Performance Enhancement of BLDC Motor Drives Using Predictive Current Control and Sensorless Speed Estimation: A PIL Validation Study

This paper presents a high-performance sensorless control strategy for Brushless DC (BLDC) motors based on predictive current control combined with back-EMF-based speed and position estimation. The main objective is to achieve accurate speed regulation and fast dynamic response without the need for mechanical speed sensors, thereby reducing system cost, improving reliability, and simplifying hardware complexity. The proposed predictive current control algorithm ensures precise current tracking and rapid torque production under varying operating conditions, including speed reference changes and load torque disturbances. A comprehensive comparative analysis is conducted between the proposed sensorless approach and a conventional sensored control scheme. The obtained results demonstrate that the sensorless controller achieves speed, torque, and current performance that is nearly identical to the sensored system, with negligible differences in rise time, overshoot, steady-state error, and torque ripple. The dynamic response remains smooth and well-damped, confirming the effectiveness of the proposed estimation technique in maintaining accurate rotor synchronization under transient conditions. In addition, the influence of a proportional–integral speed controller with and without anti-windup compensation is investigated. The results show that the anti-windup mechanism significantly improves transient performance by reducing overshoot, eliminating startup undershoot, shortening settling time, and mitigating speed estimation errors during large reference changes and actuator saturation conditions, while preserving zero steady-state error. To validate the real-time feasibility of the proposed control strategy, a Processor-in-the-Loop (PIL) co-simulation platform is implemented using the C2000 LaunchXL-F28379D digital signal processor. The PIL results confirm that the algorithm can be executed under strict real-time constraints with acceptable computational burden, memory usage, and execution time. Overall, the proposed sensorless predictive current control strategy demonstrates strong robustness, high accuracy, and practical applicability for industrial BLDC motor drive systems operating under diverse and dynamic conditions.