Research articleSensorless control for switched reluctance motor based on special position detection

•A new sensorless control scheme for switched reluctance motor is proposed.•Sensorless control for SRM based on special position detection.•The position estimation method is not affected by the magnetic saturation of SRM.•The sensorless method is suitable for medium and high-speed operation.

This paper proposes a new sensorless control approach for switched reluctance motor (SRM) in the single pulse control mode in high speed operation. The sensorless method uses the cross point position of transformer electromotive force (EMF) and motional back electromotive force (BEMF) to estimate the rotor position. The cross point position can be derived from the inductance model of SRM, and it is regarded as reference position. The rotor position can be calculated by detecting the special position for each electrical cycle. The proposed position estimation method is not affected by the magnetic saturation of SRM. Importantly, no additional hardware and no complicated computation or memory storage are required with the proposed method. Finally, the simulation and experimental results on a three-phase 12/8-pole SRM demonstrate the validity of the proposed sensorless scheme.