A study of weighting factor design in model predictive control applications

Abstract

Weighting factor selection is considered to be a crucial aspect in the design of a predictive controller. In this paper a study of the design of weighting factors for different cost functions is presented. The study is based on three examples: switching frequency reduction, voltage vector reduction of the voltage source inverter and capacitor balancing of the three level neutral point clamped converter. The three examples have been evaluated using simulations in Matlab/Simulink which showed that by varying the weighting factor, there can be a negative or positive effect on the different system variables. Therefore the proper selection will depend on the system requirements, something which can now be defined.