Comparison of Flatness-based Control and Field-Oriented Control for PMSMs in Automotive Water Pump Application

With electric vehicles (EV s) becoming more and more prevalent as a reaction to climate change, efficient methods of temperature regulation are becoming necessary. Electric motors are preferred in EVs over mechanical cooler pumps and flow-regulating valves found in conventional vehicles. There are many industries that use permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) due to their high power density, high torque-to-weight ratios, simplicity, and ease of maintenance. This paper provides an overview of PMSM control research in automotive water pumps. Due to the nonlinearity of the PMSM system and its effects on multiple operating points, flatness-based control is discussed as a potential solution to overcome the limitations of field-oriented control (FOC) with proportional-integral-derivative (PID) regulators. An analysis of robustness is conducted to compare PI-based FOC with flatness-based control, and simulations are used to show the results.