A Novel Nine-Switch Inverter for Independent Control of Two Three-phase Loads

Industrial applications require large numbers of motors. For example, motors are used to manipulate industrial robots, an electric vehicles with in-wheel motors and electric trains. Two methods exist for controlling PM motors providing an inverter to control each motor, and connecting the motors in parallel and driving them with a single inverter. The first method makes an experimental apparatus complex and expensive; the second does not allow independent control of each motor because of differences in rotor angle between the two motors. Thus, we propose a novel nine-switch inverter that can independently control two three-phase loads. This paper introduces the structure of the nine-switch inverter, which is made from nine switches. The validity of the proposed inverter is verified through simulations and experiments.