Electric Drives

In modern power grids, power-electronic converters have become indispensable, both in consumption and in generation. As an example, a grid-connected solar inverter converts the DC current produced by solar photovoltaic panels to the AC current. Power converters are also an integral part of energy storage systems. Both hardware and control methods of this kind of converters are very similar to those applied in electric drives..

In the Electric drives group, we carry out research on electric motor drives and power converters, including their analysis, control design, and optimization. Our core competence is developing advanced real-time algorithms for control and estimation. We collaborate actively with the industry and with the leading research groups at universities. We have published our research results in more than 120 technical papers (of which over 40 in IEEE journals). The results have also led to several patents and patent applications.

The group is led by Professor Marko Hinkkanen.