SMARTMOD
Public Funding
National Projects 2020-2029
SMARTMOD: Enabling smartization of modular power converters for electrical mobility Public funding: PLAN ESTATAL DE INVESTIGACIÓN CIENTÍFICA Y TÉCNICA Y DE INNOVACIÓN 2021-2023 «Proyectos Estratégicos Orientados a la Transición Ecológica y a la Transición Digital» 2021.
SMARTMOD-Habilitación de funciones inteligentes en convertidores de potencia modulares para la movilidad eléctrica
Funding entity: Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI).
Involved entities: Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.
Duration: from December 1, 2022 to November 30, 2024
Principal Investigator: Cristina Fernández Herrero, Pablo Zumel Vaquero
Number of participant researchers: 8
Summary
Power Electronics is a key transformational technology operating in the background of consumer electronics, industry, transportation and energy systems. Today, 70% of the electrical energy is processed by Power Electronics, and this will increase in the coming decades. In the last twenty years, Power Electronics has enabled game changing technologies bringing efficiency, compactness and reliability. In particular, it has strongly contributed to electric mobility, where 100% of the energy is processed by power electronic converters, driving the transformation towards a carbon neutral energy system, as well as the zero-emission transportation.
At this moment we are at the beginning of a disruptive power electronics development, where future power electronics converters have to be seen as intelligent systems, which are actively monitoring and diagnosing their environment based on different types of models and actuations. This will be achieved including additional digital controls that can be embedded to enable the required advanced connectivity and intelligence. Measuring data (currents, voltages, phasing, temperatures, impedance, frequency response, etc.), the converter can control the attached electrical system and react to changes in the environment.
The greatest contribution from this project is the advance in the smartization of power electronics applied to power distribution systems with modular converters, in electric transportation. The proposal is focused on the electric vehicle (EV), though the achieved general conclusions can be applied to other solutions of electric mobility. In particular, research is focused on a typical EV power distribution architecture comprising several converters, connected to a DC power source (battery or fuel cell), an electric drive and several storage elements, like batteries and supercapacitors.
A modular solution is considered for the converter connected to the main DC source, and therefore the proper control and power sharing among modules is also a key functionality to be integrated in the digital control. Moreover, some of these new digital control techniques will also have an impact in the behaviour of the power distribution system, such as monitoring its stability, predicting failures and improving the general efficiency of the system by connecting or disconnecting converters. The combination of modularity and predictive maintenance will also contribute to the reduction of operation and productions cost.
In particular, three main technological challenges have been addressed during the project:
Presentations
SMARTMOD project was presented during the SAAEI ’24 Conference.
Team
Principal researchers: Pablo Zumel and Cristina Fernandez
Research team: Andres Barrado, Emilio Olias, Marina Sanz, Antonio Lazaro
Work team: David Ortega, Sergio Toledano, Adrian Ocaña, Alejandro Lorenta, Jose Ortiz, Manuel Pomares
Publications
Authors: Hueros, V.; Risquez, P.; Zumel, P.; Fernandez, C.; Barrado, A.
Title: Wireless Charger for Pacemakers Controlled from Primary Current Without Communication with Secondary Side. Publication reference: Electronics2025, 14, 1563. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics14081563
Authors: David Ortega, Cristina Fernández, Pablo Zumel, F. Naya y Jesús Pernas
Title: Calentamiento por inducción aplicando presión en materiales CFRP. Publication reference: Seminario Anual de Automática, Electrónica Industrial e Instrumentación SAAEI 2024.
Authors: Cristina Fernández, Antonio Lázaro, Marina Sanz, Emilio Olías, Andrés Barrado y Pablo Zumel.
Title: Revisión y modificación de las prácticas en la asignatura de nueva implantación. Publication reference: Convertidores Electrónicos de Potencia, Seminario Anual de Automática, Electrónica Industrial e Instrumentación SAAEI 2024.
Authors: Adrián Ocaña Bravo, Cristina Fernández, Antonio Lázaro y Pablo Zumel Vaquero
Title: Control de convertidor reductor elevador de cuatro interruptores para aplicación espacial Publication reference: Seminario Anual de Automática, Electrónica Industrial e Instrumentación SAAEI 2024.
Authors: Javier González-Pérez, Cristina Fernández, Sergio Toledano-Dus y Pablo Zumel Vaquero.
Title: Modelado estático en tiempo continuo del convertidor DAHB. Publication reference: Seminario Anual de Automática, Electrónica Industrial e Instrumentación SAAEI 2024.
Authors: Cristina Fernández, Alejandro Lorenta, Andrés Barrado y Pablo Zumel
Title: Análisis del impacto del Latching Current Limiter en la estabilidad de un sistema de distribución de potencia de un satélite. Publication reference: Seminario Anual de Automática, Electrónica Industrial e Instrumentación SAAEI 2024.
Authors: David Ortega, Cristina Fernandez, Jesus Pernas and Pablo Zumel.
Title: Análisis de los defectos causados por el calentamiento por inducción en materiales CFRP. Publication reference: Seminario Anual de Automática, Electrónica Industrial e Instrumentación SAAEI 2023.
Authors: Sergio Toledano-Dus, Cristina Fernandez, Andres Barrado and Pablo Zumel.
Title: Modelo en tiempo discreto del convertidor Dual Actve Half Bridge (DAHB) en condiciones cercanas a la Resonancia. Publication reference: Seminario Anual de Automática, Electrónica Industrial e Instrumentación SAAEI 2023.
Authors: Fernandez Cristina, Jose A. Belloch, Braulio García-Cámara, Almudena Lindoso, Eduardo López-Fraguas, Aldo Moreno-Oyervides, José Manuel Sánchez Pena, Ricardo Vergaz and Isabel Pérez.
Title: Aplicación de la técnica de clase invertida para la enseñanza de conceptos básicos relacionados con la electrónica empleando un SPOC. Publication reference: Seminario Anual de Automática, Electrónica Industrial e Instrumentación SAAEI 2023.