| dc.description.abstract | In an effort to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, the automobile industry is adopting alternative fuel technologies for vehicles. One major contender for replacing the conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle is the electric vehicle (EV). The resurgence of EVs has been spurred by technology advances in motor design, power electronics and energy storage. Even with the advancement in technology, the emerging field still has much room for improvement. In order to make the EV practical, many challenges need to be met, at a minimum to the level of convention set by ICE vehicles, especially cost. The high cost of the EV is usually associated with the battery, nonetheless, the type of motor and controller can impact the price tag of the vehicle.
The type of motor best suited for EVs is the subject of many industry and academic research projects. In this study, a leading contender, the induction motor (IM), is explored because of its cost-effective characteristics. However, in order to achieve high performance, asynchronous motors, such as the non-linear IM, have complex electrical models and control methods when compared to their synchronous counterparts. This drawback affects the robustness and cost of the controller and, therefore, the vehicle. The literature in this area claims high performance control methods are necessary because of the dynamic nature of EV applications.
In this research, a comparative analysis will be given for two alternate control methods for the IM. Scalar controls are simple, robust, low-cost control methods based on the steady-state model of the IM. Despite its popularity in many industry applications, several limitations confine scalar control to low performance applications. The majority of studies on IM control for electric vehicles focus on complex control algorithms, such as, field oriented control, a popular vector control technique. These studies often focus on small performance differences without any context. Due to its large inertia, the electric vehicle purposes a unique challenge that may be well suited for scalar control. The goal of this research is to compare the performance of an electric vehicle when utilizing these two different control methods and determine if the computationally intense vector control is required. The novelty of this study will be the emphasis placed on the modeling of the load (vehicle) and analyzing the results in terms of meaningful performance differences between the vehicles operating with the different control methods. | en |
