Custom 20 kW Traction Inverter

fall '18 - spring '20

technical skills: Motor control theory, embedded system design, firmware

In the fall of 2018 I took 6.332, an extension of 6.334, Graduate Power Electronics. This class, like .334, had a final project however it was completely open-ended, the project just had to be related to power electronics. I chose to write the firmware for a three phase motor controller using field oriented control (FOC). Being on FSAE, I was always interested in how our off-the-shelf motor controllers worked and wanted to see if I could create my own. The project ended up being pretty time consuming with lots of bugs to chase out but eventually I got the motor to spin. I wrote up a report on FOC and my experiences and you can read it here. The motor used was a 650 kv propdrive motor, the microcontroller was an STM32F413 (the same used on FSAE), and the power electronics were embedded on a nucleo shield

Took 6.332 firmware and designed a new inverter shown on this page.