A Model Predictive Controller for a Buck-Boost Rectifier of an Electric Vehicle Integrated Battery Charger with a Dual-Inverter Drive

This paper presents a predictive control system for the front-end Buck-Boost rectifier of an electric vehicle fitted with an integrated battery charger. The drive of this electric vehicle is based on a dual inverter connected to the open-windings induction motor. The rectifier of the integrated charger is based on the high-power factor AC-DC current source converter presenting Buck-Boost characteristics. This converter allows an easy integration in the electric vehicle charger, as well as zero average torque during the charging process. However, existing control systems for this front-end Buck-Boost rectifier are complex and hard to tune. To automate the rectifier vector selection, this paper proposes the use of a model predictive controller (MPC) to control the three-phase charger rectifier AC currents and the voltages capacitors of the dual inverter. Several simulation tests of the AC currents MPC controlled show nearly sinusoidal input currents and near unity power factor operation.