Abstract
Operating high-speed Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM) drives at low carrier-to-fundamental frequency (C/F) ratios is critical for improving system efficiency, but it severely degrades the stability and performance of conventional sensorless control schemes. This paper addresses this critical system-level challenge. To overcome these limitations, a robust sensorless control strategy based on Active Disturbance Rejection Control (ADRC) is proposed, which enhances system resilience by actively estimating and compensating for total disturbances arising from parameter uncertainties and unmodeled dynamics. To make this advanced yet computationally intensive algorithm feasible for practical implementation, a high-fidelity hybrid (HY) discretization method is developed. This scheme achieves RK4-level accuracy for critical nonlinear dynamics while reducing the computational load by 30%. Subsequently, a systematic stability analysis is conducted to delineate the performance boundaries of conventional techniques and theoretically validate the superior stability of the proposed HY-discretized ADRC framework in the low C/F ratio domain. The proposed strategy’s effectiveness is comprehensively validated on a 100-kW, 20,000 r/min industrial PMSM platform. Experimental results demonstrate stable, high-performance operation at C/F ratios as low as 6 and showcase superior robustness against significant parameter mismatches, confirming its viability for demanding drive systems.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during and analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to commercial confidentiality and intellectual property protection regarding the industrial prototype platform, but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request and subject to a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).
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Funding
The work was supported by the Project of National Natural Science: Foundation-of China under-Grant U2541284.
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Z.L. conceived and designed the study, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, prepared all figures, and wrote the main manuscript text. S.J. and H.W. reviewed and edited the manuscript. F.Z. was responsible for the supervision and funding acquisition for the project. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Lin, Z., Jin, S., Wang, H. et al. Robust sensorless control of high speed PMSM drives under low carrier ratios and parameter uncertainties. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-41212-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-41212-z


