Message from editors

Abstract

For past decades, field oriented control (FOC) and direct torque control (DTC) have become the de facto industry standard. However, dedicated effort from both industry and academic communities are still required to achieve better steady state performance, quicker dynamic response, and simpler structure. Currently, the continuous advancement and improvement of new semiconductor power devices, sensorsand microprocessorsare presenting new opportunities to the field of high-performance motor drives. All these developments have promoted more advanced control schemes. Recently, model predictive control (MPC) hasattracted increasing attention for ac motor drives. Owing to its simple concept, fast transient response, and flexibility in incorporating various constraints, MPC is regarded as a powerful and attractive alternative to the conventional FOC and DTC. However, MPC has not yet reached a mature stage for industrial applications. Many aspects, e.g., reduction of computational burden, sensorless control, robustness against parameter mismatches, etc. need to be further investigated.