In this paper, an observer-based controller scheme is designed to robustly drive a sensorless Induction Motor (IM) even for the case of low frequencies with unknown load torque. Combining the field oriented control strategy with the backstepping control method, we introduce additional integral terms to improve the robustness properties of the controller in spite of uncertainties and perturbations. The estimation of the fluxes, the speed, the load torque and moreover the stator resistance is given by an adaptive interconnected observer. The practical stability of the proposed observer-controller scheme is proved. Finally, some experimental test results are given on the framework of a specific sensorless induction motor benchmark. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.