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This paper presents a method for the control design of five-level DCC converters based on mixed-integer optimization and machine learning. The resulting controller is computationally simple and can be easily implemented on low-resource control hardware using simple nested “if-else” statements. The optimization problem is recalled from previous work by modifying the cost function to further enhance the dynamic performance. Additionally, and in contrast to previous works, the online implementation accomplished in this paper allows the system to cover a wider range of operating points. For this, the optimization problem is solved offline for several operating conditions, and the results are gathered into a dataset to train classification and regression trees (CARTs), which are later used online. Due to the generalization capability of the CARTs, a more flexible and less resource-intensive implementation is achieved which is capable of operating at points outside the ones considered in the training dataset. The resulting control strategy is compared in simulation and experiments with several alternative approaches found in the literature. This approach can be extended to other power converter topologies, allowing the implementation of optimized modulations.

The growing relevance of voltage source converters (VSCs), and the deep impact they have on the development and maintenance of the electrical grid, increase the necessity of further research on how to deal with nonideal grid conditions from the VSCs control. This paper is aimed to summarize the basic techniques and schemes that might be required for a grid-connected VSC to work under these conditions: grid synchronization schemes, sequence decomposition, current reference generation, and current controllers. At the same time, some alternative schemes that improves the basic ones are cited. Modelling and the two typical current controllers design and tuning under stationary and synchronous reference frames are also exhibited. Given the importance of the current control stage in the VSC behaviour, five control schemes, designed to track negative sequence currents, are shown and tested in simulation and experiments. According to the experiments, it is shown that the standard proportional-resonant controller achieves the best performance in negative sequence tracking due to the robustness of its non-ideal version, the improved implementation thanks to the delta operator, and the non-dependence on grid-synchronization schemes. Alternatively, one approach based on dual synchronous reference frame is also highlighted for easiness of implementation and good performance.

In this paper, a new control design procedure for a class of power converters based on hybrid dynamical systems theory is presented. The continuous-time dynamics, as voltage and current signals, and discrete-time dynamics, as the on- off state of the switches, are captured with a hybrid model. This model avoids the use of averaged and approximated models and includes the PWM as well as the sample-and-hold mechanism, commonly used in the industry. Then, another simplified hybrid system, whose trajectories match with the original one, is selected to design the controller and to analyse stability properties. Finally, an estimation of the chattering in steady state of the voltage and current signals is provided. The results are validated through simulation and experiments.

This paper uses a novel approach for the control of three-level neutral-point-clamped (NPC) rectifiers in order to tackle the capacitor voltage balance problem. A distinctive feature of the new control approach is that it is based on a model which is written in terms of the duty ratios for each phase at each level. Hence, the system model presents nine duty cycle variables. Despite the fact that this formulation is different from the usual ones, it is shown that the control problem of currents and dc-link voltage can be formulated in a similar way to conventional methods. Furthermore, the control of the capacitor voltage balance can be expressed by means of equations that are decoupled from the currents and dc-link voltage dynamics, which results in a specific controller for the voltage balancing that does not affect the previous dynamics. A key point of the proposed approach is that part of the modulation stage is implicit in the formulation. Two particular controllers are compared in this paper. The first one fulfills the different control objectives at the expense of a large number of commutations. This problem is overcome in a new proposed controller, which presents similar performance and a satisfactory number of commutations. Experimental results are performed showing the effectiveness compared with a modified virtual space vector modulation with capacitor voltage balance capabilities.

Resumen: El comportamiento dinámico de los sistemas no lineales es mucho más rico que el de los lineales y su análisis mucho más complicado. Para el análisis de estabilidad, las técnicas basadas en la teoría de Liapunov tienen un lugar destacado. En este articulo se revisa parte de esta teoría incluyendo las técnicas de estimación de la cuenca de atracción. También se repasan los resultados que han aparecido en los últimos años sobre la aplicación a este campo de los métodos numéricos de optimización de suma de cuadrados. Palabras clave: Estabilidad de Liapunov, Análisis de estabilidad, Cuenca de atracción, Análisis numérico, Problemas de optimización

La gimnasia acrobática y el mundo circense están sufriendo cambios constantemente en los procesos de enseñanza-aprendizaje y mejora de los sistemas de entrenamiento. Buscando una optimización del proceso, y observando que aún se siguen usando métodos tradicionales, creados a lo largo del siglo XIX y comienzos del XX, se han identificado problemas en el entrenamiento de los “portores” de Gimnasia Acrobática (GA) o de Actividades Circenses, que han llevado al desarrollo del Simulador Mecánico del Entrenamiento de Acrobacia Colectiva, llamado “KIMARTOP” (León, K., Bortoleto, M. (2013)), un dispositivo que simula la acción del “ágil”. Objetivo: Presentar los resultados de un estudio piloto en el que se compara la ejecución de dos ejercicios cerrados y una secuencia técnica de GA realizada por un “portor” de alto nivel, donde usa a su “ágil” habitual y el “Kimartop” con diferentes porcentajes de carga, examinando así las similitudes, diferencias y posibles errores técnicos, para buscar nuevos datos para el perfeccionamiento del prototipo.