Modular Multilevel Converter with Wireless Magnetic Power Decoupling for Three-phase MV Adjustable-speed Drives

In this paper,we propose a modular multilevel converter(MMC)with a wireless magnetic power decoupling approach suitable for medium-voltage high-power variable-speed machine drives.Our proposed power decoupling approach is independent of the operating frequency,which solves the issue of wide fluctuations of low-frequency voltage ripple components in submodule(SM)capacitors,especially at low-speed operations without using any ripple power capacitor.Employing wireless magnetic elements reduces the amount of high-voltage insulation between the transformer windings,resulting in a significant reduction in the overall size of the system.The basic idea of our proposed approach is to magnetically couple the instantaneous three-phase ripple power of each of the three adjacent-arm SMs.The proposed MMC is free from low-frequency capacitors,resulting in enhanced system reliability,volume,and lifetime.The operation principles of the proposed MMC are explained,and a control design is introduced.The performance of the proposed scheme was verified via simulation and experimental tests.

Review of Three-phase Soft Switching Inverters and Challenges for Motor Drives

For electric vehicles (EVs),it is necessary to improve endurance mileage by improving the efficiency.There exists a trend towards increasing the system voltage and switching frequency,contributing to improve charging speed and power density.However,this trend poses significant challenges for high-voltage and high-frequency motor controllers,which are plagued by increased switching losses and pronounced switching oscillations as consequences of hard switching.The deployment of soft switching technology presents a viable solution to mitigate these issues.This paper reviews the applications of soft switching technologies for three-phase inverters and classifies them based on distinct characteristics.For each type of inverter,the advantages and disadvantages are evaluated.Then,the paper introduces the research progress and control methods of soft switching inverters (SSIs).Moreover,it presents a comparative analysis among the conventional hard switching inverters (HSIs),an active clamping resonant DC link inverter (ACRDCLI) and an auxiliary resonant commuted pole inverter (ARCPI).Finally,the problems and prospects of soft switching technology applied to motor controllers for EVs are put forward.

UP,UPAND AWAY! Innovation drives a new horizon in the low-altitude economy

Defined as activities inairspacebelow 1,000 meters,lowaltitude economy leverages manned and unmanned aircraft,driving integrated developmentacross industries.Whereas Western nations did get a head start in this sector,with the global push for the low-altitude economy beginning in 2016 as the United States Federal Aviation Administration issued Rule 107-governing the operation of commercial drones.

Heberlein jet technology drives innovations in demanding technical applications

Heberlein Technology AG,Wattwil,Switzerland,March 7,2024–Unique technology for creating advanced technical textiles with exquisite characteristics was featured at the Techtextil in Germany.Heberlein,the leading supplier of air interlacing and air texturing jets,plans to convince visitors to the event with critical components–such as the latest PolyJet-TG-3–that can influence both yarn properties and processes.

Analysis to the Driving Force Model and Drives Factor on the Utilized Changes of Cultivated Land in Qinghai Lake Area

Using path analysis, correlation analysis, partial correlation analysis and system dynamics method to study the driving force of cultivated land in Qinghai Lake Area, and using gradually regression analysis to establish the driving force model of utilized change of cultivated land. Driving factors, action mechanism and process of utilized change of cultivated land were analyzed, and the differences during all factors were compared. The study provides some decision basis for sustainable utilization and management of land resources in Qinghai Lake Area.

A generic PWM strategy for multi-leg VSI-fed machine drives

A generic pulse width modulation（PWM） strategy is proposed for the multi-leg voltage source inverter（VSI）.First, the multi-leg VSI is modeled, which is independent from the load structure. Secondly, the proposed PWM strategy is deduced by inverting the mathematical model of the multileg VSI. According to the relationship between the leg number of VSIs and the phase number of electrical machines, the multi-leg VSI-fed machine drives are classified into two types：matched and unmatched applications. The leg numbers of VSIs and the phase number of electrical machines are equal in matched applications while they are different in unmatched applications. The existing PWM strategies cannot be directly used for both matched and unmatched applications. However,the proposed PWM strategy can be general for both matched and unmatched applications, and no modifications are required. The effectiveness of the proposed PWM strategy is verified by experimental results.

Sliding Mode Control in Power Converters and Drives: A Review

Sliding mode control(SMC)has been studied since the 1950s and widely used in practical applications due to its insensitivity to matched disturbances.The aim of this paper is to present a review of SMC describing the key developments and examining the new trends and challenges for its application to power electronic systems.The fundamental theory of SMC is briefly reviewed and the key technical problems associated with the implementation of SMC to power converters and drives,such chattering phenomenon and variable switching frequency,are discussed and analyzed.The recent developments in SMC systems,future challenges and perspectives of SMC for power converters are discussed.

Robust Optimum Design of Thrust Hydrodynamic Bearings for Hard Disk Drives

This paper describes the robust optimum design which combines the geometrical optimization method proposed by Hashimoto and statistical method. Recently, 2.5″ hard disk drives (HDDs) are widely used for mobile devices such as laptops, video cameras and car navigation systems. In mobile applications, high durability towards external vibrations and shocks are essentials to the bearings of HDD spindle motor. In addition, the bearing characteristics are influenced by manufacturing error because of small size of the bearings of HDD. In this paper, the geometrical optimization is carried out to maximize the bearing stiffness using sequential quadratic programming to improve vibration characteristics. Additionally, the bearing stiffness is analyzed considering dimensional tolerance of the bearing using statistical method. The dimensional tolerance is assumed to distribute according to the Gaussian distribution, and then the bearing stiffness is estimated by combining the expectation and standard deviation. As a result, in the robust optimum design, new groove geometry of bearing can be obtained in which the bearing stiffness is four times higher than the stiffness of conventional spiral groove bearing. Moreover, the bearing has lower variability compared with the result of optimum design neglecting dimensional tolerance.

Synthesis of Fractional-order PI Controllers and Fractional-order Filters for Industrial Electrical Drives

This paper introduces an electrical drives control architecture combining a fractional-order controller and a setpoint pre-filter. The former is based on a fractional-order proportional-integral(PI) unit, with a non-integer order integral action, while the latter can be of integer or non-integer type. To satisfy robustness and dynamic performance specifications, the feedback controller is designed by a loop-shaping technique in the frequency domain. In particular, optimality of the feedback system is pursued to achieve input-output tracking. The setpoint pre-filter is designed by a dynamic inversion technique minimizing the difference between the ideal synthesized command signal(i.e., a smooth monotonic response) and the prefilter step response. Experimental tests validate the methodology and compare the performance of the proposed architecture with well-established control schemes that employ the classical PIbased symmetrical optimum method with a smoothing pre-filter.

Influence Predictions of Contact Effects on Mesh Stiffness of Face Gear Drives with Spur Gear

Mesh stiffness is one of important base parameters of face gear dynamic studies.However,a calculation solution of mesh stiffness of face gear drives is not to be constructed due to complex geometric flakes of face gear teeth.Thus,a calculation solution of mesh stiffness of face gear drives with a spur gear,which is based on the proposed equivalent face gear teeth and Ishikawa model,is constructed,and the influence of contact effects on mesh stiffness of face gear drives is investigated.The results indicate the mesh stiffness of face gear drives is sensitive to contact effects under heavy loaded operating conditions,specially.These contributions will benefit to improve dynamic studies of face gear drives.

An Intelligent Non-Collocated Control Strategy for Ball-Screw Feed Drives with Dynamic Variations

The ball-screw feed drive has varying high-order dynamic characteristics due to flexibilities of the slender screw spindle and joints between components, and an obvious feature of non-collocated control when a direct position measurement using a linear＇scale is employed. The dynamic characteristics and non- collocated situation have long been the source of difficulties in motion and vibration control, and deterio- rate the achieved accuracy of the axis motion. In this study, a dynamic model using a frequency-based sub- structure approach is established, considering the flexibilities and their variation. The position-dependent variation of the dynamic characteristics is then fully investigated. A corresponding control strategy, which is composed of a modal characteristic modifier （MCM） and an intelligent adaptive tuning algorithm （ATA）, is then developed. The MCM utilizes a combination of peak filters and notch filters, thereby shaping the plant dynamics into a virtual collocated system and avoiding control spillover. An ATA using an artificial neural network （ANN） as a smooth parameter interpolator updates the parameters of the filters in real time in order to cope with the feed drive＇s dynamic variation. Numerical verification of the effectiveness and robustness of the orooosed strategy is shown for a real feed drive.

A Review of Nonlinear Kalman Filter Appling to Sensorless Control for AC Motor Drives

Sensorless control of AC motor drives,which takes the advantages of cost saving,higher reliability,and less hardware,has been developed for several decades.Among the existing speed sensorless control methods,nonlinear Kalman filter-based one has attached widespread attention due to its superb estimation accuracy and inherent resistibility to noise.However,the determination of noise covariance matrix and robustness of model uncertainties are still open issues in practice.A great number of studies try to solve these problems in resent years.This paper reviews the application of extended Kalman filter(EKF),unscented Kalman filter(UKF),and cubature Kalman filter(CKF)in speed sensorless control for AC motor drives.As an iterative algorithm,EKF has advantages in processor implementation.However,EKF suffers from the linearization error and model uncertainties when applying to sensorless control system.This paper presents the predominant improvements of EKF which is also applicative in UKF and CKF mostly.

Two-vector Dimensionless Model Predictive Control of PMSM Drives Based on Fuzzy Decision Making

Model predictive controls(MPCs) with the merits of non-linear multi-variable control can achieve better performance than other commonly used control methods for permanent magnet synchronous motor(PMSM) drives.However,the conventional MPCs have various issues,including unsatisfactory steady-state performance,variable switching frequency,and difficult selection of appropriate weighting factors.This paper proposes two different improved MPC methods to deal with these issues.One method is the two-vector dimensionless model predictive torque control(MPTC).Two cost functions(torque and flux) and fuzzy decision-making are used to eliminate the weighting factor and select the first optimum vector.The torque cost function selects a second vector whose duty cycle is determined based on the torque error.The other method is the two-vector dimensionless model predictive current control(MPCC).The first vector is selected the same as in the conventional MPC method.Two separate current cost functions and fuzzy decision-making are used to select the second vector whose duty cycle is determined based on the current error.Both proposed methods utilize the space vector PWM modulator to regulate the switching frequency.Numerical simulation results show that the proposed methods have better steady-state and transient performances than the conventional MPCs and other existing improved MPCs.

Integral sliding mode control for flexible ball screw drives with matched and mismatched uncertainties and disturbances

The design of servo controllers for flexible ball screw drives with matched and mismatched disturbances and uncertainties is focused to improve the tracking performance and bandwidth of ball screw drives.A two degrees of freedom mass model is established based on the axial vibration characteristics of the transport ball screw,and the controller of an adaptive integral sliding mode is proposed combining the optimal design of state feedback gain matrix K to restrain the vibration and the matched disturbances and uncertainties.Then for the counteraction of the mismatched disturbances and uncertainties,a nonlinear disturbance observer is also developed.The trajectory tracking performance experiments and bandwidth analysis were conducted on experimental setup with the proposed control method.It is proved that the adaptive integral sliding mode controller has a high tracking performance and bandwidth especially for the axial vibration characteristics model of ball screw drives.And the ball screw tracking accuracy also has a considerable improvement with the application of the proposed nonlinear disturbance observer.

A Review of Sensorless Control Methods for AC Motor Drives

In recent years,the application of sensorless AC motor drives is expanding in areas ranging from industrial applications to household electrical appliances.As is well known,the advantages of sensorless motor drives include lower cost,increased reliability,reduced hardware complexity,better noise immunity,and less maintenance requirements.With the development of modern industrial automation,more advanced sensorless control strategies are needed to meet the requirements of applications.For sensorless motor drives at low-and zero-speed operation,inverter nonlinearities and motor parameter variation have significant impact on the stability of control system.Meanwhile,high observer’s bandwidth is required in high-speed region.This paper introduces the state of art of recent progress in sensorless AC motor drives.In addition,this paper presents the sensorless control strategies we investigated for practical industrial and household applications.Both advanced sensorless drives of induction motor(IM)and permanent magnet synchronous motor(PMSM)are presented in this paper.

A Novel Flux-weakening Control Method with Quadrature Voltage Constrain for Electrolytic Capacitorless PMSM Drives

In electrolytic capacitorless permanent magnet synchronous motor(PMSM) drives, the DC-link voltage will fluctuate in a wide range due to the use of slim film capacitor. When the flux-weakening current is lower than-ψf/Ld during the high speed operation, the flux-weakening control loop will transform to a positive feedback mode, which means the reduction of flux-weakening current will lead to the acceleration of the voltage saturation, thus the whole system will be unstable. In order to solve this issue, this paper proposes a novel flux-weakening method for electrolytic capacitorless motor drives to maintain a negative feedback characteristic of the control loop during high speed operation. Based on the analysis of the instability mechanism in flux-weakening region, a quadrature voltage constrain mechanism is constructed to stabilize the system.Meanwhile, the parameters of the controller are theoretically designed for easier industrial application. The proposed algorithm is implemented on a 1.5 kW electrolytic capacitorless PMSM drive to verify the effectiveness of the flux-weakening performance.

A Two-stage Tuning Method of Servo Parameters for Feed Drives in Machine Tools

Based on the evaluation of dynamic performance for feed drives in machine tools, this paper presents a two-stage tuning method of servo parameters. In the first stage, the evaluation of dynamic performance, parameter tuning and optimization on a mechatronic integrated system simulation platform of feed drives are performed. As a result, a servo parameter combination is acquired. In the second stage, the servo parameter combination from the first stage is set and tuned further in a real machine tool whose dynamic performance is measured and evaluated using the cross grid encoder developed by Heidenhain GmbH. A case study shows that this method simplifies the test process effectively and results in a good dynamic performance in a real machine tool.

Optimization of passive control performance for different hard disk drives subjected to shock excitation

Laptop personal computers(LPCs) and their components are vulnerable devices in harsh mechanical environments. One of the most sensitive components of LPCs is hard disk drive(HDD) which needs to be protected against damages attributable to shock and vibration in order to have better magnetic read/write performance. In the present work, a LPC and its HDD are modeled as two degrees of freedom system and the nonlinear optimization method is employed to perform a passive control through minimizing peak of HDD absolute acceleration caused by a base shock excitation. The presented shock excitation is considered as half-sine pulse of acceleration. In addition, eleven inequality constraints are defined based on geometrical limitations and allowable intervals of lumped modal parameters. The target of the optimization is to reach optimum modal parameters of rubber mounts and rubber feet as design variables and subsequently propose new characteristics of rubber mounts and rubber feet to be manufactured for the HDD protection against shock excitation. The genetic algorithm and the modified constrained steepest descent algorithm are employed in order to solve the nonlinear optimization problem for three widely-used commercial cases of HDD. Finally, the results of both optimization methods are compared to make sure about their accuracy.

A Novel Current Sensor Technique for Brushless DC Motor Drives

The torque output in a permanent magnet brushless DC motor (BLDCM) is usually controlled by regulating the motor phase currents. In this paper, three kinds of PWM strategies together with some critical review on traditional current measurements in a BLDCM drive system are discussed. A novel method for assessing the PWM information and measuring the motor phase currents by a dc link current sensor is proposed. An attractive feature of the proposed method is the simplicity with the current sample processing because there is no need to incorporate the conduction information of the power switches or diodes. Only the single sided PWM or the double sided complementary PWM is needed with the proposed technique.

OPTIMAL TRACK SEEKING CONTROL OF DUAL-STAGE ACTUATOR FOR HIGH DENSITY HARD DISK DRIVES

Based on generalized the variation method, by introducing Hamilton function and Lagrange multiplier, this paper proposed a linear quadratic optimal control strategy for an incomplete controllable system with fixed terminal state and time. Applying the proposed optimal control to the simple two-input dual-stage actuator magnetic head positioning system with three degrees-of-freedom, the simulation results show that the system has no residual vibration at the terminal position and time, which can reduce the total access time during head positioning process. To verify the validation of the optimal control strategy of three degrees-of-freedom spring-mass models in actual magnetic head positioning of hard disk drives, a finite element model of an actual magnetic head positioning system is presented. Substituting the optimal control force from simple three degrees-of-freedom spring-mass models into the finite element model, the simulation results show that the magnetic head also has no residual vibration at the end of track-to-track travel. That is to say, the linear quadratic optimal control technique based on simple two-input dual- stage actuator system with three degrees-of-freedom proposed in this paper is of high reliability for the industrial application of an actual magnetic head positioning system.