and fast dynamic response [15]. These
advantages of the sliding-mode control may be employed in
the position and speed control of an ac servo system.
On the other hand, in indirect field-oriented control of in-
duction motors, a knowledge of rotor speed is required in
order to orient the injected stator current vector and to estab-
lish speed loop feedback control. Tachogenerators or digital
shaft-position encoders are usually used to detect the rotor
speed of motors. These speed sensors lower the system re-
liability and require special attention to noise. In addition,
for some special applications such as very high-speed mo-
tor drives, there exist difficulties in mounting these speed
sensors.
Recently, many research has been carried on the design
of speed sensorless control schemes [5,6,14,12,17]. In these
schemes the speed is obtained based on the measurement
of stator voltages and currents. However, the estimation
is usually complex and heavily dependent on machine pa-
rameters. Therefore, although sensorless vector-controlled
drives are commercially available at this time, the pa-
rameter uncertainties impose a challenge in the control
performance.
This paper presents a new sensorless vector control
scheme consisting on the one hand of a speed estimation al-
gorithm which overcomes the necessity of the speed sensor
and on the other hand of a novel variable structure control

0378-7796/$ – see front matter © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.epsr.2004.02.004
22 O. Barambones, A.J. Garrido / Electric Power Systems Research 72 (2004) 21–32

law with an integral sliding surface that compensates the Substituting the Eqs. (7) and (8) in the Eq. (6) it is ob-
uncertainties that are present in the system. tained:
The closed loop stability of the proposed scheme is  
Lm ψdr iqs − ψqr ids
demonstrated using the Lyapunov stability theory, and the we = wr − = (7)
exponential convergence of the controlled speed is provided. Tr ψdr
2 + ψ2
qr
This report is organized as follows. The rotor speed esti-
Then Substituting the Eq. (6) in the Eq. (7), and finding
mation is introduced in Section 2. Then, the proposed vari-
wr we obtain:
able structure robust speed control is presented in Section 3.
In Section 4, some simulation results are presented. Finally  
1 Lm
some concluding remarks are stated in the last section. wr = 2 ψdr ψ̇qr − ψqr ψ̇dr + (ψdr iqs − ψqr ids ) ,
ψr Tr
(8)
2. Calculation of the motor speed where ψr2 = ψdr 2 + ψ2 .
qr
Therefore, given a complete knowledge of the motor pa-
Many schemes [1] based on simplified motor models have rameters, the instantaneous speed wr can be calculated from
been devised to sense the speed of the induction motor from the previous equation, where the stator measured current and
measured terminal quantities for control purposes. In order voltages, and the rotor flux estimated obtained from a rotor
to obtain an accurate dynamic representation of the motor flux observer based on Eqs. (1) and (2) are employed.
speed, it is necessary to base the calculation on the coupled
circuit equations of the motor.
Since the motor voltages and currents are measured in a 3. Variable structure robust speed control
stationary frame of reference, it is also convenient to express
these equations in that stationary frame. In general, the mechanical equation of an induction motor
From the stator voltage equations in the stationary frame can be written as:
it is obtained [3]:

 J ẇm + Bwm + TL = Te (9)
Lr Lr d
ψ̇dr = vds − Rs + σLs ids (1) where J and B are the inertia constant and the viscous friction
Lm Lm dt

 coefficient of the induction motor system, respectively; TL is
Lr Lr d the external load; wm the rotor mechanical speed in angular
ψ̇qr = vqs − Rs + σLs iqs (2)
Lm Lm dt frequency, which is related to the rotor electrical speed by
wm = 2wr /p, where p is the pole numbers and Te denotes
where ψ is the flux linkage; L the inductance; v the voltage; the generated torque of an induction motor, defined as [3]:
R the resistance; i the current and σ = 1 − L2m /(Lr Ls ) the
3p Lm e e
motor leakage coefficient. The subscripts r and s denotes the Te = (ψ i − ψqr
e e
ids ) (10)
rotor and stator values, respectively, refereed to the stator, 4 Lr dr qs
and the subscripts d and q denote the d- and q-axis compo- where ψdre and ψ e are the rotor-flux linkages, with the sub-
qr
nents in the stationary reference frame. script ‘e’ denoting that the quantity is referred to the syn-
The rotor flux equations in the stationary frame are [3]: chronously rotating reference frame; ieqs and ieds are the stator
Lm 1 currents, and p is the pole numbers.
ψ̇dr = ids − wr ψqr − ψdr (3) The relation between the synchronously rotating reference
Tr Tr
frame and the stationary reference frame is performed by
Lm 1 the so-called reverse Park’s transformation:
ψ̇qr = iqs + wr ψdr − ψqr (4)    
Tr Tr
xa cos(θe ) −sin(θe )  
where wr is the rotor electrical speed and Tr = Lr /Rr is the     xd
 xb  =  cos(θe − 2π/3) −sin(θe − 2π/3)  x
rotor time constant. q
xc cos(θe + 2π/3) −sin(θe + 2π/3)
The angle θ e of the rotor flux vector (ψ̄r ) in relation to
(11)
the d-axis of the stationary frame is defined as follows:

 where θ e is the angle position between the d-axis of the
ψqr
θe = arctan (5) synchronously rotating reference frame and the a-axis of
ψdr
the stationary reference frame, and it is assumed that the
being its derivative: quantities are balanced.
Using the field-orientation control principle [3] the current
ψdr ψ̇qr − ψqr ψ̇dr component ieds is aligned in the direction of the rotor flux
θ̇e = we = (6)
ψdr
2 + ψ2
qr vector ψ̄r , and the current component ieqs is aligned in the
 O. Barambones, A.J. Garrido / Electric Power Systems Research 72 (2004) 21–32 23

direction perpendicular to it. At this condition, it is satisfied In order to obtain the speed trajectory tracking, the fol-
that: lowing assumption should be formulated:(A1) The gain k
must be chosen so that the term (k − a) is strictly negative,
ψqr
e
= 0, ψdr
e
= |ψ̄r | (12)
therefore k < 0.
Therefore, taking into account the previous results, the Then the sliding surface is defined as:
t
equation of induction motor torque (10) is simplified to:
S(t) = e(t) − (k − a)e(τ) dτ = 0 (24)
3p Lm e e 0
Te = ψ i = KT ieqs (13)
4 Lr dr qs The variable structure speed controller is designed as:
where Kt is the torque constant, and is defined as follows: u(t) = ke(t) − βsgn(S) (25)
3p Lm e∗ where the k is the gain defined previously, β the switching
KT = ψ (14)
4 Lr dr gain, S the sliding variable defined in Eq. (23) and sgn(·) is
the sign function.
where ψdr
e∗ denotes the command rotor flux.
In order to obtain the speed trajectory tracking, the fol-
With the above mentioned proper field orientation, the lowing assumption should be formulated:(A2) The gain β
dynamic of the rotor flux is given by [3]: must be chosen so that β ≥ |d(t)| for all time.
e
dψdr ψe Lm e
+ dr = i (15) Theorem 1. Consider the induction motor given by
dt Te Lr ds
Eq. (18). Then, if assumptions (A1) and (A2) are verified,
Then, the mechanical Eq. (9) becomes: the control law (25) leads the rotor mechanical speed wm (t)
ẇm + awm + f = bieqs (16) so that the speed tracking error e(t) = wm (t) − w∗m (t) tends
to zero as the time tends to infinity.
where the parameter are defined as:
B KT TL The proof of this theorem will be carried out using the
a= , b= , f = ; (17)
J J J Lyapunov stability theory.
Now, we are going to consider the previous mechanical Proof: Define the Lyapunov function candidate:
Eq. (16) with uncertainties as follows: 1
V(t) = S(t) S(t) (26)
2
ẇm = −(a + a)wm + (f + f) + (b + b)ieqs (18)
Its time derivative is calculated as:
where the terms a, b and f represents the uncertainties
of the terms a, b and f, respectively. V̇ (t) = S(t) Ṡ(t) = S[ė − (k − a)e]
Let us define the tracking speed error as follows: = S[(−ae + u + d) − (ke − ae)] = S[u + d − ke]
e(t) = wm (t) − w∗m (t) (19) = S[ke − β sgn(S) + d − ke] = S[d − β sgn(S)]
≤ − β − |d| |S| ≤ 0 (27)
where w∗m is the rotor speed command.
Taking the derivative of the previous equation with respect It should be noted that the Eqs. (23), (20) and (25), and the
to time yields: assumption (A2) have been used in the proof.
Using the Lyapunov’s direct method, since V(t) is clearly
ė(t) = ẇm − ẇ∗m = −ae(t) + u(t) + d(t) (20)
positive-definite, V̇ (t) is negative definite and V(t) tends to
where the following terms have been collected in the signal infinity as S(t) tends to infinity, then the equilibrium at the
u(t), origin S(t) = 0 is globally asymptotically stable. Therefore
S(t) tends to zero as the time t tends to infinity. Moreover,
u(t) = bieqs (t) − aw∗m (t) − f(t) − ẇ∗m (t) (21) all trajectories starting off the sliding surface S = 0 must
reach it in finite time and then will remain on this surface.
and the uncertainty terms have been collected in the signal
This system’s behavior once on the sliding surface is usually
d(t),
called sliding mode [15].
d(t) = −awm (t) − f(t) + bieqs (t) (22) When the sliding mode occurs on the sliding surface (24),
then S(t) = Ṡ(t) = 0, and therefore, the dynamic behavior
Now, we are going to define the sliding variable S(t) with of the tracking problem (20) is equivalently governed by the
an integral component as: following equation:
t
Ṡ(t) = 0 ⇒ ė(t) = (k − a)e(t) (28)
S(t) = e(t) − (k − a)e(τ) dτ (23)
0
Then, under assumption (A1), the tracking error e(t) con-
where k is a constant gain. verges to zero exponentially.
24 O. Barambones, A.J. Garrido / Electric Power Systems Research 72 (2004) 21–32

Fig. 1. Block diagram of the proposed sliding-mode field oriented control.

It should be noted that, a typical motion under sliding 4. Simulation results

mode control consists of a reaching phase during which tra-
jectories starting off the sliding surface S = 0 move toward it In this section, we will study the speed regulation perfor-
and reach it in finite time, followed by sliding phase during mance of the proposed sliding-mode field oriented control
which the motion will be confined to this surface and the sys- versus reference and load torque variations by means of two
tem tracking error will be represented by the reduced-order different simulation examples.
model (28), where the tracking error tends to zero. The block diagram of the proposed robust control scheme
Finally, the torque current command, i∗qs (t), can be ob- is presented in Fig. 1.
tained directly substituting Eq. (25) in Eq. (21): The block ‘VSC Controller’ represents the proposed
sliding-mode controller, and it is implemented by Eqs. (23)
1 and (29). The block ‘limiter’ limits the current applied
i∗qs (t) = [ke − β sgn(S) + aw∗m + ẇ∗m + f ] (29)
b to the motor windings so that it remains within the limit
value, and it is implemented by a saturation function. The
Therefore, the proposed variable structure speed control block ‘dqe → abc makes the conversion between the syn-
resolves the speed tracking problem for the induction motor, chronously rotating and stationary reference frames, and is
with some uncertainties in mechanical parameters and load implemented by Eq. (11). The block ‘Current Controller’
torque. consists of a three hysteresis-band current PWM control,

Fig. 2. Reference and real rotor speed signals (rad/s).

 O. Barambones, A.J. Garrido / Electric Power Systems Research 72 (2004) 21–32 25

Fig. 3. Stator current isa (A).

which is basically an instantaneous feedback current control
method of PWM where the actual current (iabc ) continually
tracks the command current (i∗abc ) within a hysteresis band.
The block ‘PWM Inverter’ is a six IGBT-diode bridge
inverter with 780 V DC voltage source. The block ‘Field
Weakening’ gives the flux command based on rotor speed,
so that the PWM controller does not saturate. The block
ds Calculation’ provides the current reference ids from the
‘ie∗
e∗
The block ‘wr and we Estimator’ represent the pro-
posed rotor speed and synchronous speed estimator,
and is implemented by the Eqs. (8) and (6) respec-
tively. The block ‘IM’ represents the induction
motor.
The induction motor used in this case study is a 50 HP,
460 V, four pole, 60 Hz motor having the following pa-
rameters: Rs = 0.087 ', Rr = 0.228 ', Ls = 35.5 mH, Lr

rotor flux reference through the Eq. (15). = 35.5 mH, and Lm = 34.7 mH.

Fig. 4. Motor torque (Nm).

26 O. Barambones, A.J. Garrido / Electric Power Systems Research 72 (2004) 21–32

Fig. 5. Stator current ieds (A).

The system has the following mechanical parameters: J
= 1.662 kgm2 and B = 0.1 Nms. It is assumed that there is
an uncertainty around 20% in the system parameters, that
will be overcome by the proposed sliding control.
The following values have been chosen for the controller
parameters, k = −100, β = 30.
First example: In this first example, the motor starts from
a standstill state and we want the rotor speed to follow a
speed command that starts from zero and accelerates until
the rotor speed is 90 rad/s. The system starts with an initial
load torque TL = 50 Nm, and at time t = 1 s the load torque
steps from Tl = 50 Nm to TL = 100 Nm.
Fig. 2 shows the desired rotor speed (dashed line) and the
real rotor speed (solid line). As may be observed, the rotor
speed tracks the desired speed in spite of system uncertain-
ties. Moreover, the speed tracking is not affected by the load

Fig. 6. Stator current ieqs (A).

 O. Barambones, A.J. Garrido / Electric Power Systems Research 72 (2004) 21–32 27

Fig. 7. Rotor flux ψdr (Wb).

torque change at the time t = 1 s, because when the slid-
ing surface is reached (sliding mode) the system becomes
insensitive to the boundary external disturbances.
Fig. 3 shows the current of one stator winding. This fig-
ure shows that in the initial state, the current signal presents
a high value because it is necessary a high torque to incre-
ment the rotor speed. In the constant speed region, the mo-
tor torque only has to compensate the friction and the load
torque and so, the current is lower. Finally, at time t = 1 s
the current increases because the load torque has been in-
creased.
Fig. 4 shows the motor torque. As in the case of the current
(Fig. 3), the motor torque has a high initial value speed in
the acceleration zone, then the value decreases in a constant
region and finally increases due to the load torque incre-
ment. In this figure, it may be seen that in the motor torque

Fig. 8. Stator current ψqr (Wb).

28 O. Barambones, A.J. Garrido / Electric Power Systems Research 72 (2004) 21–32

Fig. 9. Reference and real rotor speed signals (rad/s).

appears the so-called chattering phenomenon, however, this
high frequency changes in the torque will be filtered by the
mechanical system inertia.
Figs. 5 and 6 shows the stator currents in the rotating ref-
erence frame. As may be observed in the figures, both cur-
rents present a initial peak at the beginning, as it is usual
in the starting of motors. Then the current, ieds , correspond-
ing to the field component, remains constant. On the other
hand, the current ieqs , corresponding to the torque compo-
nent, varies with the torque; that is, presents a high initial
value in the acceleration zone, then the value decreases in a
constant region and finally increases due to the load torque
increment.
Figs. 7 and 8 shows the estimated rotor flux in the sta-
tionary reference frame. As may be observed the rotor flux
starts from zero and increases until the nominal value.
Second example: In this second example, the final state of
the previous example has been used as initial condition. That

Fig. 10. Stator current isa (A).

 O. Barambones, A.J. Garrido / Electric Power Systems Research 72 (2004) 21–32 29

Fig. 11. Motor torque (Nm) (A).

is, the motor and the reference speeds are initially 90 rad/s
with a load torque of TL = 100 Mm, then at time t = 0.3 s
the speed reference changes from this value to 120 rad/s.
Fig. 9 shows the desired rotor speed (dashed line) and
the real rotor speed (solid line). As it may be observed,
the rotor speed tracks the desired speed in spite of system
uncertainties as in the previous example. Nevertheless, when
the speed reference steps to its final value at time t = 0.3 s,
the motor can not follow this reference instantaneously due
to the physical limitations of the system. However, after a
transitory time in which the motor accelerates until the final
speed the trajectory tracking is obtained.
Fig. 10 shows the current of one of the stator windings.
This figure shows that in the initial state, the current sig-
nal is constant because the speed is constant, then the cur-
rent increased because the motor is accelerating, and finally

Fig. 12. Stator current ieds .

30 O. Barambones, A.J. Garrido / Electric Power Systems Research 72 (2004) 21–32

Fig. 13. Stator current ieqs (A).

remains constant again because the speed is constant. At this
point it should be noted that the final current value is sim-
ilar to the initial one. This is reasonable because the only
difference in the torque of both initial (wm = 90 rad/s) and
final (wm = 120 rad/s) states relies in the friction term that
presents a small variation.
Fig. 11 shows the motor torque. As in the case of the
current (Fig. 10), the motor torque has constant value in the
initial state, then increases due to the acceleration of the
motor, and finally remains constant again.
Figs. 12 and 13 shows the stator currents in the rotating
reference frame. As may be observed in the figures, the
current ieds , corresponding to the field component, remains
constant because the flux is maintained constant, and the
current ieqs , corresponding to the torque component, varies
with the torque.

Fig. 14. Rotor flux ψdr (Wb).

 O. Barambones, A.J. Garrido / Electric Power Systems Research 72 (2004) 21–32
Fig. 15. Stator current ψqr (Wb).
Finally, Figs. 14 and 15 shows the estimated rotor flux
in the stationary reference frame. As may be observed the
rotor flux remains constant at the nominal value.
5. Conclusions
In this paper, a sensorless sliding mode vector control
has been presented. The rotor speed estimator is based on
stator voltage equations and rotor flux equations in the sta-
tionary reference frame. It is proposed a variable structure
control which has an integral sliding surface to relax the
requirement of the acceleration signal, that is usual in con-
ventional sliding mode speed control techniques. Due to the
nature of the sliding control this control scheme is robust un-
der uncertainties caused by parameter errors or by changes
in the load torque. The closed loop stability of the pre-
sented design has been proved through Lyapunov stability
theory. Finally, by means of simulation examples, it has been
shown that the proposed control scheme performs reason-
ably well in practice, and that the speed tracking objective
is achieved under uncertainties in the parameters and load
torque.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the Basque Country University
for partial support of this work through the research Project
1/UPV 00146.363-E-13992/2001.
31
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