A Comparative Simulation Study between Predictive Torque and Speed Controllers for Five-phase Induction Motor

The wide availability of microprocessors with much higher computational power capabilities has encouraged many researchers during the last decade to introduce the predictive control techniques to the field of power electronics and motor drives. One technique of predictive control, which is called model predictive control, is introduced in this paper and its application to control a five-phase induction motor is also presented. The mathematical formulation of both model predictive torque control and model predictive speed control algorithms are explained, which shows that the algorithms' equations are intuitive so they can be easily understood and implemented. Since a load torque estimate is needed in the predictive speed controller, an observer based on the minimal-order Gopinath's method is designed to get the load torque value. A comparison between the two techniques is carried out based on a simulation study. Also, the simulation results show the effectiveness of the predictive control in achieving a high dynamic performance control of multiphase induction motor drives.