Design and Implementation of the Power Electronic System for Lunar Zebro rover

MSc thesis defense of Martijn Hubers

The Power Electronic System (PES) is the most critical system of the Lunar Zebro rover. The current PES does not perform satisfactorily, hence the need for a reliable PES arises. This research delves into the effect of the bus voltage on the size and efficiency of the PES. Different redundancy methods are compared to obtain redundancy while minimising the footprint increase. Furthermore, the mode of operation, Continuous Conduction Mode (CCM) or Discontinuous Conduction Mode (DCM), that results in the most efficient PES is investigated. It is found that a 12V bus results in the most efficient and compact PES, and operating in CCM is more efficient than DCM operation. Furthermore, interleaved converters provide redundancy with only a 8.59% in footprint area. Finally, experiments on a functional prototype are carried out to provide experimental validation of the design.