Hardware integration for an integrated modular motor drive including distributed control

The Integrated Modular Motor Drive (IMMD) concept is a promising approach to the physical integration of electric machines and drives that is based on the use of pole-drive building blocks consisting of segmented stator poles with concentrated windings, each excited by a dedicated single-phase inverter and controller. This paper presents details of the design, construction, and testing of an 18kW (peak) 6-phase IMMD demonstrator unit intended for a traction drive application using a surface PM machine. Key new features in this demo unit include the introduction of a dedicated controller in each of the drive units that shares responsibility for controlling the 6 phase-drive units using a heterarchical distributed control strategy. Experimental tests gathered to date have yielded promising results while also highlighting remaining challenges to full implementation of the IMMD concept.