Harmonic Minimization in Multilevel Inverters Using Modified Species-Based Particle Swarm Optimization

Harmonic minimization in multilevel inverters is a complex optimization problem that involves nonlinear transcendental equations having multiple local minima. In this paper, a solution to the harmonic minimization problem using a novel particle swarm optimization (PSO) approach based on species-based PSO (SPSO) is presented. The original SPSO is modified, which increased the robustness of algorithm to find global optimum of the search space. The proposed method is able to find the optimum switching angles when their number is increased, while it is not possible to determine them using either conventional iterative techniques or resultant theory method. Theoretical results are verified by experiments and simulations for an 11-level H-bridge inverter. Results show that the proposed method effectively minimizes a large number of specific harmonics, and the output voltage results in very low total harmonic distortion and switching frequency.