Keynote Speech

Keynote Speech 3 :

Latest Advances of Model Predictive Control in Electrical Drives

Abstract: This lecture presents what the authors consider the most relevant contributions published in the last years in the application of Model Predictive Control (MPC) in electrical drives, mainly focusing on three relevant issues: weighting factor calculation when multiple objectives are utilized in the cost function, current/torque harmonic distortion optimization when the power converter switching frequency is reduced, and robustness improvement under parameters uncertainties. Therefore, this lecture aims to enable audience to have a more precise overview while facilitating their future research work in this exciting area. The second part of this lecture is dedicated to the performance comparison of MPC with classical control techniques such as field-oriented control and direct torque control. The comparison considers the dynamic behavior of the drive and steady-state performance metrics such as inverter losses, current distortion in the motor, and acoustic noise. The main conclusion is that MPC is very competitive concerning classic control methods by reducing the inverter losses and the current distortion with comparable acoustic noise.

Jose Rodriguez (M'81-SM'94-F'10-LF'20) received the Engineer degree in electrical engineering from the Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria, in Valparaiso, Chile, in 1977 and the Dr.-Ing. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany, in 1985. He has been with the Department of Electronics Engineering, Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria, since 1977, where he was full Professor and President. Since 2015 he was the President and since 2019 he is full professor at Universidad Andres Bello in Santiago, Chile. He has coauthored two books, several book chapters and more than 400 journal and conference papers. His main research interests include multilevel inverters, new converter topologies, control of power converters, and adjustable-speed drives. He has received a number of best paper awards from journals of the IEEE. Dr. Rodriguez is member of the Chilean Academy of Engineering. In 2014 he received the National Award of Applied Sciences and Technology from the government of Chile. In 2015 he received the Eugene Mittelmann Award from the Industrial Electronics Society of the IEEE. In years 2014 to 2020 he has been included in the list of Highly Cited Researchers published by Web of Science.

Cristian Garcia (Senior Member, IEEE) received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electronics engineering from the Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria, Valparaiso, Chile, in 2013 and 2017, respectively.

From 2017 to 2019, he was with the Engineering Faculty of the Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, Chile, as an Assistant Professor. Since 2019, he has been with the Department of Electrical Engineering of the University of Talca, Curico, Chile, where he is currently an Assistant Professor. During 2016 he was a visiting Ph.D. student in the Power Electronics Machines and Control (PEMC) Group at the University of Nottingham, U.K.

His research interests include electric transportation applications, variable-speed drives and model predictive control of power converters and drives.