This paper provides a detailed examination of the influence of common-mode voltage (CMV) on leakage and bearing currents in Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (PMSMs) for Electric Vehicles (EV) powered by Three-Level Active Neutral-Point Clamped (ANPC) inverters. A comparison of various carrier-based Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) techniques is conducted, evaluating their performance in terms of phase current Total Harmonic Distortion (THD), leakage current, CMV, and bearing voltage. An equivalent circuit model, integrating PMSM’s parasitic capacitances and bearing dynamics, is developed to analyse bearing behaviour under both healthy and fault conditions. Simulation results obtained in the PLECS environment offer valuable insights for selecting the modulation strategies that effectively balance CMV reduction, motor longevity, and inverter output quality, thereby enhancing the reliability of the system.

This paper presents the design of a new programmable and compact switching cell with an integrated intelligent electronic fuse (iFuse). The switching cell forms an elementary block from which modular, scalable, and robust multilevel power converters can be built. Based on a 40-V GaN high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT), this new design incorporates self-powered driving circuitry, a switching-cell state-monitoring circuit with fault-detection capabilities, and an intelligent electronic fuse (iFuse), all within a significantly optimized PCB area. A reprogrammable signal processing device is used, consolidating the functions of multiple discrete components into a single unit. This results in a more flexible, reduced-cost, and reduced-size design. The iFuse ensures the isolation within 5 μs of the GaN HEMT from the rest of the converter when a failure event occurs, preventing the damage of other devices and increasing the converter reliability. The correct operation and good performance of the design are successfully verified through experimental tests.

Recent advancements in spaceborne receiver technology have extended the application of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-based navigation systems to space missions. However, the actual availability and usability of GNSS signals in deep-space is still questionable, lacking experimental evidence. The Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) is a joint NASA-Italian Space Agency (ASI) payload aiming to showcase GNSS-based Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) during its transfer orbit to the Moon. Operating without direct interface with on-board Guidance, Navigation & Control (GNC) subsystems, the LuGRE receiver requires alternative means of aiding to pursue precise Orbit Determination (OD) in the challenging space environment. This paper investigates a custom Trajectory-Aware EKF (TA-EKF) architecture that integrates aiding observations in the form of a pre-mission design of the LuGRE trajectory. Two alternative designs are presented, integrating aiding observations in the observation-domain and state-domain, respectively. The proposed architectures are evaluated by post-processing raw GNSS observables collected in a real-time Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) simulation with GNSS Radio Frequency (RF) signals. A comprehensive assessment leveraging Monte Carlo (MC) analyses characterizes the OD performance under aiding observation errors and mismodeling, comparing the TA-EKF models against a standalone Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) solution.

Non-isolated integrated chargers take advantage of the electric vehicle’s on-board power electronic for charging purposes: the traction drive inverter is a good candidate to be used in the battery charging process, while the stator windings of the electrical traction motor can be utilized as static inductors. In a typical non-isolated three-phase grid-connected system, there exist a leakage current flowing through the common mode (CM) parasitic path between the vehicle’s chassis and the DC ground. Large leakage current lead to potential electric shocks to the end-users, as well as on-board electronics failures. In this paper, a 3-level Active Neutral Point Clamped (ANPC) inverter is used together with the stator windings of a permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSM) for charging purposes. The issue of CM leakage current through the parasitic path is analysed for different earthing systems. Different modulation techniques are critically compared in terms of effectiveness in reducing the leakage current, grid currents distortion and capability in reducing the DC current ripple during battery charging. Simulation results are provided in support of the analysis.

Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) allows the transmission of electricity from a power source to a receiving device without the need for physical cables or direct contact. For autonomous mobile robots, this allows to automate the charging process while avoiding exposed contacts and charging port wear. The present work details the design, numerical simulation and test of an inductively coupled WPT system for battery charging of autonomous mobile robots. In order to transfer power, the system exploits a Split Transformer topology based on commercially available E-shape ferrite cores.A 600W rated power prototype has been manufactured and experimentally characterized. The experimental results obtained are in agreement with the simulation ones.

Simultaneous power and data transfer to enable fast communication between the primary and the secondary sides of wireless power transfer (WPT) systems is rapidly growing, to improve system performance and enable interoperability. The present work details the design, numerical simulation and test of a simultaneous wireless power and data transfer (SWPDT) system for battery charging of autonomous mobile robots. The system implements independent multiple inductive channels for power and full duplex data transfer, that are combined on the same split transformer topology, based on commercially available E-shape ferrite cores. In particular, a main winding is used to transfer power, while auxiliary data windings on the outer wings are used to realize a bidirectional data communication, implemented by means of Manchester coding technique. Preliminary experimental results carried out on multiple inductive channels SWPDT prototype with rated power 600W and 1 Mbit/s data rate are presented, and are in agreement with the simulation ones.

Wide-bandgap (WBG) power semiconductor devices have acquired more and more interest in power circuits, since they allow to operate at higher switching frequencies and temperatures compared to the conventional silicon-based devices, while also improving efficiency and power density. In electric drive applications they can produce significant electrical stress at the machine terminals due to their inherently elevated voltage gradients (dv/dt), hence resulting in a reduced lifetime of the entire system. Voltage overshoot at the electrical machine terminals depends on many factors, such as voltage dv/dt, cables type and length, electrical machines input impedance etc. In this paper, a novel control based on a recent multilevel drive architecture is presented. This control is able to minimize the voltage overshoot at the terminals of an electrical machine independently form the system layout, increasing the overall reliability and lifetime of the winding’s insulation system.

We consider the problem of detecting spoofing attacks for a GNSS receiver in space, orbiting around the Earth. Since a receiver in space cannot leverage the presence of so called signals of opportunity, it must rely on detecting anomalies in the signal itself and checking the consistency of its measurements with the computed orbital position. We consider three different consistency checks: on the overall received GNSS signal power at the front-end; on the estimated carrier-to-noise ratio (C/N0) for the signal coming from each satellite in view; on the final computed position at the receiver output. Moreover, we devise a fusion method that combines soft outputs from the three checks to provide a more reliable and robust detection. The proposed techniques are tested in a realistic simulation environment showing that, although the position consistency check is by far the most reliable, the proper fusion of the soft information from all three allow to further improve the detection rates in different conditions significantly.