Abstract: (Sponsored by PELS TC 10)
Efficient automation of controller design is increasingly critical for modern power electronics. While model-based design workflow remain the standard, their effectiveness is fundamentally constrained by the wide variability of real power electronics plants (manufacturing tolerances, component aging, and changing operating conditions) and the large controller design space that must be explored. These factors often force a trial-and-error process—iterative modeling, tuning, testing, and commissioning—that consumes substantial time, specialized expertise, and cost, leading to long and costly design cycles.
This seminar introduces model-free controller design workflow that is grounded in Fliess’s theory as a practical alternative for efficient automation of controller design in power electronics. The Fliess’s model-free control theory offers numerous potential control performance and performance robustness advantages that can help significantly reduce the design space to be explored for optimal control performance, thus reducing the runtime of the design tool, but realizing these benefits requires fundamental revisit of the theory’s foundations. Accordingly, this tutorial is intended to equip power electronics researchers with the basic understanding of Fliess’s model-free control theory needed to leverage them in future power electronics controller designs. Key concepts on the core principle of Fliess’s model free control theory, its characteristics, enhancement and extensions, and how this control theory may be utilized in power electronics controller design automation will be covered.
