Sensorless MPCC Based PMSM Drive with Multilevel Inverter for EVs

The rapid increase in the number of fossil fuel vehicles worldwide contributes to increased environmental pollution. For this reason, studies on zero-emission vehicles are increasingly gaining importance. In electric vehicles with zero emissions, dc current must be converted to ac current to be suitable for the operation of the electric motor. The inverter circuit and control unit used in electric vehicles perform the dc-ac conversion and also affect the performance of the electric motor. These units in the motor drive circuit are important components that determine the overall performance of the electric vehicle by controlling the torque, speed, and efficiency of the motor. In this study, inverter circuit and control algorithms were developed to obtain more effective performance for the permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM), which is widely used in electric vehicles. The three-level active neutral point clamped (ANPC) inverter topology is used for dc-ac conversion due to its advantages such as less switching loss, lower harmonic ratio and high-quality power compared to two-level inverters. The current control of PMSM with the recommended drive has been achieved using the model predictive current control (MPCC) method. Sensorless control techniques have been utilized to acquire the necessary speed data for Model Predictive Current Control (MPCC), employing Sliding Mode Observer (SMO) and Model Reference Adaptive System (MRAS) approaches. The performance of the developed sensorless control methods has been comprehensively analyzed under various speed and load conditions.