We propose a novel nonlinear tracking control algorithm for induction motors with uncertain load torque in which only stator currents are used for feedback: rotor speed and flux sensors are not required; no open-loop integration of flux dynamics is used. For a class of reference signals, for sufficiently small computable time-varying load torque uncertainty and for any initial condition belonging to an explicitly computed region, closed-loop boundedness is guaranteed while, under persistency of excitation, local exponential rotor speed and flux modulus tracking are achieved in the case of constant load torque. Figure 5. Rotor speed and flux modulus reference signals, applied load torque and function h(t) in (18). in which V 1 (·) and V 2 (·) are defined in (25) and (27), respectively, while the matrix Q p (t) is the solution of the linear matrix differential equatioṅThe result follows on using slight modifications of the arguments adopted in the proof of Lemma 1 in [19], guaranteeing the existence of suitable positive reals s0 , s1 , p [depending on T p and k p ] for which function W has a locally negative definite time derivative along the trajectories of the closed-loop system (1) and (8)-(11).
Remark 2According to Theorem 2, under persistency of excitation, exponential rotor speed and flux modulus tracking may be guaranteed despite constant load torque uncertainty even in the presence of uncertain flux initial values: this improves the adaptive control algorithms which make use of open-loop integration of flux dynamics.