A Robust Second-Order Sliding Mode Control of Sensorless Five Level Packed U Cell Inverter

In this paper, a second order sliding mode based Super Twisting (ST) controller is designed and implemented on sensorless five-level packed U cell inverter (PUC5). The aim is to enhance the inverter performance and achieve better robustness. A low complexity modulation strategy is employed. It contains a few logic blocks and two level-shifted carriers, which reduces the computation time and eases the implementation. Moreover, it ensures quick and self-balancing of the inverter capacitor voltage. Employing the proposed super-twisting controller leads to a significant enhancement of dynamic response and steady-state performance of the PUC5. It provides better accuracy in the tracking of the reference current, which results in high power quality, and helps in fast self-balancing of the capacitor voltage. The feasibility and the effectiveness of the proposed controller has been verified by simulation and experimentally. The obtained results show the higher performance of the super twisting controller in stand-alone mode of operation.

• second-order sliding mode control
• sensorless control
• capacitor voltage balancing
• low-complexity modulation
• stand-alone inverter
• current tracking
• robustness

• 7 — Affordable and clean energy
• 9 — Industry, innovation and infrastructure

• Multilevel Inverters and Converters
• Sensorless Control of Electric Motors
• Microgrid Control and Optimization
• second-order sliding mode control
• sensorless control
• capacitor voltage balancing
• low-complexity modulation
• stand-alone inverter
• current tracking
• robustness
• Electrical and Electronic Engineering
• Control and Systems Engineering
• Engineering