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Robots have the potential to assist and complement humans in the exploration of hostile environments. For example, underwater vehicle–manipulator systems (UVMSs) have been researched and applied in underwater operations. Motivated by the need for collecting marine organisms cultivated in shallow sea aquafarm, a lightweight and portable UVMS propelled by flexible flippers (named, F-UVMS), rather than typical propellers or jet-based propulsion systems, is investigated. To this end, integrative mechatronic design of F-UVMS is first presented, involving six flipper propulsors for generating thrust in a flapping way, a four-degree-of-freedom arm for grasping, and a certain amount of onboard sensors for environment perception. A thrust–power measurement platform is established to evaluate thrust–power relationship for different sizes and stiffness of flippers. Meanwhile, the locomotion modalities of F-UVMS are analyzed. A framework based on the nonlinear model-predictive control method is implemented to govern autonomous tracking marine organisms. The capabilities of F-UVMS are validated through a series of experiments in laboratory pool and field missions in real sea conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel high switching frequency isolated voltage-fed hybrid bridge combining semiactive rectifier dc–dc converter is introduced for unidirectional power flow and wide voltage gain. Three potentially appropriate working patterns are elaborated, including ideal output power derivation, current stress analysis, working voltage matching, output power distribution, soft switching characteristics, etc. In consideration of the optimization of the minimum of the root-mean-square value of the leakage inductor current, two truly applicable working patterns are selected. Meanwhile, based on the consideration of soft switching, a segmented control strategy is implemented on it. With the optimization of current stress and the realization of soft switching, the converter can theoretically realize higher efficiency operation. Eventually, the effectiveness of the proposed converter and the control strategy is verified by a 1 kW prototype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, a low-frequency hybrid modulation technique which is composed of a phase shift-pulsewidth modulation (PS-PWM) and an asymmetric selective harmonic current mitigation-PWM (ASHCM-PWM) are proposed for cascaded multilevel converters to meet the harmonic limit of IEEE 519 2014. In the proposed technique, the harmonics within the concerned frequency range due to PS-PWM are reduced by the ASHCM-PWM so that the cascaded H-bridge (CHB) converter can meet IEEE 519 harmonic limit. The equation set which helps a grid-tied CHB converter meet both harmonic limit and total demand distortion, is developed. The design technique for critical parameters, such as the inductance and the switching frequency of the proposed hybrid modulation technique, is developed. Simulation and experiments are conducted on a single-phase 3-cell 7-level grid-tied CHB converter to validate the proposed technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The selective harmonic current mitigation pulsewidth modulation (SHCM-PWM) technique can be used in cascaded multilevel converters to extend the harmonic reduction spectrum, reduce the coupling inductance and increase the efficiency. The offline SHCM-PWM technique has small number of switching transitions as its switching angles can only change once in a fundamental cycle and relatively long time delays because it uses FFT. As a result, its dynamic response has a lot to desire. As it will be proven in this paper, in four-quadrant power converters, to have a good transient dynamic response, both active and reactive power must be controlled at least two times in a fundamental cycle. In this paper, a hybrid modulation technique is introduced. The proposed technique uses SHCM-PWM under steady state and phase-shift PWM (PSPWM) under transient. In addition, in order to extend the modulation index range and ensure that SHCM-PWM can process four-quadrant active and reactive power, the constraints of the switching angles for the SHCM-PWM are modified. Simulations and experiments are conducted on a seven-level cascaded H-bridge converter to verify the proposed technique. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper develops a common-mode (CM) electromagnetic interference noise model for a three-level neutral point clamped topology. Compared with existing modeling techniques with only one CM noise source, two extra important CM noise sources and their characteristics are identified and derived for an accurate CM noise model. The impedances of CM noise path are also extracted. Based on the developed CM noise model, the CM noise spectrum can be well predicted. The effect of CM noise paths on CM noise is discussed based on two different LCL filters. A CM noise reduction technique with a balance bridge at a large impedance ratio is proposed based on the developed model. The technique can be easily implemented at low cost. Both simulations and experiments validate the developed theory and technique. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]