A selection of past Research Projects (newest first)

• Ship propulsion - Researches in this area pertain the study, design and testing of electrical components for naval propulsion units, making use of permanent magnet synchronous motor drives. Read more

• Time optimal current or torque control for PM synchronous motor drives - The research proposes an innovative current control strategy for Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM) drives with both isotropic and anisotropic rotors, based on Pontryagin’s Time Optimal Control (TOC) theory. The control strategy assures the fastest current/torque response after any demanded current/torque reference variation. It can be demonstrated that such a control exhibits faster response than hysteresis control, even if the latter is often considered the fastest control scheme. The theoretical principle of TOC is at first illustrated and then applied to PMSM drives and verified by simulations. Comparison to other control strategies is included. At last, an experimental validation is carried out and measured results are presented. Read more

• Sensorless PM synchronous motor drives based on an Extended Kalman Filter. It addresses the problem of the tuning of the Extended Kalman Filter algorithm, as well its extension to non-sinusoidal back-emf motors and IPM motors, for both the constant power region and the flux-weakening region. The sensor-less strategy has been experimentally evaluated with pull-in and pullout curves, and the laboratory prototype is now ready for industrialisation.

• Fuzzy logic control applications to electrical drives

• Submersible electrical motor (European Project 2002-04) – The project was aimed to develop a 6 inches, high efficiency squirrel cage submersible asynchronous motor, designed for 45 kW (50% higher than the maximum rating power of the motors manufactured by the industrial proposer of the project) to be used in connection with pumps within 6 inches wells, improving at the same time characteristics of reliability, environmental compatibility and reduced maintenance which are even more important for systems operating at high depths. The project started on June 2002 was concluded successfully in 2004 by testing a prototype of the motor with positive results. Finite element magnetic and thermal analysis, combined with an optimization procedure was used to design the motor in cooperation with mechanical designers.

• ventilation & pumps

• high efficiency motors

• torque motors

• Computer Aided Commissioning of Speed and Position Control for Electrical Drives with Identification of Mechanical Load (European CRAFT project 1997-98) - The final product of the Project is a software tool which permits the identification of the mechanical structure and the selection commissioning of several speed and position controllers for twomass systems with mechanical imperfections such as friction and backlash. The tool is thought to be of easy use for the industry comiissioning personnel, and thus is supported by a friendly Graphical Interface that guides also non expert personnel through the identification procedure and the selection and tuning of the controllers. Read more

• High speed motors - The research has been carried in order to design two PM machines: (1) a two-pole, 30 krpm, 1kW motor for a hand tool; (2) a four-pole, 12 krpm, with flux-weakening capability generator for on-board energy generation on trucks. Read more