Control of high-performance permanent-magnet synchronous motors for underwater vehicles

The major goal of the paper is to perform advanced studies in nonlinear analysis, design, control, and deployment of advanced propulsion systems for underwater vehicles. Propulsion systems integrate permanent-magnet synchronous motors, power converters, microprocessors, and sensors. There is a critical need to perform advanced nonlinear analysis and design of electric motors. The use of advanced microprocessors and DSPs allow the designer to perform intelligent decision making and learning control. Due to extremely complex nonlinear electromagnetics phenomena, research in electric machinery has not kept the pace of the benchmarking advantages in power electronics and DSPs. In the paper, advanced analysis and design are performed to provide the means for developing high-performance propulsion systems for underwater vehicles in order to reduce the current drawbacks and satisfy requirements and specifications imposed. In particular, we approach and solve extremely challenging nonlinear analysis and control problems for high-performance propulsion systems without placing the problem into the frame of assumptions and simplifications which lead to unsatisfactory performance. Using a set of nonlinear differential equations, which describe permanent-magnet synchronous motor dynamics, an innovative design method is proposed, and nonlinear control algorithms are synthesized. It must be emphasized that the reported results have been implemented, verified, and deployed.