Pulse Counting Sensorless Detection of the Shaft Speed and Position of DC Motor Based Electromechanical Actuators

Some of DC actuators used in home automation, office automation, medical equipment and automotive systems require a position sensor. In low power applications, the introduction of such a transducer remarkably increases the whole system cost, which justifies the development of sensorless position estimation techniques. The well-known AC motor drive sensorless techniques exploiting the fundamental component of the back electromotive force cannot be used on DC motor drives. In addition, the sophisticated approaches based on current or voltage signal injection cannot be used. Therefore, an effective and inexpensive sensorless position estimation technique suitable for DC motors is presented in this paper. This technique exploits the periodic pulses of the armature current caused by commutation. It is based on a simple pulse counting algorithm, suitable for coping with the rather large variability of the pulse frequency and it leads to the realization of a sensorless position control system for low cost, medium performance systems, like those in the field of automotive applications.