Detuning Minimization of Induction Motor Drive System for Alternative Energy Vehicles

This paper evaluates different types of AC machines and various control techniques for their suitability for the drive system of Alternative Energy Vehicles (AEV). An Indirect Field Oriented (IFO) drive system for the AEV application is chosen and its major problem of detuning is addressed by designing an offline and an online rotor resistance adaptation technique. The offline scheme sets the slip gain at various operating conditions based on the fact that if the rotor resistance is set correctly and field orientation is achieved, then there should be a linear relationship between the torque current and the output torque. The online technique is designed using Model Reference Adaptive System (MRAS) for the rotor resistance adaptation. For an ideal field oriented machine, the rotor flux along the q-axis should be zero. This condition acts as a reference model for the proposed MRAS scheme. The current model flux observer in the synchronous frame of reference is selected as an adjustable model and its rotor resistance is tuned so that the flux along the q-axis becomes zero. The effectiveness of the offline tuning scheme is evident through performance validation of the drive system, which is implemented in a real Ford vehicle. The experimental results obtained while driving the test vehicle are included in the paper while the proposed online scheme is validated on a 3.75 kW prototype induction motor.