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AI Techniques for Electrical Technologies

Why Is AI Important for Electrification?
Significant innovation and advancements in electrical technologies are accelerating the
energy transition from fossil fuels to clean energy and enabling the electrification of
everything. Breakthroughs in power density and efficiency, improvements in reliability, and
reduction of size and cost of electrical components provide engineers with a level of
design flexibility that was previously unobtainable.

At the same time, higher adoption of renewables, decentralization of the energy

infrastructure, increasingly electrified transportation systems, and the rising threat of
power disruption due to climate change are new concerns to be addressed in the design
and operations of electrical systems.

Applying artificial intelligence (AI) techniques is a new way to help engineers cope with
these challenges.

You can integrate AI into the development and operations of electrical technologies to
increase reliability and improve efficiency for applications ranging from motor control and
battery management for electric vehicles to integrating renewable energy into the power
grid. Examples of using AI-based techniques extend to:

• Reduced order modeling (ROM)

• Control strategies
• Virtual sensors
• Energy forecasting
• Predictive maintenance

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AI for Development
AI is showing significant potential for:

• Reducing computational time in simulation.

• Characterizing unique components that are difficult to model using traditional
techniques.
• Serving as an effective alternative to physical sensors
• Building high-performance controls of complex, nonlinear systems

Reduced Order Modeling

For workflows that require heavy computations, such as design exploration, you can use
AI to create reduced order models (ROM) in place of the high-fidelity model of the original
physical system, such as brushless motors. Some electrical components, such as power
system equipment, have novel and unique characteristics that are hard to model with
traditional techniques. AI-based ROMs help capture the essential behavior of these
components and systems while significantly speeding up simulations.

With MATLAB® and Simulink®, you can use a first-principles, physics-based model built
with Simscape™ or third-party FEM/FEA simulations to generate synthetic data for training
an AI-based reduced order model. Simscape enables you to create models of physical
systems within Simulink that include domains such as electrical, mechanical, hydraulic,
and others. Simscape Electrical™ provides component libraries for modeling and
simulating electronic, mechatronic, and electrical power systems.

The simulation results capture the system’s physical interactions. The AI-based ROM you
train using these results will also reflect the system dynamics. Once you have a trained
ROM, you can integrate it into a system-level model and use the ROM as an alternative to
replace a more accurate but slower physical model in simulation.

For example, with Simscape, you can model a motor and motor shaft load and generate
synthetic data by running simulations with the first principles, physics-based model. After
obtaining training data, you can select from a variety of AI algorithms in MATLAB to train a
ROM.

Depending on your modeling requirements, you can choose between traditional machine
learning models (such as support vector machines, regression trees, or shallow neural
nets) and deep learning models (such as deep neural networks) to strike a balance
between accuracy, training speed, inference speed, and explainability.

After training is complete, you can then import the trained AI model from MATLAB and
use it in Simulink. You can verify the performance of the AI model by comparing AI model
outputs against test data generated from the physics-based simulation or real-world data
collected from production.

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Creating an AI-based reduced order model for a load model in Simulink. The AI model is based on a
long short-term memory (LSTM) deep neural network.

Learn More
• Model Physical Systems Using a LSTM Network in Simulink - Example
• Use Deep Learning–Based Reduced Order Models for a Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor
(PMSM) - Blog

Virtual Sensor Modeling

When implementing controls for electrical devices or systems, it is sometimes impossible
or impractical to measure signals of interest with a physical sensor. In these scenarios, AI
models are used to create virtual sensors (19:48) to estimate critical signals.

For example, you can use AI-based virtual sensors to estimate the position, speed, and
temperature of a motor and eliminate the need for physical sensors, such as a motor
encoder or a temperature sensor.

With MATLAB and Simulink, you can use AI algorithms inside a Simulink model to predict
key operating characteristics of electrical systems. For example, you can estimate
the state of charge (SOC) and state of health (SoH) (13:38) of a battery system. Battery
SOC is critical information for the controls of a battery management system and must be
accurately estimated to ensure reliable and efficient battery system operations.

Creating a deep learning–based virtual sensor for estimating battery state of charge (SOC) in Simulink.

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Traditional methods based on the extended Kalman filter (EKF) algorithm usually require
precise parameters and knowledge of the physical characteristics. In contrast, an AI
method, such as using a neural network (15:02), is a data-driven approach that requires
minimal knowledge of the detailed physics. In addition, AI-based methods provide a
solution that has no recurring bill-of-material cost, is noninvasive, and has no maintenance
needs.

After you have completed the modeling and validation of your AI-based virtual sensor
model, you can generate optimized, production-ready C/C++ code with Embedded
Coder® from the AI model and deploy the algorithm to a microcontroller (34:09).

Learn More
• Battery State-of-Charge Estimation in Simulink Using Deep Learning Network - Example
• Battery State Estimation Using Deep Learning (34:19) - Video

Control Strategy
AI-based controls, especially those using reinforcement learning (RL) techniques,
demonstrate some significant advantages over traditional methods. AI-based strategies:

• Promise high-performance controls of complex, nonlinear, multi-input multi-output

(MIMO) systems.
• Require little prior knowledge of the physics of the plant.
• Apply widely to other complex electrical systems, such as energy storage systems
control and power system control.

“Reinforcement Learning Toolbox

considerably reduced development
time. The toolbox really helped in fast
prototyping and generation of
reinforcement learning agents.”
Vivek Venkobarao, Vitesco

Vitesco Technologies Applies Deep

Reinforcement Learning in Powertrain Control

You can model plant dynamics in Simulink and Simscape and use your model to train a
reinforcement learning agent. The Reinforcement Learning Designer app provides an
intuitive, interactive way for you to get started with agent creation and environment design
with Reinforcement Learning Toolbox™. You can also specify your own custom RL agent
as well as the RL environment by overriding agent behavior and customizing actions,
observations, rewards, and dynamics of the environment.

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For example, with MATLAB and Simulink, you can implement field-oriented control of a
permanent magnet synchronous motor (6:12) by using reinforcement learning controls
instead of the PI controllers by training a reinforcement learning agent. Linear controllers
often do not produce good tracking performance outside their regions of linearity. In such
cases, reinforcement learning provides a good nonlinear control alternative.

Creating a reinforcement learning–based field-oriented control of a permanent magnet synchronous

motor in Simulink and deploying it for real-time testing.

Learn More
• Use Reinforcement Learning for Field-Oriented Control of PMSM - Example
• Train TD3 Agent for PMSM Control - Example

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AI for Operations
AI methods are improving electrical system operations by enabling:

• Reliable energy forecasts

• Predictive maintenance of electrical components and systems

Energy Forecasting
AI-based energy forecasting (42:53) provides valuable inputs for mitigating the
uncertainty in power system operations. AI methods can be used to predict electricity
loads, demand, and pricing and help inform risk analysis and management in power
system operations.

“We were able to significantly reduce

deviation costs between the wind power
forecast and the real production, resulting
in millions of euros saved per year.”
Daniel Cabezón, EDP Renováveis

EDP Renováveis Improves Wind Energy

Forecasting with Machine Learning

MATLAB and Simulink help you leverage AI models to provide data input to the physical
system model and enable intelligent system operations. For energy management
systems, energy forecasting plays a key role in providing reliable estimates of
technoeconomic and environmental factors, such as electricity demand and generation,
electricity price, and weather conditions (22:31) (such as temperature and humidity), that
are important for optimizing system operations.

There are four steps for performing energy forecasting (39:29) in MATLAB:

1. Import energy or weather data from one or a combination of data sources. With
MATLAB, you can access, explore, and import energy data stored in files, the
web, and data warehouses.
2. Preprocess the data so that it is in a clean, consistent, and readable format for
modeling purposes. MATLAB provides interactive tools for cleaning, exploring,
visualizing, and combining complex multivariate data sets.
3. Prototype, test, and refine predictive models in MATLAB using machine
learning methods. For example, you can create a dynamic, self-tuning model for
predicting long term energy load.
4. Integrate, run, and scale the energy forecasting system within enterprise
business systems or as interactive web applications.

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In Simulink, you can:

• Integrate the AI-based energy forecasting model in your energy management

system to provide key inputs for smart operations of residential or commercial
buildings.
• Validate the forecasting algorithm and energy management strategies against the
electrical system.
• Run hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulations.
• Generate readable, efficient C/C++ code from the energy management system
model in Simulink for deployment on edge devices, such as an embedded
processor.

Creating an energy forecasting system using machine learning and deploying it as a web application.

Learn More
• Use MATLAB for Energy Data Analytics - File Exchange
• Use MATLAB for Long-Term Energy Forecasting - File Exchange

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Predictive Maintenance
To ensure reliability and reduce downtime, power systems organizations are starting to
adopt AI-based predictive maintenance. With predictive maintenance, engineers can
detect and classify faults and anomalies, diagnose, and predict failures, and estimate
remaining useful life (RUL) of key electrical components and systems, such as the
electrical grid (27:55) and the underground utility distribution cable systems (35:27).

You can train predictive maintenance algorithms using historical sensor data from
electrical systems or generate synthetic data from physics-based models using Simulink
and Simscape.

Fault data is hard to obtain since fault scenarios are rare and usually associated with
equipment damage or other catastrophic consequences, so fault data is especially
valuable for training AI models for predictive maintenance. With MATLAB and Simulink,
you can inject faults into the system model and generate data from the model under both
normal and fault conditions.

After you have trained the AI algorithm on fault data or sensor data (or a combination of
both), you can generate C/C++ code directly from the algorithm for real-time edge
processing, or scale by integrating with enterprise IT/OT systems in the cloud.

“Despite having little previous experience

with AI, within a limited budget and a tight
deadline, we completed a diagnostics
model in MATLAB capable of detecting
wind turbine component failure with over
90% accuracy.”
Jung Chul Choi, Korea Institute of Energy Research

Korea Institute of Energy Research Develops AI-

Based Predictive Maintenance Models for
Offshore Wind Power

Learn More
Predictive maintenance on electrical components:
• Predict the Remaining Cycle Life of a Fast-Charging Li-Ion Battery - Example
• Detect Motor Gear Train Fault by Analyzing Motor Current Signature - Example

Predictive maintenance on power systems:

• Detect Anomaly in a DC Distribution System Using Autoencoders and Wavelets - Example
• Predict the Real-Time RUL of Wind Turbine Bearings in a Wind Farm - Example
• Train a Classification Model for Detecting Faults in Electric Vehicle (EV) Chargers - Example
• Use Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) to Identify and Classify Faults in Underground
Power Cable Systems – Article

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 Recommended Next Steps

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