Industrial Engineer · phase 11 of 16
Sensorless Vector Control
Control method that estimates motor flux, speed, or torque from electrical measurements and a motor model without an encoder.
The Explain card
- Plain English
- Sensorless vector control estimates what the motor is doing from the current and voltage the drive can already measure, using a mathematical model of the motor. No encoder, and yet the drive controls flux and torque separately.
- Example
- A mixer needs strong torque at low speed to start a thick batch. In sensorless vector mode the drive holds rated torque down to a couple of hertz, where V/Hz would stall.
- Why it matters
- It is the default mode on most modern drives and gives most of the benefit of a vector drive with none of the feedback wiring. The model only works if the motor data and the autotune are right, and a wrong model is worse than no model.
- Hook
- Vector control that reads the motor instead of watching the shaft.
Where it sits in the deck
Phase 11: VFD Control Modes and Tuning
How a drive decides what to send the motor, from plain volts per hertz up to closed loop vector control, and how each mode is tuned.
