Electrical systems are pretty interesting. They generate, transfer, and convert electric energy in other forms of energy for our own needs in the industrial, transportation, and residential sectors. Considering electric energy generation, and excluding solar-powered plants, which are still a minority, the rest of the electricity is obtained from generators, which are electric machines. Looking at energy consumption, almost half of the global electricity is consumed by electric motors, which are also electric machines. So, all in all, electric machines are (and have been for a long time) a key element in our electrical systems.
If we look at the future, the industrial and transportation sectors are pushing towards even higher degrees of electrification, which will eventually end up in the addition of more electric machines and drives in industrial plants and electric vehicles of any type and size. Even the explosion of artificial intelligence is contributing to an increased use of electrical machines and drives – how? In a data center, roughly 30% of the electrical energy is used for the actual devices, while 45% is used for cooling… who is driving this cooling? 
At the same time, the increased computational capabilities in microprocessors, FPGAs, and system-on-a-chip devices, together with the refinement of control algorithms, enable further opportunities to reduce energy consumption and improve various performance metrics of electric drives. Electrical machines and drives are, therefore, a vital part of the future electrical ecosystem in the global quest for a sustainable society.
In the electric machines and drives (EMD) team, we search, analyze, and develop concepts and technologies to enable energy savings, improve dynamics, and reduce electric machinery’s operational and maintenance costs, through their design and control. We perform theoretical analysis as well as experimental evaluation in our laboratory. We collaborate with various industrial and academic actors and are always interested in establishing new collaborative initiatives.
Our perception of the future
We are not pretending to challenge the views of several experts in the field, but we are entitled to some personal views :-). Here are the main points that fuel our work.
Combining electric machine design and control
The days of electric machine design separated from electric drive development are over. Modern applications like renewable energy generation, electric traction, and robotics cannot survive without power electronics and control. Much is still to be gained in designing an electric machine+converter system, rather than optimizing the single components.
Electric drives are very intelligent devices
Electric drives are extremely powerful devices in terms of computational capabilities, and they become better and better as technology develops. Despite that, the typical control structures for electric machines do not typically require much computation. This means there might be a lot of unused computation that could be exploited for other functionalities, like real-time health condition monitoring of electric machines and drives and for improving the real-time estimation of electrical parameters.
Estimating parameters is an evergreen
We are extreme fan(atic)s of automatic procedures for the estimation of electrical (and, why not, mechanical) parameters in electric drive systems. The simple reason is that control algorithms require a series of information on the models which is typically unavailable in machine nameplate data. Someone, or rather something, has to retrieve that information for the control engineer.
It is very self-fulfilling when the converter can automatically extract all the relevant control parameters by performing autonomous injection of voltages in the electric machine and post-processing the measured currents. This happens just by software, based on a few elementary nameplate data. Mind you, it must run without relying on the information on the speed and position of the rotor, as required by sensorless control algorithms.
As new electric machine topologies and designs are proposed and built all over the world, the challenge of making the automatic estimation procedures as general as possible while maintaining their reliability is still evident and inspirational.
Multi-phase machines are coming (and may have already passed you)
We lean towards the benefits of using multi-phase machines (where the number of phases is greater than three) in applications where it makes sense, and there are many. There is a lot to discuss, but what we like the most is:
1) Winding factors are better than corresponding three-phase machine designs, with spatial harmonics at higher frequencies and lower amplitude. This turns out to be less current/torque ripples and fewer electric losses.
2) There is a possibility of implementing true fault tolerance, which means running at a reduced number of phases without being forced to stop the whole drive system. This second point requires a combined research effort of electric machine design, converter design, health condition monitoring, control reconfiguration, etc.; separate scientific efforts are not enough.
On reducing the costs…
Throughout the years, we have been listening to many research works and presentations aiming at “reducing the costs” of an electric machine, an electric drive, or both. What is your definition of cost? Ours is very close to this one. We do not consider any other definition worthwhile.
If you are interested in more specific activities running in the EMD team, look at our “Search and not Research” page!