Bulletin of Electrical Engineering and Informatics Vol. 12, No. 5, October 2023, pp. 2693∼2704 ISSN: 2302-9285, DOI: 10.11591/eei.v12i5.5014 ❒ 2693 Induction motor performance improvement using a five-level inverter topology and sliding mode controllers Chaymae Fahassa 1 , Ahmed Abbou 1 , Yassine Zahraoui 2 , Mohamed Akherraz 1 1 Department of Electrical Engineering, Laboratory of Power Electronics and Control, Mohammadia School of Engineers (EMI), Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco 2 Department of Electrical Engineering, Higher National School of Arts and Crafts (ENSAM), Hassan II University, Casablanca, Morocco Article Info Article history: Received Oct 15, 2022 Revised Nov 2, 2022 Accepted Dec 22, 2022 Keywords: Five-level NPC inverter Induction motor drive Performance improvement Sliding mode controllers Vector control scheme ABSTRACT This research intends to establish a robust vector control (VC) of a 3-φ induction motor (IM). The classical 2-level inverter is displaced by a 5-level neutral-point- clamped (NPC) inverter. The 2-level inverter may only supply 8 voltage vectors, while the 5-level NPC inverter can furnish 125 voltage vectors. The objective is to bring about a command voltage vector that converges to the reference voltage vector as closely as possible; hence, guaranteeing a quick response on one hand and improving the dynamic performance on the other hand. A robust sliding mode controller (SMC) structure is used in all regulation loops. Satisfactory results are obtained for various speed zones. The quality and robustness of the global system are tested under resistive torque disturbance, reversal, high, and low-speed ranges in order to prove system stability. All the simulations have been performed under MATLAB/Simulink. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA license. Corresponding Author: Chaymae Fahassa Laboratory of Power Electronics and Control, Department of Electrical Engineering Mohammadia School of Engineers (EMI), Mohammed V University Rabat, Morocco Email: fahassa.chaymae@gmail.com 1. INTRODUCTION Towards the middle of the 1970s, a new concept of induction machine control, called vector control (VC) or field-oriented control (FOC) appeared to be competitive with other control techniques, especially scalar control (SC) [1]. Unlike the last, which is based on pointed but strict mathematical formalisms, VC schemes were initially based on qualitative and clarified knowledge of the conduct of the machine [2]. Often tuning actions were taken on using classical PI controllers and pulse width modulators (PWM). The implementation of these algorithms was therefore simpler, at a time when computing resources were constantly improving in power and speed [3]. The decisive advantages attributed to conventional VC techniques (dynamics, robustness, ease of im- plementation, performance at low speeds) [4] are nevertheless counterbalanced by the use of a sampled hys- teresis or PI regulators; in theory, the regulator drives to a variable frequency action which increases the risks of excitation of mechanical or acoustic resonances [5], and on the other hand, limit frequency sampling outcomes in a pseudo-random exceed of the hysteresis strip. These two factors contribute to making the harmonic con- tent of the various output signals difficult to predict [6]. Simultaneously, new and promising static conversion topologies, called multilevel, have been proposed and increasingly used in high-power variable speed drive Journal homepage: http://beei.org