Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Power electronics is the key technology for many existing and emerging applications such as renewable energy systems, electric vehicles, energy storage systems, LED lighting, telecommunication systems, etc. Power electronics technology primarily includes power electronic circuitry and control systems. Although power circuits perform the required power conversions, the control system is what is controlling the conversion. Thus, the control system is an integral part of this technology, which directly determines the system performance. Power circuits have reached some level of maturity within the last few decades, offering very high conversion efficiencies (e.g., over 98%) thanks to high-performance power semiconductors and highly efficient power circuit topologies. In contrast, the advancement in control systems for power electronics has been fairly slow and traditional linear controllers are dominant in existing power electronic converters for the most part. Traditional linear controllers cannot effectively deal with nonlinearities in power electronic converters. Thus, they result in suboptimal performance and minimal stability margins. The main focus of this research is to develop new differential geometric control techniques tailored for power electronics technology. Differential geometry is the foundation of nonlinear control theory, and thus it can be used to effectively capture nonlinear behavior of power electronic converters. To develop new differential geometric models and control techniques, we will use Riemannian geometry to define suitable metrics on system manifolds. The Riemannian metric along with the underlying geometry will be used to mathematically model the system and design nonlinear controllers. Thus, the proposed framework provides advanced tools to derive nonlinear models and design control techniques for power electronic converters on manifolds, where their nonlinear behavior can be fully characterized, accurate stability margins can be investigated, and optimal performance can be achieved. The HQP who will be trained in this research program include 4 PhD, 6 MSc, and 5 undergraduate summer students (15 in total). The HQP will be trained to acquire the skills to independently design and develop advanced power electric converters. This training will give them the complete confidence to both conduct research independently in an academic setting or to take on design jobs in industry. The chief outcome of the proposed research program is to deliver highly reliable "next-generation" power electronic converters for many applications such as renewable energy systems. These next-generation power electronic converters will utilize new differential geometric control systems that can offer optimal performance and robust operation. The proposed research program will directly benefit the Canadian energy sector by introducing next-generation power electronics technology with tremendously higher performance and reliability.