Power Electronics and Drives

The group of researchers focuses on basic and applied research in the field of power electronics, electric drives, special robotics and the theory of decision-making. The team builds on the long-standing tradition of this field in the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen and expands on the extensive international industrial cooperation and the past success of this research team on the international scale. Currently, the team ranks among the biggest European research groups involved in this field. 

The research in the field of power electronics mainly focuses on:

• new topologies and solutions of power semiconductor converters and systems
• power suplier and charging systems
• high-power converters, including resonance and soft-commutated converters
• high-voltage power electronics and high-voltage power semiconductor converters, which constitutes the strategic research area

The research in the field of electric drives and the theory of decision-making mainly focuses on: 

• controlled electric drives
• electric drives with power within the range of units of watts up to complex high-output drives (from units to tens of MW)
• advanced control of electric drives, including sensorless control at full operating speed range,
• diagnostics of drive systems
• special robots and manipulators
• special actuators
• industrial automation

Main areas of Research Application:

• Transportation and transportation systems – public transport vehicles and cars.

Research on new drive concepts, smart technologies and components for new-generation transportation systems, primarily focusing on railway vehicles and public transport vehicles. The research targets include new drive technologies, more efficient drive systems with a minimal environmental impact, new control systems and advanced systems increasing transport safety.

• Production of electric energy and heat – power plants and heating plants

Primarily, drives of hydraulic and pneumatic systems and internal consumption technologies.

• Electric networks.

Especially the control of output or flows of energy, electric power quality, and reliability of electric networks, for example, new solutions and devices for compensating for earth faults occurring in insulated networks and high-impedance earthed networks.

• Smart City technologies.
• Industrial drives and medium and high power systems.
• Drives for mining machines.
• Special robotics and manipulators.

FEL/RICE is one of the competence centres of the Power Electronics Research Network: A European Technology & Innovation Platform (ECPE).

The research group is a co-implementor of extensive, primarily medium and long-term projects funded as contractual research and from special-purpose funds granted by the Czech Science Foundation, the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic or by government departments, such as the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic.

The research outcomes have been successfully delivered to commercial application areas and can be encountered daily, for example, as the new generation of low-rise trams, trolleybuses, multi-system locomotives and hybrid buses.

What We Offer

• Complete services related to research, development, prototyping and testing in the above-mentioned areas of power electronics, electric drives and special industrial systems and technologies, robots and manipulators.

Due to its extensive experience and unique facilities, namely the laboratories and testing rooms, the RICE centre is able to provide a complete research and development chain from the initial design of a drive/device, through its simulation, the design of the control, and programming the application software, to building the prototype, its complete testing and piloting the final prototype by putting it through a trial operation.        

• Advisory, consulting and expertise services in the whole range of electric drives from small output drives to high performance drives on the order of units to tens of MW.
• In the near future, the RICE centre will have a unique laboratory and testing room for high-voltage power electronics and transportation systems. These facilities will make it possible to develop and test equipment up to a 4-MW output and a maximum voltage of 31 kV_rms.