Input vector set for position detection of pm motors

Abstract

A method of determining angular position (θ) of a rotor of an N-phase permanent magnet motor (PMM). A processor having an associated stored angular position determination (APD) algorithm is programmed to implement the algorithm to cause an associated motor controller to execute steps including forcing one vector at a time a phase vector set of current or voltage vectors to stator terminals of windings for the N-phases a positive and negative magnitude vector, wherein the vector magnitude is sufficiently small to not move the rotor, and a time duration for the forcing current or voltage vectors is essentially constant. The resulting stator current or voltage levels are measured for each current or voltage vector. An N-dimension current vector or voltage vector is generated from superposition of the resulting stator current levels or resulting stator voltage levels. The N-dimension current vector or voltage vector is used to determine angular position.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.