Data-driven predictive current control for synchronous motor drives

Data-driven control techniques have become increasingly popular in recent years due to the availability of massive amounts of data and several advances in data science. These control design methods bypass the system identification step and directly exploit collected data to construct the controller. In this paper, we investigate the application of data-driven methods to the control of electric motor drives, and specifically to the design of current controllers for three-phase synchronous permanent magnet motor drives. Two of the most promising data-driven algorithms are presented, namely the Subspace Predictive Control algorithm and the Data-Enabled Predictive Control algorithm. The theory behind these techniques is first reviewed in the optimization-based control framework. Standard algorithms are slightly modified to fulfill the requirements of the specific application, and then simulated in the MATLAB Simulink environment. Some key aspects of real-time implementation are studied, providing a proof-of-concept demonstration of the applicability of these algorithms. The data-driven design is proposed for three different topologies of synchronous motors, proving the flexibility of the approach.