Modern speed control technologies of AC motors drives

Abstract

The paper presents the construction and general working principle of an AC motor drive.AC motor drives are experiencing an exciting new impact in industrial automation applications as well as in research studies. Inherent advantages of adjustable frequency operation could not be fully exploited without adopting a suitable control strategy. The paper gives an overview of trends in advanced control techniques employed for torque, speed and position regulation of variable frequency drives. Estimation issues are also discussed. Adjustable speed AC Motor drives have been used extensively in modern industry and transportation which calls for electrical and mechanical energy conversion with wide output power range applications. Because of its modularity and scalability, the drive system can be extended to many different application areas. More recently, adjustable speed AC motor drive applications are spreading not only in industry applications, but also sky and the marine. In this paper, after summarizing the history of adjustable speed AC motor drives and applications, the main issues of AC drive technologies are reviewed and investigated in the paper. Technical issues of adjustable speed AC motor drives including its standardization are surveyed and analysed for more advancement. Finally, the paper provides the latest technical trends on adjustable speed AC motor drives technologies, and discusses the development of high speed high power PM motor.