Bulletin of the Polish Academy of Sciences Technical Sciences

Among all control methods for induction motor drives, Direct Torque Control (DTC) seems to be particularly interesting being independent of machine rotor parameters and requiring no speed or position sensors. The DTC scheme is characterized by the absence of PI regulators, coordinate transformations, current regulators and PWM signals generators. In spite of its simplicity, DTC allows a good torque control in steady state and transient operating conditions to be obtained. However, the presence of hysteresis controllers for flux and torque could determine torque and current ripple and variable switching frequency operation for the voltage source inverter. This paper is aimed to analyze DTC principles, the strategies and the problems related to its implementation and the possible improvements.

Unlike traditional passive filters, modern active filters have the following multiple functions; harmonic filtering, damping, isolation and termination, reactive-power control for power factor correction and voltage regulation, load balancing, voltage-flicker reduction, and/or their combinations. Significant cost reductions in both power semiconductor devices and signal-processing devices have inspired manufactures to put active filters on the market. This paper deals with general pure active filters for power conditioning, and specific hybrid active filters for harmonic filtering of three-phase diode rectifiers, as well as traditional passive filters.

This paper presents a predictive torque and flux control algorithm for the synchronous reluctance machine. The algorithm performs a voltage space phasor pre-selection, followed by the computation of the switching instants for the optimum switching space phasors, with the advantages of inherently constant switching frequency and time equidistant implementation on a DSP based system. The criteria used to choose the appropriate voltage space phasor depend on the state of the machine and the deviations of torque and flux at the end of the cycle. The model of the machine has been developed on a d-q frame of coordinates attached to the rotor and takes into account the magnetic saturation in both d-q axes and the cross saturation phenomenon between both axes. Therefore, a very good approximation of this effect is achieved and the performance of the machine is improved. Several simulations and experimental results using a DSP and a commercially available machine show the validity of the proposed control scheme.

The predictive current controller of the DC/AC converter is presented in the article. The new expected converter current vector’s

locations can be evaluated due to the possibility of predicting the current vector’s change directions. An original method for the converter control was developed basing on the current vector changes analysis presented in this paper. This method enables to minimize the current vector error area and decrease the mean switching frequency. One of the advantages of the proposed control method is the possibility of the realization of the controller in the look-up table controller form. The results of laboratory tests proved the effectiveness of the proposed control method.

This paper presents a position sensorless drive of non salient pole PM synchronous motors for all speeds including zero speed. Using adaptive Lyapunov design a new approach for the design of an observer is developed. The resulting scheme leads to a nonlinear full order observer for the motor states including the rotor speed. Assuming motor parameters known the design achieves stability with guaranteed region of attraction even at zero speed. The control method is made robust at zero and low speed by changing the direct vector current component to a value different from zero. In order to verify the applicability of the method the controller has been implemented and tested on a 800 W motor.

The new control method for Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM) and Brushless DC Motor (BLDCM) is presented. Balance of power in three-phase permanent magnet synchronous motor is based on conservation of energy law. Space vector theory determined by instantaneous value of phase quantities is applied in mathematical analysis. It makes possible to estimate instantaneous values of reactive energy and electromagnetic torque. The presented control method belongs to flux-oriented method; it synchronizes current vector in relation to stator flux vector. New structure of control system as well as block diagram containing all basic elements and operating modes of specific blocks are described. Simulation studies and experimental results for two kinds of motors: PMSM and BLDCM were performed based on the dSPACE development DS1103 system.

This paper presents novel bi-converter structure to supply the Doubly Fed Induction Machine (DFIM). Two Voltage Source Inverters (VSI) feed the stator and rotor windings. The outputs of two VSI are combined electro-mechanically in the machine and, as a result, novel features can be obtained. For example, for high power drive applications, this configuration use two inverters dimensioned for a half of the DFIM power. A new Dual-Direct Torque Control scheme is developed with flux model of DFIM. Two Switching Tables (ST) linked to VSI are defined for stator and rotor flux vector control. Experimental and simulation results confirm good dynamic behaviour in the four quadrants of the speed-torque plane. Moreover, experimental results show the correct flux vector control behaviour and speed tracking performances.

The paper deals with the application of the extended Kalman filters in the control structure of a two-mass drive system. In the first step only linear extended Kalman filter was used for the estimation of mechanical state variables of the drive including load torque value. The estimation algorithm showed good robustness to mechanical parameters variations. For the system with some parameters changing in the wide range, simultaneous estimation of the state variables and chosen system parameters is required. For this reason the non-linear extended Kalman filter, which estimates simultaneously state variables and mechanical parameters of the two-mass drive system, was developed. Parameters of covariance matrices of used Kalman filters were set using the genetic algorithm. Both proposed estimators were investigated in simulation and experimental tests, in the open-loop operation and in the state-feedback control system of the two-mass system.

A lot of methods for sensorless drive control have been published last years for synchronous and asynchronous machines. One of the approaches uses high frequency carrier injection for position control. The injected high frequency signal is controlled to remain in alignment with the saliency produced by the saturation of the main flux. Due to the fact that it does not use the fundamental machine model which fails at standstill of the magnetic field it is possible to control the drive even at zero speed. In spite of this obvious advantage industry does not apply sensorless control in their products. This is due to the dependency of many published methods on physical parameters of the machine. The high frequency carrier injection method, presented in this paper, does not need to have exact machine parameters and it can be used for machines where there is only a very small rotor anisotropy like in Surface Mounted Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines (SMPMSM) [1]. Standard drives usually are supplied by a 6-pulse diode rectifier. Due to new European directives concerning the harmonic content in the mains it is expected that the use of controlled pulse-width modulated PWM rectifiers will be enforced in the future [2]. An important advantage of this type of rectifiers is the regeneration of the energy back to the grid. Another benefit are low harmonics in comparison to diode rectifiers. Using one of many control methods published so far it is also possible to achieve almost unity power factor. However, in these methods voltage sensors are necessary to synchronize PWM rectifiers with the mains. Therefore they are not very popular in the industry with respect to the cost and the lack of reliability. Recently a control method was proposed which is based on a tracking scheme. It does not need any voltage sensor on the ac-side of the rectifier and it does not need to know accurate parameters of the system. This paper presents the control solution for a cheap, industry friendly (no additional hardware and installation effort) drive system. The phase tracking method for control of electrical drive and PWM rectifier is described. Encouraging experimental results are shown.

In this paper an artificial neural network, which realizes a nonlinear adaptive control algorithm, has been applied in a control system of variable speed generating system. The speed is adjusted automatically as a function of load power demand. The controller employs a single layer neural network to estimate the unknown plant nonlinearities online. Optimization of the controller is difficult because the plant is nonlinear and no stationary. Furthermore, it deals with the situation where the plant becomes uncontrollable without any restrictive assumptions. In contrast to previous work [1] on the same subject, the number of neural networks has been reduced to only one network. The number of the neurons in a network structure as well as choosing certain design parameters was specified a priori. The computer test results have been presented to show performance of proposed neural controller.

The use of the passivity-based control (PBC) properly fits stability problems related to multilevel converters. Two approaches for

the PBC design have been proposed and will be reviewed in the present paper. Particularly the second is developed by splitting the system into n subsystems and controlling them independently. The partition of the multilevel converter is done on the basis of energy considerations. The main advantage of the second approach is the separate control of the different DC-links and a flexible loading capability.

A new notion of a realization of transfer matrix of (P;Q; V)-cone-system for discrete-time linear systems is proposed. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of the realizations are established. A procedure is proposed for computation of a realization of a given proper transfer matrix T(z) of (P;Q; V)-cone-system. It is shown that there exists a realization of T(z) of (P;Q; V)-cone-system if and only if there exists a positive realization of T(z) = V T(z)Q!1, where V;Q and P are non-singular matrices generating the cones V;Q and P respectively.