Research ArticleVery-low speed control of PMSM based on EKF estimation with closed loop optimized parameters

- An extended Kalman filter (EKF) with low-precision position sensor is presented for performance of PMSM at very low speed.
- A closed loop optimal (CLO) method is devised to overcome the difficulty to adjust the parameters of the EKF.
- An experimental system is designed for algorithm testing.
- Simulation and experimental results show that the matrices of EKF could be adjusted optimally by CLO method.

When calculating the speed from the position of permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM), the accuracy and real-time are limited by the precision of the sensor. This problem causes crawling and jitter at very-low speed. Using the angle from the position sensor, an extended Kalman filter (EKF) designed in dq-coordinate is presented to solve this problem. The usage of position sensor simplifies the model and improves the accuracy of speed estimation. Specially, a closed loop optimal (CLO) method is devised to overcome the difficulty to adjust the parameters of the EKF. The EKF is the feedback link of speed control, CLO method is derived from the perspective of the speed step response to optimize the measurement covariance matrix and the system covariance matrix of EKF. Simulation and experimental results, comparing the low-speed performance of the EKF and sensor feedback methods, prove the effectiveness of the method to adjust the parameters of EKF and the advantages in eliminating the low speed jitter.