A Linear Quadratic Tracking Based Voltage
Controller for VSI; MVDC Shipboard Power
System Application
Maziar Babaei Thaer Qunais
mb2840@msstate.edu tq39@msstate.edu
Abstract—In this paper, an optimal voltage control structure
for Voltage Source Inverter (VSI) in series with LC filter for
Medium Voltage DC Shipboard Power System (MVDC SPS)
applications is proposed. The objective of the proposed method
is to design a closed loop controller that makes the output of the
system optimally track a given desired signal and reject a given
disturbance. Therefore, it is called Linear Quadratic Tracking
(LQT) which is considered as a modified form of the Linear
Quadratic Regulation (LQR). Computer simulation is used to
validate the performance of the proposed control scheme under
different scenarios.
1. I NTRODUCTION
A new power system distribution architecture called
medium voltage DC (MVDC) has been utilized for all-
electric ship (AES), in which power electronic devices are
widely used. These devices can provide higher power transfer
capability, lower power loss, and they can improve manage-
ment of faults and disturbances by utilizing controlled power
electronics switchers [1]-[2]. The DC distribution systems
employ power electronic based converters to rectify AC
power supply to dc and then dc lines distribute through the
whole system [3]. AC loads are served through the inverters
which convert the dc power to ac power, whereas DC-DC
converters are used to supply the dc loads. A considerable
number of electric loads especially propulsion loads that are
installed onboard are sensitive to the quality of the power.
Harmonic distortion, voltage dips and voltage swell are of
extreme importance in shipboard power systems and have
to be thoroughly analyzed and need to be addressed in the
design stage of the system.
In a VSI, the DC voltage which is converted to the AC
voltage in order to feed the AC loads. A voltage controller
scheme can be utilized to track the reference voltage with
acceptable Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) [4], and to reg-
ulate the output voltage under different working conditions
and disturbances.
Several control strategies for three phase inverters have
been investigated in the literature for load connected
three phase inverters. Most of these methods are for Un-
interruptible Power Supplies (UPSs) application such as
neural network-based controller [5], synchronous-frame har-
monic regulators [6], model predictive control [7]-[8], and
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Sherif Abdelwahed
sherif@ece.msstate.edu
repetitive control [9]. Most of these controllers are heavily
dependent upon high computational burdens and some of
them have difficulties for practical applications. One of the
pervasive methods that is extensively used in the literature
for VSI voltage control is Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR)
[10]-[12]. The LQR design provides acceptable gain margin
and phase margin, and also it can effectively tolerate the
nonlinearities when the system states are measurable [13].
However; the LQR formulation does not provide an adequate
guideline as to how to obtain good tracking properties.
For three-phase systems there are two possibilities to
implement a voltage controller: in a synchronously rotating
dq-frame and in a stationary αβ-frame. In the first, the
components of the reference voltage are DC quantities. Thus,
the conventional PI controllers can be employed because they
offer infinite gain at zero frequency which can cause the
steady state error to be zero. In a stationary frame, P+resonant
(PR) controllers are used. To eliminate the steady state errors
at a selected resonant frequency, the PR controller introduces
an infinite gains at a that frequency. This paper investigates
Linear Quadratic Tracking (LQT), a novel voltage control
strategy, which is extensively discussed in [14]. In this paper,
a closed-loop structure that implements a PR controller is
used to ensure that the output voltage is tracking the reference
value in both steady state and abnormal conditions.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows: Section II
describes the MVDC shipboard power system. Section III
discusses the Linear Quadratic Tracking control structure.
The performance of the LQT controller is discussed in
Section IV. Finally, Section V summarizes the findings and
concluding remarks.
2. MVDC S HIPBOARD P OWER S YSTEM M ODEL
A simple MVDC SPS architecture is shown in Fig.1 [15].
The model consists of a medium voltage DC bus that is fed
by a synchronous generator through an interface which is
an uncontrolled rectifier coupled with a passive filter. In this
system, the desired main dc voltage is 5 kV, where the low
voltage DC bus is connected to the main dc bus by a step-
down DC-DC converter. AC loads are served through a three
phase inverter which converts the DC voltage into an AC
voltage. In this paper, for simplicity, the DC bus feeding the
VSI is modeled by a constant DC source and the AC load is
represented by a three-phase parallel RLC circuit as shown in
Fig.2. The function of the LC output filter is to eliminate the
harmonic components of the inverter output voltage which
is generated by the high-frequency switching actions. This
paper aims to design a LQT-based voltage controller for the
MVDC SPS inverters to preserve the voltage profile stability
following an abnormal conditions in the system.
0DLQ'&%XV
3URSXOVLRQ
0RWRU
~ β-axis respectively. A single-loop control diagram can be
B. LQT Voltage controller structure
The control objectives can be summarized as follows:
• Maintaining the desired magnitude and frequency of the
output voltage.
• Providing a high quality sinusoidal output voltage (low
THD).
• Avoiding over-current (current limiting).
A voltage PR controller is implemented to track the
reference signal. By transforming the abc variables into
αβ coordinates, a three phase system can be represented
as two independent single phase system. Thus, two simple
voltage controllers are implemented by using two separate
sinusoidal commands and compensators for the α-axis and

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~
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obtained as shown in Fig.3.

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/RDG

Fig. 1. Simplified MVDC shipboard power system

Fig. 3. Single-loop voltage control diagram

Since the state variables which include the capacitor volt-

age and the inductor current are measurable, the single-loop
control system can be transformed into the control structure
as shown in Fig.4 which is a multi-loop structure. One of the
advantages of this scheme is that it offers current feedback
which provides adequate damping of the L-C filter poles at
1
Fig. 2. Three phase inverter with LC output filter the resonant frequency wo = √LC . Additionally, the state-
space description can be represented in the standard form of
3. L INEAR Q UADRATIC T RACKING CONTROL a linear regulating problem; as a result, LQR method can be
used to determine the state-feedback gains.
A. Three Phase Inverter Mathematical model
The three-phase inverter includes a full-bridge inverter
configuration with L-C filters. The dynamic model of the
structure shown in Fig.2 can be given by the following set
of differential equations:
di
L = u − vo − Ri (1)
dt
dVo
ic = c = i − i0 (2)
dt
Fig. 4. Multi-loop voltage control structure
Where u is the control input to be designed. By averaging
(1) and (2) over one switching period, the plant state-space The transfer function of the PR controller is given by:
equations can be written as:
−R 1 1 k4 s + k3 s
Ẋ1 (t) = X1 (t) − X2 (t) + u2 (t) G(s) = K0 + (5)
L L L
(3) s2 + w02

1 1 Where wo is the system frequency. The state-space equa-

Ẋ2 (t) = X1 (t) − i0 (4) tions of the resonant (R) controller are expressed as:
c c

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 Where the A and B matrices remain the same as before.
Ẋ3 (t) = w0 X4 (t) (6) K = [k11 , k12 , k13 , k14 ]
Finally, after this transformation, the cost function can be
presented as:
Ẋ4 (t) = w0 X3 (t) − X2 (t) + Vref (7)
 ∞
By combining the inverter and the resonant controller J= (z T Qz + v 2 )dt (14)
variables, and assuming vref =0, the state-space model of the 0
closed-loop system can be written as follows: Where the weight matrix Q = diag(q1 0 wq32 0) The
o
tracking problem has been transformed into a regulating
Ẋ = AX + Bu, u = −KX (8) problem. Thus, the LQR method can now be used to find
Where: the optimal gain vector K.
⎡ −R −1
⎤
L L 0 0 D. Design of Feedback Gains
⎢ −1 0 0 0⎥
A=⎢
⎣ 0
⎥ (9) The effectiveness of the proposed LQT controller is highly
0 0 w0 ⎦ dependent on selecting the elements of the Q matrix. In the
0 −1 −wo 0 designing process, it should be noticed that the q3 controls
⎡1⎤ the tracking error, and q4 controls the time derivative of the
L
⎢0⎥ tracking error. q1 and q2 are the controlling parameters of
B=⎢
⎣0⎦
⎥ (10) the current and voltage respectively. The following steps are
0 used to optimally design the controller parameters:
• Step I= keep the q1 , q2 and q4 equal to zero, increase
u = −[K11 , K12 , K13 , K14 ] (11) q3 such that the dominant poles have a damping ratio
of about 0.5 and the real part is close to -200.
Since this is a linear regulating problem, the LQR method • Step II= keep q2 and q4 equal to zero, and q3 as selected
can be utilized to optimally design the feedback gains of in step I. select the value of q1 such that the un-dominant
vector K. However, in order to apply the LQR method, poles have a damping ratio greater than 0.15 and the real
the system equations must be represented in the full linear part is around -1500.
state-feedback form with no external force. In the following • Step III= based on the selected Q matrix, the K matrix
section, the LQR method will be modified to consider the can be obtained by using the lqr command in MATLAB.
optimal tracking problem.
Unlike the conventional PR design, the dominant poles
C. Mathematical Formulation become faster as q3 increases, which offers the ability to
The tracking problem is to find the control input u that improve the damping of the response. Fig.5 shows the
minimizes the following cost function: movement of the poles as q1 and q3 are increased.
 ∞
J= (qe2 + v 2 )dt (12)
0
Where:
• e= tracking error, which is the difference of command
signal and the output signal, and q > 0
• v= transformed input

In the case of a VSI connected to an AC load, the reference

signal is a pure sinusoid at frequency. Thus, in steady state,
all other signals in the system are sinusoidal signals at the
nominal frequency and satisfy the equation d¨ + wo2 d = 0.
The regulating problem formulation can be derived from
the tracking problem. First, the following augmented vector
is obtained by combining the inverter and the R compensator
variables as in (4)
d2 2
Then, applying the linear transformation z = ( dt 2 + wo )x
to the state space equations yields:
Ż = AZ + BV, V = −KZ (13)
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D E
Fig. 5. Movement of poles in LQT controller for increase in a) q1 b) q3
Fig.6 depicts some characteristics of the control system
by using the proposed LQT controller. As can be seen from
the figure, q3 has a strong influence on the control system
characteristics. As q3 increases, PM and DM decrease and
damping ratio and bandwidth increase which are within
acceptable range of values from practical point of view.
 Fig. 7. Voltage response for load change

to these uncertainties and able to maintain the desired output

voltage.

Fig. 6. Control system characteristics in LQT design

4. R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSION

The proposed LQT controller for a three phase inverter
is simulated in MATLAB/Simulink. A 1000 V DC voltage
source is considered as an input to the inverter. The LC output D
filter is used with L=10 mH, C=5 μF. The reference value for
the inverter output is set to 354 V (rms). Active and reactive
power for the ac load is P=6 kW and Q=1 kVAR. To test the
effectiveness of the voltage controller for MVDC shipboard
applications, several scenarios have been conducted.

A. Load Change Response

A load change is applied to the system at t=0.5 s. The
system response during steady-state and transient conditions
is depicted in Fig.7. When an extra load equal to 2+0.8j kVA
is connected in parallel to the original load.
As can be seen from the Fig.7, the controller is successful
in tracking the reference voltage as the load is increased.
B. Uncertainties in the system parameters
In practice, filter parameter uncertainties including L and
C, causing periodic tracking error, are major sources of THD
in AC power systems. LQT-based controller can be applied to
overcome the parameter variations. The effect of uncertainty
in the filter inductor ΔL= 0.5 mH and filter capacitor ΔC=
0.1 μF is investigated in this case study. Fig.8 shows the
output voltage of the inverter with and without the presence
of the uncertainty which is applied to the system at t=0.4 s.
As illustrated in the figure, the proposed controller is robust
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E
Fig. 8. System response to the uncertainties a) ΔL= 0.5 mH b) ΔC= 0.1
μF
C. Change in DC input
The electric ships may include pulse loads that draw a very
high, short duration time current in an intermittent pattern.
When the pulse load is in operation mode, it offers a very
small resistance and it acts like a short circuit to the SPS,
so this load is one of the sources of the transients in electric
ship power systems [16].
 In this paper, for simplicity, the effect of pulse load is
modeled by a step change in the dc input side of the inverter.
Fig.9 shows the simulation result for a step change in the
DC voltage from 1000 V to 950 V at t=0.4 s. As depicted
in this figure, the output voltage tracks the desired voltage
accurately.
Fig. 9. Bus voltage with step change at t=0.4 s
5. C ONCLUSION
The LQT-based optimal voltage controller design of volt-
age source inverter for MVDC shipboard power system
is presented in this paper. The advantage of the proposed
method is the offering of a systematic approach to design a
voltage controller for the VSI applications. It is shown in this
paper that the LQR concept can be developed to deal with
the optimal tracking problem. The proposed control structure
has been tested on various case studies. It can be concluded
that the controller is capable of restoring the output voltage
to its desired value following the occurrence of a disturbance
such as load change, uncertainties in the system parameters,
and change in DC bus voltage due to the presence of a pulsed
load.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work is supported by the Office of Naval Research
(ONR) grant N0014-14-1-0168.
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