Predictive Torque Control and Linear Control with SV-PWM for Electric Drives with NPC Inverters: An Experimental Comparison

Two control strategies, a finite-state predictive torque control and a linear control with space-vector PWM, are developed and experimentally assessed in this paper. Both strategies are used to control a permanent magnet synchronous motor supplied by a three-level neutral-point-clamped inverter. The high complexity of the drive system and the different nature of the control objectives make the development and implementation of the two strategies a challenge. In addition to the high computation resources that are required, the large number of the inverter voltage vectors further increases the computation load on the processor. This hinders the implementation into conventional hardware means and necessitates the use of advanced controller boards. Therefore, when controlling drives with multilevel inverters, the development of both control techniques requires special care. In this study, the operation of the two controllers is experimentally investigated, and their performances are assessed by considering several parameters under steady state and transient conditions.