Robust Predictive Control of 3L-NPC Converter Fed PMSM Drives for Electrical Car Applications

Permanent-magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) fed by three-level neutral-point-clamped (3L-NPC) voltage source power converter is an attractive configuration for high-performance electrical car systems. For such topology, finite control set model predictive control (FCS-MPC) is a very promising alternative. However, due to its fully model-based concept, variations of system parameter (in particular, the stator inductance and rotor permanent-flux linkage) will affect the system control performances. In this work, a robust FCS predictive current control (PCC) method with revised predictions is proposed and validated. Experimental results reveal that with the proposed solution not only the system robustness against parameter variations is improved, but also the control variable ripples are evidently reduced in comparison with the conventional solution. The proposed method has been implemented with a fully FPGA based real-time hardware and tested at a lab-constructed test-bench.