电 工 技 术 学 报
2015 年 7 月
第 30 卷第 14 期
TRANSACTIONS OF CHINA ELECTROTECHNICAL SOCIETY
Vol.30 No. 14
Jul.
2015
Review of the 17th International Conference on
Electrical Machines and Systems (ICEMS2014) Advanced Machine Systems, Superior Drive
Control and Cleaner Power Energies for a Better
Future World
Shen Jianxin,Yang Huan,Zheng Taiying,Lu Qinfen , Yang Jiaqiang , Nian Heng
（Zhejiang University
1
Hangzhou
310027
China）
Overview
The 17th International Conference on Electrical Machines and Systems (ICEMS2014) was successfully held in
Hangzhou, China on October 22~25, 2014. It was sponsored by the China Electrotechnical Society (CES), cosponsored by the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan-Industry Applications Society (IEEJ- IAS), the Korean
Institute of Electrical Engineers (KIEE) and the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), and also
technically co-sponsored by the IEEE Industry Applications Society (IEEE-IAS). It was organized by Zhejiang
University (ZJU).
The ICEMS is one of the most dominant con- ferences in the world, particularly associated with the fields of
electrical machines, drives, systems and renewable energies. The Conference was firstly founded in 1987, called
the Beijing International Conference on Electrical Machines (BICEM). Then, every 4 years, the Conference was
held in different Chinese cities, renowned as the Chinese International Conference on Electrical
Machines(CICEM). Since 2001, the Con- ference was renamed as the International Conference on Electrical
Machines and Systems (ICEMS) and hosted in China, Japan and Korea, respectively. Moreover, during the
ICEMS2014, the International Steering Committee (ISC) decided to change the hosting countries to the “3+x”
mode, where “3” is China, Japan and Korea whilst “x” is another Asia-Pacific country/region. The first “x” is
Thailand that will organize the ICEMS2015, and the second “x” is Australia for the ICEMS2018. Joining of the
“x” countries/regions is believed to further broaden the influence and improve the reputation of the ICEMS in the
coming years. The ICEMS2014 ISC also determined the hosting countries of the ICEMS2016, 2017 and 2019 as
Japan, Korea and China.
The ICEMS2014 provided an international forum for researchers, professionals and engineers to present
their latest research and development results, and to exchange information and experiences in the field of
electrical machines and systems, such as machines topologies, design, modeling, analysis, control, manu- facture,
testing, applications, maintenance, standards and education. The Conference received totally 1129 digests from
32 countries and regions. After two rounds of review for both digests and full papers, 687 regular papers from 24
countries and regions were finally accepted for presentation on the Conference, among which 204 were assigned
for lecture presenta- tion in 35 oral sessions and 483 for dialogue presenta- tions in 29 poster sessions. And, 49
won the Best Paper Awards. Moreover, 6 keynote speeches and 2 invited speeches were made. After the
Conference, all the regular papers and 3 keynote speech papers were delivered to the IEEE-IAS for inclusion in
the IEEExplore database. The papers were also included by the EI Compendex database in early 2015. Moreover,
Received June 10, 2015.
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2015 年 7 月
120 papers were selected and recommended to the IEEE Trans. on Industry Applications for peer review for
possible publication, and, 36 papers were recom- mended to the COMPEL-the International Journal for
Computation and Mathematics in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and 21 to the Trans. of CES with
requirement of mandatory extension. Note, 10 papers were finally accepted for publication on the Trans. of CES,
as can be read hereafter.
The ICEMS2014 also attracted 22 international and Chinese companies to participate as supporters or
exhibitors. The business of these companies covered the areas of electrical machine manufacture, electrical
drives and power electronics, servo systems, soft magnetic materials, permanent magnet materials, design and
simulation software, testing and measuring instrumentation, IC designs and applications, technical service, and
electrical machine applications. Especially, the companies presented 9 plenary speeches on indus- trial techniques,
which were very enjoyed by not only industry engineers but also university professors and students. Moreover, the
exhibitions helped to build up bridges between industries and universities, and bet- ween manufacturers and
customers. By way of exam- ple, an order of 200k stepping motors were proposed and preliminarily agreed
between a British customer and a Chinese maker. Another example was that a Chinese motor manufacturer
announced to make free prototypes for research purpose for Chinese academia.
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Technical topics and research trends
All papers for both oral and poster sessions were classified into 24 topics. Some topics overlapped more or
less, whilst some papers could fall into more than one topics. Figure 1 shows a statistic figure of the technical
topics and related contributions, from which the research trends of the electrical machines and systems can be
more or less revealed.
Fig.1
Technical topics and related contributions
Hereafter, some dominant areas which were presented at the ICEMS2014 will be reviewed, whilst many
others, though not reviewed due to the page limitation, are also very critical for the research, production and
application of the electric machines and systems.
2.1
Permanent magnet (PM) machines
Unsurprisingly, the PM Machines was the most dominant research area presented at the ICEMS2014, similar
to the cases of the earlier ICEMS. It attracted 126 full papers on the topics of PM Motor Drives and PM
Generator Systems. Actually, lots of papers on many other topics, such as Linear Machines, Special Machines,
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Servo Systems, Sensorless Control and Renewable Energy Systems, were also related to this research area.
As a keynote speaker, Prof. Jacek F. Gieras reviewed the state of the art of the high speed (>5,000rpm)
motor systems. He analyzed the merits and demerits of the PM brushless machines, solid rotor induction
machines and switched reluctance machines for the high speed applications. Especially, he focused on the design
of high speed PM brushless machines, in the aspects of critical speed, loss analy- sis, utility of iron core sheets
and copper wires, cool- ing methods, as well as material selection and design of rotor retaining sleeves. Also, in
an award paper, researchers from the SKF proposed a measuring method of the losses in the high speed
synchronous machines with surface-mounted permanent magnets.
Prof. Robert Nilssen, another keynote speaker, addressed the applications of large power PM machines, such
as wind energy and vessel propulsion. He also gave many design examples of the large power PM machines,
such as that of the high pole number PM machines using concentrated winding, fractional-slot winding and
multi-layer winding topologies. He also shared his opinion about the future trends of the large power PM
machines.
In the invited speech by Dr. Dean J Patterson, he discussed the relationship between machine power and size.
Again, PM machines were used as examples in the speech. Particularly, some practical axial field machines were
examined, and the advantage of size reduction and power enhancement of such machines was clarified.
Clearly, PM machines will see more and more research interests and applications due to their superior
performance. Novel machine and system topologies, optimal designs and advanced control strategies are always
of the interests of research and development.
2.2
AC motor drives
Numerous papers were related to this area. Issus of such as machine parameter identification, loss
calculation, fault diagnosis and fault tolerant control, sensorless control, field weakening control, and modula- tion
strategies for all of the induction machines, synchronous machines, reluctance machines, PM AC machines and
servo machines were discussed at the ICEMS2014. Two types of coordination, between the power electronics,
motors and control methodologies, and between the electromagnetic field, thermal field, fluid field and stress
field, were widely studied. Such coordination can largely improve the machine system performance and extend
the applications.
By way of example, many authors paid their research interests in the multi-level converters, matrix
converters, multi-phase converters as well as the corres- ponding AC motors. Power converters and motors were
not separately designed any more. Instead, by jointly designing both parties and optimizing the control strategies
according to the characteristics of both parties, the system performance could be enhanced, although compromise
for either power converters or motors could have been made.
An example of small power AC motor drive was that researchers from Nottingham University who won a
Best Paper Award presented an aircraft wheel actuator, which was designed in all of the electro- magnetic,
mechanical, fluidic and thermal aspects, using both analytical and finite element method. This study tells the
advantage of multi-field design for the AC motor drives.
Clearly, AC motor drives have various motor and power converter topologies, and their coordinated
optimization as well as specific control strategies are rather important to achieve superior operation performance of the whole system.
2.3
Traction motor drives
Modern traction motor drives are all of AC drives. Nevertheless, due to the rapid development of
EV/HEV/extended-range EV, vehicle traction motor drives have become a specific hot topic in recent years. This
could also be seen from the presentations at the ICEMS2014, say, more than a quarter of the 24 topics shown in
Figure 1 had papers related to the vehicle traction motor drives.
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2015 年 7 月
Prof. C. C. Chan, another keynote speaker of the ICEMS2014, reviewed the state of the art of the EV/HEV
in the world as well as the development trends, and discussed the three dominant techniques, viz., motor, battery
and drive control. He said that the development of EV/HEV would push forward the coordination of information
and energy technologies, as well as the coordination of EV/HEV, logistics and smart grid technologies. Especially,
Prof. Chan analyzed the feasibility of short range EV in China, and raised some basic features of such EV.
Moreover, Prof. Chandur Sadarangani, an invited speaker, proposed a compact solution for the traction drive
with a 4QT concept, with which the internal combustion engine could always work at an optimal operating point
that was independent on the torque and speed at the wheels. He also introduced the potential utility and
challenge of this technology.
And, researchers from Sheffield Universities made an interesting study of different types of motors for the
EV traction, including the same-power same- size induction motor, variable flux reluctance machine and the
exact interior permanent magnet synchronous motor of the Toyota 2010-Model Prius. They compared the key
factors of these motor drives, e.g., torque capability, torque-speed profile, power factor, torque ripple, overall
efficiency and material costs. Their study could be of valuable reference for other resear- chers and engineers of
EV traction systems.
On the other hand, the study of traction motor drives has been extended from the EV utility to vessel
propulsion, railway electrical drives, and many others. Related papers were presented at the ICEMS2014, too.
2.4
Special electrical machines and actuators
More and more special electrical machines and actuators have been being proposed. Various special
machines, such as the switched reluctance machines, flux switching machines, bearingless machines and linear
machines, have been being widely studied and developed for many years, whilst magnetic gears, planner
machines, spherical machines and piezo machines have been attracting extensive research interests. Many papers
on the special machines and actuators were presented at the ICEMS2014.
As an interesting example, researchers from the Tokyo City University presented in their award papers a
high speed (30,000r/min) bearingless machine using the radial force estimation and parameter identification as well
as current decoupling control. Another example was that researchers from Zhejiang University presented a modular
PM linear machine, which was friendly for manufacture, assembly and maintenance, and also had performance
superior to the conventional PM linear machines.
There were two keynote speeches on the special machines. One was addressed by Prof. Z. Q. Zhu. He
showed a simple evolvement of many PM machines based on the field modulation mechanism, such as the
magnetic gears, vernier machines and electromagne- tically reduced speed machines, etc. His presentation
opened a window to the design of novel PM machine topologies. Another related keynote speech was made by
Prof. Yves Perriard, who had a close cooperation relation with the Swiss watch industry and medical
instrumentation industry. He talked about the principle, design, characteristics and applications of many preci- sion
motors and actuators, such as the escapement mechanism actuator, watch-used actuator and micro PM generator.
His speech clarified the importance of multi-discipline research and collaboration between academia and
industry.
2.5
Renewable and sustainable energies
Obviously, in recent years, renewable and sustai- nable energies have always been of great interests at all
international conferences in the electrical enginee- ring field. The ICEMS2014 published the secondly most
papers of this area (i.e., 67 full papers), just fewer than of the area of PM machines.
A keynote speech on the renewable energies was made by Prof. Frede Blaabjerg. He claimed that it would be
practically attractive to design wind generators with less or even no PM material, because the power scale of newly
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developed wind generators kept increa- sing whilst the price of high-energy permanent magnets hardly came down
after the skyrocketing in the late 2000s and early 2010s. He particularly compared the features of the electricexcitation synchronous generator, doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG), squirrel cage induction generator and
switched reluctance generator for the large power wind energy application, and consequently verified the
feasibility of the less- or non-PM generators. Prof. Blaabjerg emphasized that, for the >5MW applications, the
direct-drive PM synch- ronous generators (PMSG) would be no more com- petitive to the mechanically-geared
PMSG or PM flux switching generators due to the unaffordable cost of magnets, whilst for the 10MW
applications the DFIG would be an attractive solution if brushless power transmission from the rotor could be
realized by, for example, using a rotary transformer.
Furthermore, interconnection between the wind generator system and the AC or DC grid was widely
discussed at the ICEMS2014. And, modeling of both generators and power converters as well as control
strategies under special operation conditions, such as grid voltage disturbance, were presented in many papers, in
order to enhance the wind energy system performance and to improve the grid safety.
On the other hand, issues on other renewable and sustainable energies such as solar and tide energies, and
hybrid systems with various renewable energies and storages were also addressed at the ICEMS2014.
It can be seen that the renewable/sustainable energy technologies will be continuously studied and
developed by both academia and industry. Electrical generators, power converters and control strategies are the
key R&D issues in this field.
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Others
The ICEMS2014 was fruitful and enjoyable in the aspects of technical sessions, industry exhibitions, as well
as the wonderful environment for discussion and relaxation. “It allowed me to see first hand the dynamics of the
conference and hopefully IAS can continue to be involved and active in its organization”, said Dr. Blake Lloyd,
the 2013~2014 President of the IEEE Industry Application Society. “I just want to congratulate for the success of
ICEMS2014 and also thanks for inviting me to come and give a speech – it was a great time and great place – the
place I enjoy very much and will return to”, Prof. Frede Blaabjerg from Aalborg University, the keynote speaker,
com- mented after the Conference. And, Prof. Jin-Woo Ahn from Kyungsung University, the general chairman of
the ICEMS2013-Busan, sent an email to the Con- ference, saying “Congratulation on the successful ICMES2014!
Your efforts as well as excellent service were core of the success”. Many other participants from both institutes
and companies expressed their joys and greetings, too.
Contributions of the 305 reviewers, as well as the 37 student volunteers and 24 staff volunteers from the
College of Electrical Engineering, Zhejiang University were invaluable for the success of the ICEMS2014.
Moreover, collaboration with as many as 22 companies not only helped to cover partly the conference expense, but
also introduced the industrial techniques to the conference participants, especially to the university students.
This made the conference more comprehen- sive and influential.
On the other hand, mainland of China dominated the papers (517 of 690) and participants (551 of 755). The
ratios were unexpectedly higher than before. One possible reason was that the numbers of papers and participants
from Japan and Korea were not as high as in the early ICEMS held in China, nevertheless, they still ranked
within top 3. Another reason was that some other countries which had been very active in the early China-held
ICEMS, such as Iran and Pakistan, were absent. However, UK, Thailand and Germany contributed significantly
at the ICEMS2014. Moreover, 5 of the 6 keynote speeches and both invited speeches were from Europe and
America, which helped to globalize the Conference.
Finally, the ICEMS2014 organizing staff from Zhejiang University would gratefully acknowledge the
invaluable contribution of all the authors, reviewers, participants and speakers, as well as all the sponsors,
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电 工 技 术 学 报
2015 年 7 月
industry supporters and exhibitors, and, would like to wish a great success to the future ICEMS.
Brief notes
Shen Jianxin
Male, born in 1969, PhD, Professor. His main research interests include design and applications of permanent magnet machines and
drives. He was the general chair of the ICEMS2014.
Yang Huan
Male, born in 1981, PhD, Associate Professor. His main research interests include motor drives and grid-connected converter in
microgrids. He was the Organization Committee co-chair of the ICEMS2014.
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