Use of a Popular Power Electronics Platform in a Control Systems Laboratory

Cherian Mathews

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Conference: 2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
Publication Date: June 26, 2016
Start Date: June 26, 2016
End Date: June 29, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-692-68565-5
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: Labs & Hands-on Instruction I
Tagged Division: Electrical and Computer
Page Count: 15
DOI: 10.18260/p.27112
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/27112
Download Count: 1032

Paper Authors

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Cherian Mathews University of the Pacific

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Cherian P. Mathews is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of the Pacific. He received a B.E. degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Anna University, Chennai, India, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University. Prior to joining the University of the Pacific in 2005, he held a faculty position at the University of Florida / University of West Florida Joint Program in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He has also held visiting faculty positions at Purdue University and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

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Abstract

The “power-pole board”, developed at the University of Minnesota (UMN), and commercialized by Hirel Systems, is widely used in U.S. universities for power electronics laboratory experiments. The board can be configured as a buck-converter, boost converter, buck-boost converter, flyback converter, or forward converter. A lab manual developed at UMN for use with the power-pole board is available in the public domain. The manual also includes experiments on closed-loop control of the buck converter. Closed loop control allows the output voltage of the converter to be regulated and remain immune to variations in the input voltage or converter load. Design of the controller in the UMN lab manual is based on the the K-factor approach (a frequency domain technique that involves a number of derivations and calculations pertaining to achievement of a desired phase margin).

University ____ was a member of an 82 university consortium (led by the University of Minnesota) that was supported by a Department of Energy grant to “revitalize electric power engineering education by state-of-the-art laboratories”. This paper describes how the grant enabled University ___ to implement a new power electronics course and lab using the power pole board and publicly available UMN developed materials. The paper also describes how the power pole board was used to support the laboratory experience in a control systems course without any additional expense for lab equipment. It describes how Proportional + Integral (PI) controllers can be designed for the power pole board buck converter. The design approach (using Matlab to design the controller) is simpler than the K-factor method, and provides instantaneous information on the transient response of the closed-loop system. The paper also shows how PI controllers can be implemented on the power pole board (this information is not available in the UMN lab manual, and could prove useful to the community of power pole board users). The power pole board (a relatively low cost investment of about $1250 per board) has enabled University ____ to provide meaningful lab experience in power electronics and control systems. Student feedback on the lab experience in these two courses has been positive and is presented.

Citation
Format

Mathews, C. (2016, June), Use of a Popular Power Electronics Platform in a Control Systems Laboratory Paper presented at 2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana. 10.18260/p.27112

TY - CPAPER
AB - The “power-pole board”, developed at the University of Minnesota (UMN), and commercialized by Hirel Systems, is widely used in U.S. universities for power electronics laboratory experiments. The board can be configured as a buck-converter, boost converter, buck-boost converter, flyback converter, or forward converter. A lab manual developed at UMN for use with the power-pole board is available in the public domain. The manual also includes experiments on closed-loop control of the buck converter. Closed loop control allows the output voltage of the converter to be regulated and remain immune to variations in the input voltage or converter load. Design of the controller in the UMN lab manual is based on the the K-factor approach (a frequency domain technique that involves a number of derivations and calculations pertaining to achievement of a desired phase margin).

University ____ was a member of an 82 university consortium (led by the University of Minnesota) that was supported by a Department of Energy grant to “revitalize electric power engineering education by state-of-the-art laboratories”. This paper describes how the grant enabled University ___ to implement a new power electronics course and lab using the power pole board and publicly available UMN developed materials. The paper also describes how the power pole board was used to support the laboratory experience in a control systems course without any additional expense for lab equipment. It describes how Proportional + Integral (PI) controllers can be designed for the power pole board buck converter. The design approach (using Matlab to design the controller) is simpler than the K-factor method, and provides instantaneous information on the transient response of the closed-loop system. The paper also shows how PI controllers can be implemented on the power pole board (this information is not available in the UMN lab manual, and could prove useful to the community of power pole board users).

The power pole board (a relatively low cost investment of about $1250 per board) has enabled University ____ to provide meaningful lab experience in power electronics and control systems. Student feedback on the lab experience in these two courses has been positive and is presented.

AU - Cherian Mathews
CY - New Orleans, Louisiana
DA - 2016/06/26
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Use of a Popular Power Electronics Platform in a Control Systems Laboratory
UR - https://peer.asee.org/27112
DO - 10.18260/p.27112
ER -