SENSORLESS CONTROL OF SWITCHED RELUCTANCE ELECTRIC MACHINES

A system and methodology for control of a switched reluctance electric machine comprising: a switched reluctance electric machine including a sensor generating and transmitting a sensor signal indicative of an operating characteristic; a controller operatively coupled to the switched reluctance motor and the sensor; and the controller executing a method. The method comprises: probing a selected diagnostic phase with a pulse injection process; measuring an actual operating characteristic of the switched reluctance electric machine; computing an inductance based on the actual operating characteristic and correlating the inductance with a position to formulate an estimated position; modeling the switched reluctance electric machine to formulate an observer-based estimated position; selecting at one of the estimated position, the observer-based estimated position, and a combination thereof to formulate a selected position of the switched reluctance machine; and controlling said switched reluctance machine based on said selected position and a command.