Abstract

Model predictive control has emerged as a suitable alternative for controlling power converters. Today, several predictive control strategies have been proposed to enhance the performance and efficiency of the converter, building upon advances made over its predecessors. This paper presents a comparative study of three predictive control strategies -Model-Based Predictive Control (MBPC), Sequential Model Predictive Control (SMPC), and Indirect Model Predictive Control (IMPC) - applied to input and output current regulation in a Direct Matrix Converter (DMC), assessing the degree of advancement between them. The comparison focuses on defining the system's behaviour in terms of control performance, computational efficiency, and harmonic distortion under realistic operating conditions. The simulation results demonstrate that IMPC offers superior current tracking accuracy, minimal ripple, and the lowest Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) among the three strategies. In contrast, SMPC, while eliminating weighting factors, exhibits the highest THD and reference-tracking errors. Finally, this study highlights IMPC as a practical approach for high-performance control in DMC over the other two strategies. © 2025 IEEE.