Advanced Control Techniques for Power Converter and Drives

Advanced control is now central to performance, robustness, and the ability to achieve the highest power density in modern power converters. Beyond classical linear designs, research has rapidly expanded across model predictive control, adaptive and robust methods, passivity-based strategies, and learning-enabled controllers, together with spectrumshaping modulation to address the EMI and vibro-acoustics in drive systems [1–10]. These techniques are being exploited in demanding contexts such as grid-forming inverters, hybrid AC/DC networks, and electrified transportation, where tight transience, device stress limits, and grid codes must all be satisfied simultaneously. Despite the progress, several gaps remain regarding the control design, device physics, and implementation: (i) accurate handling of nonlinear magnetic components within realtime controllers; (ii) stability guarantees for distributed and parallelized converter architectures; (iii) realizations of complex control schemes on embedded platforms (e.g., FPGAs); and (iv) grid-interactive scheduling and optimization frameworks that explicitly treat uncertainty while coordinating power–electronic elements in distribution networks. Recent work has started to close these gaps. For example, the authors of [11] propose a quasi-constant on-time (QCOT) control for SMPS operating with nonlinear temperaturedependent inductors; by estimating the power switch conduction time and exploiting the saturation safely, the QCOT raises the inductor current capability and power density while avoiding thermal runaway. In [12], a 4 MW high-power-density generator for hybrid-electric aircraft, targeting gravimetric power densities around 20 kW/kg with advanced PM design and thermal management is presented. In [13], the authors propose a multiport power conversion system (MPCS) for the More Electric Aircraft, enabling fault-tolerant ring power distribution with minimal weight penalty. An advanced discontinuous PWM for multilevel cascaded H-bridge converters, reducing switching losses while mitigating harmonic degradation in N-cell structures, is reported in [14]. A modulated model-predictive integral control for synchronous reluctance motor drives, ensuring fixed switching frequency, low ripple, and robustness against parameter mismatches is presented in [15]. Finally, ref. [16] explores sampling-time harmonic control for cascaded H-bridges under active thermal control, addressing lifetime extension while suppressing low-order distortion. This Special Issue was conceived to collect the latest research across advanced control theory, power-device and passive modeling, and embedded implementation and to highlight solutions that translate into experimentally validated performance gains in the specific field of power electronics.