Plenary Speech 3

Plenary  Speech 3 : Model Predictive Control: Applications, Advances and Challenges

Jose Rodriguez (IEEE Life Fellow) received the Engineer degree in electrical engineering from the Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria, in Valparaiso, Chile, in 1977 and the Dr.-Ing. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany, in 1985. He has been with the Department of Electronics Engineering, Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria, since 1977, where he was full Professor and President. Since 2015 he was the President and since 2019 he is full professor at Universidad Andres Bello in Santiago, Chile. He has coauthored two books, several book chapters and more than 400 journal and conference papers. His main research interests include multilevel inverters, new converter topologies, control of power converters, and adjustable-speed drives. He has received a number of best paper awards from journals of the IEEE. Dr. Rodriguez is member of the Chilean Academy of Engineering. In 2014 he received the National Award of Applied Sciences and Technology from the government of Chile. In 2015 he received the Eugene Mittelmann Award from the Industrial Electronics Society of the IEEE. In years 2014 to 2020 he has been included in the list of Highly Cited Researchers published by Web of Science.

Abstract: Model Predictive Control (MPC) emerged years ago as an attractive control strategy for power electronics systems. Main advantages of MPC are the simple concept, the capability to include easily different control objectives and the high dynamic performance. On the contrary, like any new strategy, it also has disadvantages such as dependence on the mathematical model, dependence on the parameters and a variable frequency spectrum. However, thanks to the work carried out by the scientific community, most of these disadvantages has been resolved. This talk aims to introduce the audience to MPC and show them its evolution and applications. Special attention will be given to use of MPC in multilevel inverters using few calculations and how to avoid the use of weighting factors. The presentation will also present the evaluation to be used in high power drives and in electric vehicles. Finally, this talk will discuss the challenges that MPC must overcome to be adopted by the industry.