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This paper deals with the innovative “variable-voltage” bus concept for future more-electric aircraft platforms. Using new functionalities and opportunities offered by innovative sources actively controlled by power electronics, there is an opportunity for a significant increase of their output power (within powertrain capabilities, machine thermal limits, and power converter maximum current) to supply increased load demands under certain conditions. This paper investigates applications of this concept to satisfy power demands for the wing ice-protection system for business jet. The study includes a detailed study into the control challenges of the proposed approach and suggests corresponding theoretical solutions. Furthermore, the controller design aspects are explored with considerations to achieve stable operation. The concept is tested in simulation environment and validated through experimental studies. This paper might be of interest for the researchers and engineers focused on innovative solutions for future aircraft platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a method to improve the accuracy of an absolute magnetic encoder by using harmonic rejection (HR) and a dual-phase-locked loop (DPLL). The encoder consists of two permanent magnets: an edge-located multipolar magnet (MPM) and a center-located bipolar magnet, in which the signal-processing accuracy of the MPM is crucial for achieving high accuracy of the entire encoder. However, the MPM signals are disturbed by nonidealities such as dc offsets, amplitude mismatch, low- and high-order harmonics, and random noises. In this paper, the HR approach investigates the characteristics of nonidealities of the phase detector and rejects them by using gradient descent. In addition, the DPLL remains robust by maintaining a zero steady-state error during a phase jump, a constant frequency, and a ramp frequency. The proposed method is simulated with MATLAB software and implemented in ARM STM32F407ZG. The obtained results demonstrate efficient performance. This method can be applied to any use of quadrature sinusoidal signals, such as in power grids and in permanent-magnet synchronous motor phase detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a visible light communication (VLC) system consisting of a single-stage buck–boost power factor correction converter operating in the discontinuous conduction mode with dimming capability. Additionally, this paper proposes the on–off M-frequency shift keying modulation for the VLC system. This modulation allows for the transmission of more than a single bit for each switching period without affecting the dimming characteristics of the light-emitting diode luminaire. The design of the whole system is discussed in detail, including both transmitter and receiver modules. A 20-W laboratory prototype was built in order to verify the proposed modulation scheme. The experimental evaluation showed a good performance of the transmitter, which was able to perform simultaneously the desired functions, namely power factor correction, dimming, and data transmission. The receiver also achieved the desired performance with a low bit error rate (BER). The results showed that the proposed system was able to transfer data between emitter and receiver with a bit rate of 1.11 Mb/s at a frequency of up to 375 kHz over a distance of 10 m, and with a BER lower than $10^{-3}$ under the influence of external lighting sources with illuminance levels up to 500 lx. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a new hybrid model is proposed for the prediction of air gap magnetic field distribution (MFD) in interior permanent magnet machines with any rotor configuration. The slotless magnetic field is first predicted by finite-element method (FEM) with automatic scripting in MATLAB to consider saturation in the rotor iron. Afterward, the conformal mapping viz., Schwarz–Christoffel mapping is introduced to take the slotting effect into account. Consequently, the MFD could be calculated. The back electromagnetic forces, cogging torque, and output torque are obtained accordingly. Then a subdomain model is developed to consider the armature reaction. The results show that the proposed hybrid approach agrees well with the FEM. The model is further verified by experiments. The main contribution of this paper is to reduce the computation time remarkably while maintaining the calculation accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a method to determine load conditions under which the armature current of a salient pole synchronous machine is on the q-axis is described. The proposed method allows the determination of a locus in the $P-Q$ space in which the armature current is completely on the q-axis. The derivation of these conditions simplifies the determination of the machine q-axis parameters during load rejection tests, since it eliminates the necessity for trial and error procedures or power angle estimation. The method was tested in a 100 MVA, 13.8 kV, 60 Hz, 40 poles salient pole synchronous machine installed in a hydro power plant. Tests results show that loads calculated with the proposed method are in fact points where the armature current is on the q-axis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wavelet transform, an effective tool to decompose signals into a series of frequency bands, has been widely used for vibration-based fault diagnosis in machinery. Likewise, the use of deep learning algorithms is becoming popular to automatically learn discriminative features from input data for the sake of improving diagnostic performance. However, the fact that no general consensus has been reached as to which wavelet basis functions are useful for diagnosis motivated this investigation of methods to fuse multiple wavelet transforms into deep learning algorithms. In this paper, two methods—i.e., multiple wavelet coefficients fusion in deep residual networks by concatenation and multiple wavelet coefficients fusion in deep residual networks by maximization—were developed to capture discriminative information from diverse sets of wavelet coefficients for fault diagnosis. The efficacy of the developed methods was verified by applying them to planetary gearbox fault diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time series classification is an important research topic in machine learning and data mining communities, since time series data exist in many application domains. Recent studies have shown that machine learning algorithms could benefit from good feature representation, explaining why deep learning has achieved breakthrough performance in many tasks. In deep learning, the convolutional neural network (CNN) is one of the most well-known approaches, since it incorporates feature learning and classification task in a unified network architecture. Although CNN has been successfully applied to image and text domains, it is still a challenge to apply CNN to time series data. This paper proposes a tensor scheme along with a novel deep learning architecture called multivariate convolutional neural network (MVCNN) for multivariate time series classification, in which the proposed architecture considers multivariate and lag-feature characteristics. We evaluate our proposed method with the prognostics and health management (PHM) 2015 challenge data, and compare with several algorithms. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method outperforms the other alternatives using the prediction score, which is the evaluation metric used by the PHM Society 2015 data challenge. Besides performance evaluation, we provide detailed analysis about the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In view of Internet of Energy, advanced operational optimization in microgrid energy management system (MEMS) is expected to be scalable to accommodate various participants, support plug-and-play, and optimize energy utilization. Based on potential game, this paper presents a fully distributed operational optimization for MEMS with high penetration of renewable energy and demand response. After analyzing the microgrid and potential game, the establishment and proof of an exact potential game model is presented in detail. Then the best-strategy-response iterative algorithm is proposed to find the game Nash equilibrium in a distributed way. Finally, the proposed approach is simulated in an islanded microgrid to verify its efficiency and feasibility. The significances of this paper are as follows. First, the scheme and algorithm are fully distributed. All heterogeneous individuals are treated as independent decision-making entities without a central coordinator/processor. Second, the optimization process is open and dynamic. The convergence is achieved with no limits to type or number of players, even if the process of execution is corrupted with delay or losses in communication information. Third, the consistency between individual rationality and overall importance is guaranteed, and individual best-strategy-response behaviors necessarily improve overall optimality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motors and inverters are increasingly being used in vehicles. As more vehicle components are being adopted, requirement for safety and installation space are increasing. Growing attention is being paid to the use of six-phase permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) and their parallel control by two inverters, because of their reduced size and enhanced safety. This paper proposes a pulsewidth modulation (PWM) control algorithm for a six-phase PMSM. In low-voltage vehicle components such as electric power steering, the current is usually acquired with resistors placed under the low-side switching devices. In the proposed control algorithm, the neutral voltage of the two inverters is shifted to either a lower or higher voltage within a certain range to allow for the signal conditioning time delay after the switching device turns on or off, and the time taken for the phase current to rise or settle. The paper proposes a novel PWM control algorithm that ensures that the on-time of the low-side switching devices satisfies the restriction on current sensing with resistors and reduces the current in the capacitor at the same time. The work contributes to reducing the current in a practical configuration involving low-voltage vehicle components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel parallel-hybrid dual permanent magnet (PM) machine topology with both enhanced torque density and improved flux weakening capability is proposed for electric vehicle propulsion in this paper. The key is to artificially construct the harmonics diversity with a single-layer concentrated armature winding in the stator and thus simultaneously couple the armature field with the excitation field produced by slot PM, rotor PM, and stator dc source, respectively. Enhanced torque density is obtained in this new topology due to the symmetrical flux-modulation effect between dual PM sources. Moreover, benefiting from a parallel excitation characteristic of hybrid magnetic circuit, the demagnetization risk is significantly mitigated for slot PM source and thus an extended flux weakening range is obtained. In this paper, the proposed new topology and its design mechanism are investigated, along with its electromagnetic performance evaluated based on finite-element analysis. Further, some leading design parameters are analyzed and determined to provide a design guideline for the proposed new topology. Finally, a prototype is built and fully tested. Relevant experimental results agree well with the finite-element predication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes the design process of a 2.62-kW 150-krpm high-speed surface-mounted permanent-magnet synchronous motor. To meet the required specifications, the numbers of poles and slots were determined by considering the maximum speed and the rotary stability affected by the vibration of the rotor. In addition, this paper describes not only the appropriate material selection method but also the appropriate geometry design method based on analytic approaches. Furthermore, to precisely evaluate the bearing and windage losses at a high speed, a method that combines the finite-element method and the experiment results of the prototype was used. As a result, an improved motor was designed, which had higher maximum power and speed than the prototype and a lower mass moment of inertia. Finally, tests were conducted to verify the validity of the proposed design process and the effectiveness of the motor. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes a novel method for detection and isolation of wastegate (WG) faults in a turbocharged (TC) gasoline engine. This paper starts with a fault effect analysis on the WG faults, including WG stuck open and stuck closed, which is an early step in a detection strategy design. Then, a second-order sliding-mode observer (SOSMO) is proposed to capture the exhaust manifold dynamics. The observer uses experimentally validated engine models to estimate the WG position and a virtual force. The virtual force represents the external disturbances that disrupt the WG operation and enables the proposed SOSMO to estimate the WG position robust to the faults. Using this force, a detection and isolation algorithm is presented and experimentally verified on a modern TC gasoline engine. Test bench results show that the proposed strategy can successfully detect and isolate the two different WG faults. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) help improve traffic safety and lessen traffic congestion. Roadside units (RSUs) play a key role in serving as the event and data broker in the form of vehicle-to-infrastructure communication to supply wireless and mobile vehicle-to-vehicle communication. Recently, hybrid VANET-sensor networks have attracted much attention as events are detected by sensor nodes and are spread to a wider area via VANETs, in which the number of RSUs is restricted due to high cost. This paper investigates the problem of minimizing the total cost of deploying RSUs and sensor nodes along the two sides and the median island of a two-lane road to cover the whole road, represented as a grid, and to form a connected VANET-sensor network. This problem is NP-complete by reduction to the NP-complete placement problem for a single-lane road. Therefore, this paper formulates the problem as an integer linear program and then proposes a center particle swarm optimization approach, in which a center particle is adopted for increasing the convergence speed. Additionally, a theoretical analysis for the approach is provided. Experimental results show that the approach can perform well for moderate-sized problems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, the use of the Dual Kalman Filter for the identification of photovoltaic system parameters is presented. The system includes the photovoltaic source, the dc/dc converter and the battery/dc bus and both its states and parameters in the actual operating conditions are identified. In particular, the proposed approach gives the confidence interval for the system settling time, which is used for the real-time optimization of the perturbative maximum power point tracking algorithm. The proposed technique is implemented by using a Field-Programmable Gate Array and it is validated by means of both simulation and experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In recent years, design and tuning of fractional-order controllers for use in motion control have attracted much attention. This paper deals with one of the interesting methods that have been recently proposed for tuning fractional-order proportional and derivative (FOPD) motion controllers. The FOPD controller tuned based on the considered method results in simultaneously meeting the desired phase margin, the desired gain crossover frequency, and the flatness of the phase Bode plot at such a frequency. Since, in this tuning method, the derivative parameter and order are determined in a graphical way, in the first view, it is not clear for which pairs of phase margin and gain crossover frequency an FOPD controller can be found to satisfy the mentioned specifications. In this paper, necessary and sufficient conditions are presented via an analytical approach to check the solution existence of the considered tuning method in both cases of absence and presence of time delay in feedback loop. Furthermore, the uniqueness of the controller parameters obtained from the method is investigated. Moreover, some numerical and experimental examples are presented to confirm the analytical results of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates the problem of H\infty filtering for polynomial-fuzzy-model-based discrete-time networked systems under an event-triggered scheme. A polynomial fuzzy filter is designed to estimate the control output. In order to reduce the data size transmitted in a network, signal quantization is managed via a logarithmic quantizer. A novel method is designed to guarantee a filtering error system to be asymptotically stable and to satisfy the desired performance. Furthermore, sufficient conditions developed via the method are represented as a sum of squares, which can be solved by SOSTOOLS. A simulation example is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The twenty-one papers in this special section focus on bringing the ideas of the worldwide research community working on various disturbance/uncertainty estimation and rejection methods in different engineering sectors into common platform and to present the latest advances and developments in design methods for disturbance/uncertainty estimation, design methods for disturbance/uncertainty attenuation, stability and performance analysis, practical implementation, and various case studies of the applications of these techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Energy efficiency of locomotion is a significant issue for autonomous mobile robots. This paper focuses on the pace gait ladder descent motion that has a closed kinematic chain formed by the robot links and the environment. To reduce the energy cost in the closed kinematic chain, we propose an optimal control strategy by optimizing the internal stress and motion trajectories in parametric form. As the main contributions of this paper, three types of energetically efficient ladder descent motions are generated with different motion-mode assumptions. Critical factors, including cycle time, horizontal distance between the robot and the vertical ladder, and value of internal stress, are analyzed theoretically. Simulation and experimental results indicate that the proposed control strategy is effective for planning an energetically efficient ladder descent motion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper deals with the control of a hybrid source combining a proton exchange membrane fuel cell and supercapacitors. To achieve this objective, an interconnection and damping assignment passivity-based control in a sampled-data context is implemented. This paper first details with this new controller and shows that it ensures the stabilization of the hybrid system at its desired equilibrium point under large range of sampling periods. These considerations are followed by a detailed discussion on experimental results achieved on a 1.2-kW test bench. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper gives an overview of the topological variations of multi-winding induction machines (IMs) and drives. The study is restricted to IMs having two distributed windings on the stator and a brushless rotor. The mathematical modeling techniques and control algorithms available in the literature are highlighted. Being magnetless and brushless, a Dual Stator Winding IM is highly reliable, maintenance free, and economic. Thus, it possesses the necessary potential to become a part of ac and dc microgrids. Recent research trend shows growth in the application of such generators for off-grid and grid-connected systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The acquisition of information on heat inflow is essential to the control of thermal displays and the rendering of thermal sensations. This paper addresses a method of estimating the amount of heat inflow without using a heat flow sensor and demonstrates sensorless heat inflow control using a Peltier device, which is often employed as a thermal device in thermal displays. Moreover, this paper introduces a method of identifying the thermal contact resistance of the device needed for the proposed observer. The observer estimates heat inflow by using information on electrical currents and temperatures. By using the observer instead of a heat flow sensor, which generally has a larger thermal capacity than a temperature sensor, an improvement in the response of a thermal device is expected. The applicability of the proposal is tested by experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A hybrid switched-capacitor/interleaved boost converter able to provide a high voltage gain and to cancel the input current ripple at a preselected duty cycle was recently presented in the literature. This paper extends that work by proposing an optimized switching strategy for operating conditions at other values of duty cycle. The switching strategy effect on the converter's voltage gain and input current ripple is quantified and compared against the performance under the conventional switching strategy. The approach is validated in the laboratory through hardware prototyping. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a topology for micropower piezoelectric wind energy harvesting useful for developing self-powered wireless sensor nodes. The features of the proposed topology, as compared with the existing piezoelectric/electromagnetic topologies, are as follows: 1) delivering power at high voltage levels, particularly at low-speed air flows; 2) starting operation at low cut-in speeds (about 1 m/s); and 3) robust structure for operating at high-speed wind flows practically tested up to 20 m/s. The proposed topology consists of a small fan with embedded permanent magnets (PMs) and a piezoelectric beam with a PM proof mass, which interacts with the PMs in the fan to harvest wind power. This paper also presents an analytical model and a design procedure to determine the number of PMs in the fan and their arrangements to maximize the captured power and minimize the cut-in speed. Using a prototype of the proposed topology, it is shown that the device starts capturing wind power at the wind speeds above 0.9 m/s. It is also shown that the suggested topology is at least 10% more efficient than the existing topologies in using piezoelectric materials and that its total volume power density is higher than those of the other topologies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In order to improve the availability of wind turbines and to avoid catastrophic consequences, the detection of faults in their earlier occurrence is fundamental. This paper proposes the development of a fault diagnosis scheme relying on identified fuzzy models. The fuzzy theory is exploited since it allows approximating uncertain models and managing noisy data. These fuzzy models, in the form of Takagi–Sugeno prototypes, represent the residual generators used for fault detection and isolation (FDI). A wind turbine benchmark is used to validate the achieved performances of the designed FDI scheme. Finally, extensive comparisons with different fault diagnosis methods highlight the features of the suggested solution. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this paper is to study the dynamics of a permanent magnet direct current (PMDC) brushed motor while two crucial space-domain effects, namely, slotting effect and commutation phenomenon are taken into account. Semi-analytical dynamic time-domain PMDC brushed motor model inclusive of these space-domain effects is used to analyze and investigate the dynamics. Pulse width modulation operated discontinuous current PMDC brushed motor drive with steady duty cycle is employed to acquire the bifurcation patterns. The chaotic nature due to slotting effect and commutation is identified from the bifurcation patterns and reported. It also has to be admired that such nonlinear dynamical behavior with the same set of parameters at similar operating condition has not been observed when a conventional PMDC brushed motor dynamic model is considered. These space-domain effects, namely, slotting effect and commutation also have a prominent impact to make some time-domain states of a PMDC brushed motor drive chaotic. The role of slotting effect and commutation phenomenon to analyze the chaos over time-domain state variables of the PMDC brushed motor drive is investigated and validated experimentally in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The traditional evaluation method of vehicle noise can no longer meet the requirements of electric vehicle as the sound character of electric powertrain (E-PT) is totally different from that of internal combustion engine vehicles. This paper presents a complete investigation of the sound quality of an E-PT. An acoustic test is conducted to analyze the sound character of E-PT, based on which the acoustic origins of E-PT including electromagnetic noise, gear whine, and inverter switching noise are studied. After that the sound quality of E-PT is investigated by objective and subjective evaluations. Subsequently, a sound quality model of E-PT based on support vector machine is established. The relative error testifies the effectiveness of the prediction model. The influence of the main noise origins on the sound quality of E-PT is determined. Finally, the structure of gearbox housing is redesigned based on topology optimization to improve the sound quality. The main original contributions of this paper are not only the sound quality method developed for E-PT but also improvement feasibility of sound quality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

SiC mosfet based converters are capable of high switching frequency operation. In this paper, the converter is operated with 50-kHz switching frequency for an active front-end rectifier application. Due to high switching frequency, the grid-side filter size is reduced, and the possibility of a high bandwidth current control loop is utilized in this paper. A current control loop with bandwidth of 5 kHz is designed using a proportional–integral controller in synchronously rotating dq-reference frame. In addition, the performance of the controller is tested under unbalanced input supply conditions. During this condition, new feed-forward signals, which are added to the controller output, are proposed. The gain of the feed-forward signal can be modified to achieve balanced sinusoidal grid currents, constant dc-link voltage, or a controlled negative-sequence input current, which are typical application-depending requirements. A closed-form formula to calculate the gain of the feed-forward signal to achieve the above-mentioned requirements is also proposed in this paper. To verify the proposed method, the simulation and experimental results are presented in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper simply investigates experimentally multiple “rotor” bar current waveforms at standstill, on a dedicated inverted induction motor prototype as a basis to analyze the bar currents distribution in the symmetrical and unsymmetrical cage. A phasor calculus scheme based on primary magneto-motive-force space harmonics is developed to explain this asymmetry of bar currents system at standstill even for a symmetrical cage. The results of the paper should be a strong experimental foundation to investigate thoroughly the effects of rotor speed and loading and of broken bars on additional losses, torque pulsations, noise, and vibrations in high performance induction machines. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, a photovoltaic (PV) microinverter capable of operating in both island mode and grid-connected mode by means of a reconfigurable control scheme is proposed. The main advantage of control reconfiguration is that in grid-connected mode, the microinverter works as a current source in phase with the grid voltage, injecting power to the grid. This is the operation mode of most commercial grid-connected PV microinverters. The idea is to provide those microinverters with the additional functionality of working in island mode without changing their control algorithms for grid-connected mode, which were developed and refined over time. It is proposed that in island mode, the microinverter control is reconfigured to work as a voltage source using droop schemes. These schemes consist in implementing P/Q strategies in the inverters, in order to properly share the power delivered to the loads. The aim of the paper is to show that the proposed control reconfiguration is possible without dangerous transients for the microinverter or the loads. Simulation and experimental results on an 180-W PV microinverter are provided to show the feasibility of the proposed control strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Motion control technologies are introduced in a huge number of products: electric vehicles, robots, mass storage areas, machine tools, etc. Many new products have developed based on previous studies on motion control. Recent achievements in motion control have indicated that innovation in this area is accelerating. For example, many companies have put robots with force sensing to practical use in the past few years. They have a wide variety of applications such as deburring, polishing, and assembling. Further development of haptics is strongly required for telesurgery, rehabilitation, and nursing care support. The development of high-accuracy positioning/tracking control has shortened the access time of mass storage areas. Sophisticated integration of actuators and sensors technologies has created many innovative techniques for new motion control systems. It is quite obvious that motion control is becoming more and more important as one of the key technologies in industrial electronics. Therefore, this "Special Section on New Emerging Technologies in Motion Control Systems - Part I" aims at presenting to the industrial electronics audiences the most advanced and relevant results in the field of motion control. The Guest Editors summarize the 14 articles from, various areas, that comprise the special section. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In photovoltaic systems, common-mode voltage (CMV) generates leakage current, which shortens the insulation lifespan and causes safety problems. As for neutral-point-clamped (NPC) inverters, zero CMV PWM (ZCMV PWM) can be implemented to eliminate leakage current, but unable to balance neutral-point (NP) voltage in dc side. This article presents a novel modulation technique for NPC PV inverter. The strategy contains ZCMV PWM and another two modulation modes which keeps CMV constant in one switching period, so as to eliminate leakage current. In order to balance NP voltage, NP current is adjusted by selection of optimal modulation mode and the leakage current is still well eliminated during the process of balancing NP voltage. Compared with conventional ZCMV PWM, the proposed scheme can remove both leakage current and NP voltage deviation. The output performance and limitations of the proposed method are also introduced in the paper. Experiments are provided to verify the validity of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel analysis for a new type of variable reluctance resolvers (VR-Resolvers) with toroidal windings based on the magnetic equivalent circuit (MEC) method is presented in this work. Different cases including various windings configurations as well as different rotor structures are considered in order to investigate the performance of the resolver precisely. The position error of both healthy and eccentric resolvers are studied by a flexible MEC model. The effect of the eccentricity fault on the resolvers with different specifications is also evaluated to analyze the manufacturing tolerance due to the eccentric rotor for several cases. It is notable that the presented MEC provides the opportunity to adjust accuracy and model several structures in both healthy and faulty conditions by just a single model. Finally, the MEC results are confirmed by finite element method and experimental results to show the effectiveness of the proposed model. In general, development of a new VR-Resolver and analyzing its performance under different windings configurations and rotor structures by proposing a modified MEC approach are the paper novelties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the stability of our proposed motion-copying system in the case that the environmental mechanical impedance is changed. The system preserves and reproduces the motion of the human operator. The examination of this paper derives the transfer function of the motion-loading system considering the environmental impedance and investigates displacement of the poles with the transition of the environment. Moreover, the experiment with respect to environmental changing is carried out. These results confirm theoretically and experimentally that the motion-copying system is stable even if the environment is changed. The haptic informational processing technique by the motion-copying system is useful for industrial applications and medical engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The improvement of adhesion characteristics is important in electric commuter train. The electric commuter train has both a slip phenomenon and a slide phenomenon. Slip-and-slide phenomena degrade the comfortable riding performance of electric commuter train. We have already proposed an antislip/antislide readhesion control system based on disturbance observer and sensorless vector control. The effectiveness of the proposed method has been confirmed by the experiment and the numerical simulation using the tested bogie system of electric commuter train. Then, we apply the proposed method to the actual electric commuter train of series 205.5000 of the East Japan Railway Company. In the experimental results of series 205-5000, this paper demonstrates that the proposed antislip/slide readhesion control system has the desired driving wheel torque response. Moreover, this paper discusses the evaluation method of readhesion control test results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power converters, such as inverters and converters, are used as important components in various electric apparatuses, which support our daily life. Examples include transport machines such as electric trains and elevators, home electronics such as washing machines and air conditioner, power-supplying electronics such as switching regulators and controllers for computer systems. The function of power converters is to freely change the form and amplitude of the electric power according to demands from load side.

This paper presents the current research trends and future issues for industrial electronics related to transportation electrification. Specific emphasis is placed on electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (EVs/PHEVs) and their critical drivetrain components. The paper deals with industry related EV energy storage system issues, EV charging issues, as well as power electronics and traction motor drives issues. The importance of battery cell voltage equalization for series-connected lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries for extended life time is presented. Furthermore, a comprehensive overview of EV/PHEV battery charger classification, standards, and requirements is presented. Several conventional EV/PHEV front-end ac/dc charger converter topologies as well as isolated DC/DC topologies are reviewed. Finally, this paper reviews various EV propulsion system architectures and efficient bidirectional DC/DC converter topologies. Novel DC/AC inverter modulation techniques for EVs are also presented. The architectures are based on the battery voltage, capacity, and driving range. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Modern electric-powered vehicles include several sources and loads. This paper extends the idea of introducing multiple sources and loads into an onboard vehicular integrated power system. The proposed power conditioning system is formed around a multiwinding integrated transformer. Both inductive and capacitive elements of this magnetic component affect the power conditioning stages of the system. This paper proposes an experimental transformer modeling procedure that includes the inductive and capacitive parameters. A mathematical procedure is developed, simplifying this more detailed experimental model of the multiwinding transformer into a $\Pi\ RLC$ circuit that can be utilized in the system transient analysis. The modeling method is applied to a three-winding transformer and is verified through simulations and experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The phasor-PWM-based current source inverter (CSI) is a boost inverter. The difference between conventional CSIs and the boost inverter is that the boost ratio (VLLrms/Vdc ) in the boost inverter can easily be above 3.0, whereas this ratio is around 1 in conventional CSIs. In order to realize the potential capabilities of the boost inverter and to assist its penetration into renewable energy systems, the boost inverter dynamic behaviors are studied in this paper. First, the large- and small-signal models as well as the dq-equivalent circuits of the boost inverter are presented. Then, the developed models are verified using circuit simulations and experiments on a laboratory-scale 2-kW 208/240- V_{\rm LLrms} V_{\rm dc}=65\ \hbox{V} $ boost inverter made of reverse-blocking IGBTs. Finally, the developed small-signal model is used to study the stability of the boost inverter through root locus of small signal poles (eigenvalues) as control inputs, and load parameters vary within the boost inverter's operating limits. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, a four-leg matrix converter is proposed as the power conversion core for aircraft ground power unit (GPU) applications. This structure allows easy management of unbalanced and nonlinear loads with minimal disruption of the power supply operation. A hybrid repetitive-traditional control system is proposed to regulate the output voltage of the GPU. This solution reduces the steady-state tracking error, maintaining fast dynamic characteristics, and increases the stability of the converter compared to conventional approaches. Simulations and experimental results from a 7.5-KW converter prototype are presented to verify the operation of the proposed configuration and to prove the effectiveness of the solution. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In recent years, renewable energy has developed to address energy security and climate change drivers. However, as energy resources, they possess a variable and uncertain nature that significantly complicates grid balancing operations. As a result, an extensive academic and industrial literature has developed to determine how much such variable energy resources (VERs) may be integrated and how to best mitigate their impacts. While certainly insightful with the context of their application, many integration studies have methodological limitations because they are case specific, address a single control function of the power grid balancing operations, and are often not validated by simulation. The prequel to this paper presented a holistic method for the assessment of power grid imbalances induced by VERs based upon the concept of enterprise control. This paper now systematically studies these power grid imbalances in terms of five independent variables: 1) day-ahead market time step; 2) real-time market time step; 3) VER normalized variability; 4) normalized day-ahead VER forecast error; and 5) normalized short-term VER forecast error. The systematic study elucidates the impacts of these variables and provides significant insights as to how planners should address these independent variables in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper addresses the problem of thermal energy control in shopping centers through the application of model predictive control (MPC) strategies. In particular, this paper uses an existing shopping center as pilot case, which is characterized by a large common multifloor space, which, in turn, gives rise to a significant vertical thermal stratification. This paper explores the importance of MPC parameters to energy efficiency and comfort levels. In addition, it addresses some notable extensions, from economic optimization, which paves the way to real-time pricing techniques, to integration with renewables, to robustness enforcement through Kalman filters, to hybrid control with switching signals mixed with continuous signals. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper contains a relatively new synthesis method for nonlinear objects, which is named backstepping. This method can be used to obtain the observer structure. This paper presents the structure of the speed observer, which is a new proposition of observer backstepping with additional state variables marked $Z$. The rotor speed can be estimated in three different ways. The first is based on the adaptive approach, the second on the nonadaptive approach, and the third on improvement of the adaptive approach. The stability of the Z-type observer is determined by the Lyapunov stability criteria. Despite this, stability analysis around the machine's working point is undertaken. All the machine tests are prepared in the sensorless control system based on multiscalar variables. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed solution. The squirrel-cage model parameter estimation is not presented in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recently, research concerning electrical machines and drives condition monitoring and fault diagnosis has experienced extraordinarily dynamic activity. The increasing importance of these energy conversion devices and their widespread use in uncountable applications have motivated significant research efforts. This paper presents an analysis of the state of the art in this field. The analyzed contributions were published in most relevant journals and magazines or presented in either specific conferences in the area or more broadly scoped events. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Modern control systems rely heavily on their sensors for reliable operation. Failure of a sensor could destabilize the system, which could have serious consequences to the system's operations. Therefore, there is a need to detect and accommodate such failures, particularly if the system in question is of a safety critical application. In this paper, a sensor failure detection, identification, and accommodation (SFDIA) scheme is presented. This scheme is based on the fully connected cascade (FCC) neural network (NN) architecture. The NN is trained using the neuron by neuron learning algorithm. This NN architecture is chosen because of its efficiency in terms of the number of neurons and the number of inputs required to solve a problem. The SFDIA scheme considers failures in pitch, roll, and yaw rate gyro sensors of an aircraft. A total of 105 experiments were conducted; out of which, only one went undetected. The SFDIA scheme presented here is efficient, compact, and computationally less expensive, in comparison to schemes using, for example, the popular multilayer perceptron NN. These benefits are inherited from the FCC NN architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper introduces a data-driven approach for fault diagnosis in the presence of incomplete monitor data. The expectation–maximization (EM) algorithm is applied to handle missing data in order to obtain a maximum-likelihood solution for the discrete (or categorical) distribution. Because of the nature of categorical distributions, the maximization step of the EM algorithm is shown in this paper to have an easily calculated analytical solution, making this method computationally simple. An experimental study on a ball-and-tube system is investigated to demonstrate advantages of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper introduces an improved signal processing technique of zero sequence voltage (ZSV) with the scope of position sensorless commutation of a BLDC motor drive system. Rotor position information is extracted in the proposed technique from ZSV. This signal includes all time intervals where back electromagnetic force (EMF) zero crossings (ZCs) occur, from which the commutation instants are determined. This technique exploits maximally flat group delay of Bessel low-pass filters for switching noise suppression. This attribute leads to a speed-independent time displacement of ZSV. The fundamental frequency of ZSV is determined through a median-filtering algorithm, which is required for a dynamic rate limiter that eliminates erroneous ZCs. In sequence, a pulse train is generated by the detected ZCs of the emerged signal and properly shifted to determine the correct commutation instants. The proposed technique ensures a wide operational speed range for the drive system. A theoretical analysis of the drive system is presented, considering a BLDC motor with nonideal back-EMF. Experimental results presented in this paper validate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed position sensorless commutation technique under various operational conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Exploiting the rich switching redundancies of the dual inverter, new hybrid pulsewidth-modulation (PWM) switching methods are proposed in this paper using the degree of freedom of operating the individual inverters independently, in addition to exercising the degree of freedom of controlling the switching action of the individual legs independently. Two voltage entities, namely, common-mode voltage (CMV) and differential-mode voltage are identified in the dual inverter, and all hybrid PWMs are envisaged aimed at reducing and also eliminating the CMV in it. The effects of such attempts on motor shaft voltage and also the motor bearing currents are presented in detail. Furthermore, bearing current profiles of an open-end winding induction motor are also presented with both conventional and hybrid PWMs proposed in this paper. Electric discharge machining discharge currents are completely eliminated with the use of all hybrid PWM methods proposed in this paper. In addition, implications of completely eliminating the CMV are also presented in this paper. All hybrid PWMs proposed in this paper are first simulated using MATLAB and are experimentally verified on a dual two-level inverter feeding a 1.1-kW 415-V 3- $\phi$ open-end winding induction motor drive. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Multilevel inverters with dodecagonal (12-sided polygon) voltage space vector structure have advantages, such as complete elimination of fifth and seventh harmonics, reduction in electromagnetic interference, reduction in device voltage ratings, reduction of switching frequency, extension of linear modulation range, etc., making it a viable option for high-power medium-voltage drives. This paper proposes two power circuit topologies capable of generating multilevel dodecagonal voltage space vector structure with symmetric triangles (for the first time) with minimum number of dc-link power supplies and floating capacitor H-bridges. The first power topology is composed of two hybrid cascaded five-level inverters connected to either side of an open-end winding induction machine. Each inverter consists of a three-level neutral-point-clamped inverter, which is cascaded with an isolated H-bridge making it a five-level inverter. The second topology is for a normal induction motor. Both of these circuit topologies have inherent capacitor balancing for floating H-bridges for all modulation indexes, including transient operations. The proposed topologies do not require any precharging circuitry for startup. A simple pulsewidth modulation timing calculation method for space vector modulation is also presented in this paper. Due to the symmetric arrangement of congruent triangles within the voltage space vector structure, the timing computation requires only the sampled reference values and does not require any offline computation, lookup tables, or angle computation. Experimental results for steady-state operation and transient operation are also presented to validate the proposed concept. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent years have seen increasing attention paid to laser welding monitoring. This paper introduces an innovative approach to perform laser welding process monitoring and welded defect diagnosis. The laboratory-scale sensor can be replaced with industrial-scale sensors after the data-driven model has been established by applying multivariate statistics and machine learning methods. In addition, industrial-scale sensor makes effective diagnosis of welded defect by using pattern recognition. Experimental results show that the feature vector affecting estimation and classification accuracy can be obtained by using wavelet packet decomposition principal component analysis. Image processing technology was applied to quantify geometrical parameters of welding process. The feedforward neural network prediction model and the support vector machine classification model built in this research help to guarantee accurate estimation on welding status and effective identification of welded defect. The method proposed by this paper provides an innovative data-driven-based approach for laser welding process monitoring and defects diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents inductive power transfer (IPT) systems for a piezoelectric transformer (PT) based ozone-driven circuit with flexible capacity operation and frequency-tracking mechanism. The proposed system consists of an IPT circuit as the front stage along with an ozone-driven circuit as the back stage. Considering that the ozone generator system was often used under high-humidity and particle-polluted environment, the study hence proposes a contactless power source such that the oxidization and rustiness can be better avoided. Next, by taking the system expansion into consideration, this paper proposes multiple modular parallel PTs in order to increase the output capacity of the designated circuit. This is further followed by a frequency-tracking control developed to promote power delivery efficiency. To confirm this proposed method, the developed system has been realized with hardware circuit validation. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed system not only delivers the power effectively, but also ensures balanced output current of each PT, thereby facilitating the approach for the ozone-driven applications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]