Robust fault tolerant control of induction motor system

Research into fault tolerant control (FTC, a set of techniques that are developed to increase plant availability and reduce the risk of safety hazards) for induction motors is motivated by practical concerns including the need for enhanced reliability, improved maintenance operations and reduced cost. Its aim is to prevent that simple faults develop into serious failure. Although, the subject of induction motor control is well known, the main topics in the literature are concerned with scalar and vector control and structural stability. However, induction machines experience various fault scenarios and to meet the above requirements FTC strategies based on existing or more advanced control methods become desirable. Some earlier studies on FTC have addressed particular problems of 3-phase sensor current/voltage FTC, torque FTC, etc. However, the development of these methods lacks a more general understanding of the overall problem of FTC for an induction motor based on a true fault classification of possible fault types.In order to develop a more general approach to FTC for induction motors, i.e. not just designing specific control approaches for individual induction motor fault scenarios, this thesis has carried out a systematic research on induction motor systems considering the various faults that can typically be present, having either “additive” fault or “multiplicative” effects on the system dynamics, according to whether the faults are sensor or actuator (additive fault) types or component or motor faults (multiplicative fault) types.To achieve the required objectives, an active approach to FTC is used, making use of fault estimation (FE, an approach that determine the magnitude of a fault signal online) and fault compensation. This approach of FTC/FE considers an integration of the electrical and mechanical dynamics, initially using adaptive and/or sliding mode observers, Linear Parameter Varying (LPV, in which nonlinear systems are locally decomposed into several linear systems scheduled by varying parameters) and then using back-stepping control combined with observer/estimation methods for handling certain forms of nonlinearity.In conclusion, the thesis proposed an integrated research of induction motor FTC/FE with the consideration of different types of faults and different types of uncertainties, and validated the approaches through simulations and experiments

Optimized Energy Control Scheme for Electric Drive of EV Powertrain Using Genetic Algorithms

Automotive applications often experience conflicting-objective optimization problems focusing on performance parameters that are catered through precisely developed cost functions. Two such conflicting objectives which substantially affect the working of traction machine drive are maximizing its speed performance and minimizing its energy consumption. In case of an electric vehicle (EV) powertrain, drive energy is bounded by battery dynamics (charging and capacity) which depend on the consumption of drive voltage and current caused by driving cycle schedules, traffic state, EV loading, and drive temperature. In other words, battery consumption of an EV depends upon its drive energy consumption. A conventional control technique improves the speed performance of EV at the cost of its drive energy consumption. However, the proposed optimized energy control (OEC) scheme optimizes this energy consumption by using robust linear parameter varying (LPV) control tuned by genetic algorithms which significantly improves the EV powertrain performance. The analysis of OEC scheme is conducted on the developed vehicle simulator through MATLAB/Simulink based simulations as well as on an induction machine drive platform. The accuracy of the proposed OEC is quantitatively assessed to be 99.3% regarding speed performance which is elaborated by the drive speed, voltage, and current results against standard driving cycles

Recent Advances in Robust Control

Robust control has been a topic of active research in the last three decades culminating in H_2/H_\infty and \mu design methods followed by research on parametric robustness, initially motivated by Kharitonov's theorem, the extension to non-linear time delay systems, and other more recent methods. The two volumes of Recent Advances in Robust Control give a selective overview of recent theoretical developments and present selected application examples. The volumes comprise 39 contributions covering various theoretical aspects as well as different application areas. The first volume covers selected problems in the theory of robust control and its application to robotic and electromechanical systems. The second volume is dedicated to special topics in robust control and problem specific solutions. Recent Advances in Robust Control will be a valuable reference for those interested in the recent theoretical advances and for researchers working in the broad field of robotics and mechatronics

Thermal Neural Networks: Lumped-Parameter Thermal Modeling With State-Space Machine Learning

With electric power systems becoming more compact and increasingly powerful, the relevance of thermal stress especially during overload operation is expected to increase ceaselessly. Whenever critical temperatures cannot be measured economically on a sensor base, a thermal model lends itself to estimate those unknown quantities. Thermal models for electric power systems are usually required to be both, real-time capable and of high estimation accuracy. Moreover, ease of implementation and time to production play an increasingly important role. In this work, the thermal neural network (TNN) is introduced, which unifies both, consolidated knowledge in the form of heat-transfer-based lumped-parameter models, and data-driven nonlinear function approximation with supervised machine learning. A quasi-linear parameter-varying system is identified solely from empirical data, where relationships between scheduling variables and system matrices are inferred statistically and automatically. At the same time, a TNN has physically interpretable states through its state-space representation, is end-to-end trainable -- similar to deep learning models -- with automatic differentiation, and requires no material, geometry, nor expert knowledge for its design. Experiments on an electric motor data set show that a TNN achieves higher temperature estimation accuracies than previous white-/grey- or black-box models with a mean squared error of $3.18~\text{K}^2$ and a worst-case error of $5.84~\text{K}$ at 64 model parameters.Comment: Preprint; Fix typos, streamline math. notation; 10 page

Advanced Mathematics and Computational Applications in Control Systems Engineering

Control system engineering is a multidisciplinary discipline that applies automatic control theory to design systems with desired behaviors in control environments. Automatic control theory has played a vital role in the advancement of engineering and science. It has become an essential and integral part of modern industrial and manufacturing processes. Today, the requirements for control precision have increased, and real systems have become more complex. In control engineering and all other engineering disciplines, the impact of advanced mathematical and computational methods is rapidly increasing. Advanced mathematical methods are needed because real-world control systems need to comply with several conditions related to product quality and safety constraints that have to be taken into account in the problem formulation. Conversely, the increment in mathematical complexity has an impact on the computational aspects related to numerical simulation and practical implementation of the algorithms, where a balance must also be maintained between implementation costs and the performance of the control system. This book is a comprehensive set of articles reflecting recent advances in developing and applying advanced mathematics and computational applications in control system engineering

A Linear Parameter Varying Controller for Grid-tied Converters under Unbalanced Voltage Network Conditions

This thesis focuses on the development and practical assessment of a contemporary Linear Parameter Varying (LPV) controller for grid-tied converters. The increasing popularity of renewable energy resources necessitates intelligent power converters to interface with utility network. The proposed control methodology can effectively regulate converter powers/currents under highly unbalanced voltage conditions. The methodology can be easily applied to rotating electrical machines that have similar dynamic models. A LPV model of grid-tied converter with filters are derived in synchronous positive and negative rotating frames and a detailed controller design procedure is then carried out using Matrix Linear Inequality technique. The proposed controller uses network frequency as a reference and it has the capability to handle the system frequency variations. Off-line controller design stage is computed by Matlab software while on-line controller calculations are dealt by a Digital Signal Processor (DSP). The highly distorted voltage at the point of common coupling between Voltage Source Inverter (VSI) and utility network may degrade the outputs of the phase locked loop (PLL) module and overall controller performance. An enhanced version of PLL technique is proposed to overcome the voltage distortions and a significant reduction of Total Harmonic Distortion has been recorded. The harmonic issue is successfully treated further with an additional harmonic observer supporting the main controller. To verify the proposed control approach, studies are carried out using Matlab/SIMULINK platform with the code-based simulation. This simulation method can ensure the results close to a real DSP system and enables the user to transfer the simulation studies effectively to the experimental setup without major modifications. A prototype of a three phase VSI with a DSP controller is then investigated using dSPACE DS1104 development board. Experimental results from this system validate the proposed control technique and its benefits

Robust controller design: Recent emerging concepts for control of mechatronic systems

The recent industrial revolution puts competitive requirements on most manufacturing and mechatronic processes. Some of these are economic driven, but most of them have an intrinsic projection on the loop performance achieved in most of closed loops across the various process layers. It turns out that successful operation in a globalization context can only be ensured by robust tuning of controller parameter as an effective way to deal with continuously changing end-user specs and raw product properties. Still, ease of communication in non-specialised process engineering vocabulary must be ensured at all times and ease of implementation on already existing platforms is preferred. Specifications as settling time, overshoot and robustness have a direct meaning in terms of process output and remain most popular amongst process engineers. An intuitive tuning procedure for robustness is based on linear system tools such as frequency response and bandlimited specifications thereof. Loop shaping remains a mature and easy to use methodology, although its tools such as Hinf remain in the shadow of classical PID control for industrial applications. Recently, next to these popular loop shaping methods, new tools have emerged, i.e. fractional order controller tuning rules. The key feature of the latter group is an intrinsic robustness to variations in the gain, time delay and time constant values, hence ideally suited for loop shaping purpose. In this paper, both methods are sketched and discussed in terms of their advantages and disadvantages. A real life control application used in mechatronic applications illustrates the proposed claims. The results support the claim that fractional order controllers outperform in terms of versatility the Hinf control, without losing the generality of conclusions. The paper pleads towards the use of the emerging tools as they are now ready for broader use, while providing the reader with a good perspective of their potential

Performance Analysis of DTC-SVM Sliding Mode Controllers-Based Parameters Estimator of Electric Motor Speed Drive

This paper is concerned with a framework which unifies direct torque control space vector modulation (DTC-SVM) and variable structure control (VSC). The result is a hybrid VSC-DTC-SVM controller design which eliminates several major limitations of the two individual controls and retains merits of both controllers. It has been shown that obtained control laws are very sensitive to variations of the stator resistance, the rotor resistance, and the mutual inductance. This paper discusses the performances of adaptive controllers of VSC-DTC-SVM monitored induction motor drive in a wide speed range and even in the presence of parameters uncertainties and mismatching disturbances. Better estimations of the stator resistance, the rotor resistance, and the mutual inductance yield improvements of induction motor performances using VSC-DTC-SVM, thereby facilitating torque ripple minimization. Simulation results verified the performances of the proposed approach