Development and Implementation of a Low-Cost Switching Control Software for Multi-level Converter

Abstract

Multilevel converters have been designed and implemented many decades ago in many countries around the word. However, in West Africa, these systems are difficult to implement because of lack of expertise and hardware which are usually very expensive. This paper proposes an implementation of an Embedded Switching Control Software (ESCS) code on Arduino 2560 hardware for multi-level systems using Model-Based Design (MBD) approach that Arduino 2560 control hardware platforms are low-cost system and locally available in many Africa countries. Thus, it can enable the validation of complex energy conversion systems using local components for research and education purposes. The paper provides detailed steps to reach such goals by proposing a Carrier Based Space Vector Pulse Wide Modulation (CB-SVPWM) for three-phase multi-level inverters. A simple model of CB-SVPWM is considered to automatically generate the ESCS code for a single-phase five-level Cascaded H-Bridge (CHB) inverter then deployed on Arduino 2560 hardware conforming to On-Target Rapid Prototyping (OTRP) approach. The simulated and practical results confirm that MBD with Simulink offers a convenient approach to develop ESCS code for multi-level converters.