Implementation of a High-Voltage DC+AC Power Supply for a Macro-Fiber Composite Actuators Testbed

In this work, a programmable high voltage signal generator for driving macro-fiber composite (MFC) actuators is presented. Peak to peak output voltages on the range of kilo volts is achieved through an H-bridge three-level Neutral Point Clamp (NPC) inverter. The inverter delivers DC and AC output voltages both bipolar or unipolar as required for driving either unimorph or bimorph MFC devices. The modulation of the inverter is based on a level shifted multi-carrier PWM which is implemented by using the motor control module of a low cost ESP32 microcontroller. The complete setup is described which includes DC bus supply, isolated driver modules and output filter.