Photovoltaics (PV) output power is highly sensitive to many environmental parameters and the power produced by the PV systems is significantly affected by the harsh environments. The annual PV power density of around 2000 kWh/m² in the Arabian Peninsula is an exploitable wealth of energy source. These countries plan to increase the contribution of power from renewable energy (RE) over the years. Due to its abundance, the focus of RE is on solar energy. Evaluation and analysis of PV performance in terms of predicting the output PV power with less error demands investigation of the effects of relevant environmental parameters on its performance. In this paper, the authors have studied the effects of the relevant environmental parameters, such as irradiance, relative humidity, ambient temperature, wind speed, PV surface temperature and accumulated dust on the output power of the PV panel. Calibration of several sensors for an in-house built PV system was described. Several multiple regression models and artificial neural network (ANN)-based prediction models were trained and tested to forecast the hourly power output of the PV system. The ANN models with all the features and features selected using correlation feature selection (CFS) and relief feature selection (ReliefF) techniques were found to successfully predict PV output power with Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of 2.1436, 6.1555, and 5.5351, respectively. Two different bias calculation techniques were used to evaluate the instances of biased prediction, which can be utilized to reduce bias to improve accuracy. The ANN model outperforms other regression models, such as a linear regression model, M5P decision tree and gaussian process regression (GPR) model. This will have a noteworthy contribution in scaling the PV deployment in countries like Qatar and increase the share of PV power in the national power production.

Based on the concept of switched-capacitor based multilevel inverter topology, a new structure for a boost multilevel inverter topology has been recommended in this paper. The proposed topology uses 11 unidirectional switches with a single switched capacitor unit to synthesize nine-level output voltage waveform. Apart from the twice voltage gain, self-voltage balancing of capacitor voltage without any auxiliary method along with reduced voltage stress has been the main advantages of this topology. The merits of proposed topology have been analyzed through various comparison parameters including component counts, voltage stresses, cost and efficiency with a maximum value of 98.3%, together with the integration of switched capacitors into the topology following recent development. Phase disposition pulse width modulation (PD-PWM) technique and nearest level control PWM (NLC-PWM) have been used for the control of switches. Different simulation and hardware results with different operating conditions are included in the paper to demonstrate the performance of the proposed topology.

Connectivity and autonomy are considered two of the most promising technologies to improve mobility, fuel consumption, travel time, and traffic safety in the automated transportation industry. These benefits can be realized through vehicle platooning. A vehicle platoon is composed of a group of connected automated vehicles (CAVs) traveling together at consensual speed, following the leading vehicle (leader) while maintaining a prespecified inter-vehicle distance. This paper reviews the different existing control techniques associated with the transitional platoon maneuvers such as merge/split and lane change. Different longitudinal and lateral vehicle dynamics that are mainly used in the transitional platoon maneuvers are discussed. The most used control algorithms for both longitudinal and lateral control used for transitional platoon maneuvers are reviewed and the advantages and limitations of each control strategy are discussed. The most recent articles on platoon control maneuvers have been analyzed based on the proposed control algorithm, homogeneously or heterogeneously of platoon members, type of platoon maneuver, the aim of control problem, type of implementation, and used simulation tools. This paper also discusses different trajectory planning techniques used in lateral motion control and studies the most recent research related to trajectory planning for automated vehicles and summarizes them based on the used trajectory planning technique, platoon or/and lane change, the type of traffic, and the cost functions. Finally, this paper explores the open issues and directions for future research.

Mathematical model-based analysis has proven its potential as a critical tool in the battle against COVID-19 by enabling better understanding of the disease transmission dynamics, deeper analysis of the cost-effectiveness of various scenarios, and more accurate forecast of the trends with and without interventions. However, due to the outpouring of information and disparity between reported mathematical models, there exists a need for a more concise and unified discussion pertaining to the mathematical modeling of COVID-19 to overcome related skepticism. Towards this goal, this paper presents a review of mathematical model-based scenario analysis and interventions for COVID-19 with the main objectives of (1) including a brief overview of the existing reviews on mathematical models, (2) providing an integrated framework to unify models, (3) investigating various mitigation strategies and model parameters that reflect the effect of interventions, (4) discussing different mathematical models used to conduct scenario-based analysis, and (5) surveying active control methods used to combat COVID-19.

In this work, two new topologies of single-phase hybrid multilevel inverters for symmetrical and asymmetrical configurations are presented for use in drives and control of electrical machines and the connection of renewable energy sources. The proposed topology uses 2 dc sources, 12 switches, 1 flying capacitor, and 3 diodes to generate boosted 13-levels and 17-levels for symmetric and asymmetric configuration, respectively. Self-voltage balancing of its capacitor voltage regardless of load type, load dynamics, or modulation index is a key advantage of the suggested design. The higher performance of proposed topologies in terms of the total number of switches, TSV, THD, switch stress, and dc sources are demonstrated by comparing those with recently published topologies. In addition, a widely employed nearest level control modulation approach is used to provide output voltage levels with low THD. Finally, experiments were undertaken to validate the performance of the suggested topology.

Considering the aim of having low switching losses, especially in medium-voltage and high-power converters, the pre-programmed pulse width modulation technique is very useful because the generated harmonic content can be known in advance and optimized. Among the different low switching frequency techniques, the Selective Harmonics Elimination (SHE) modulation method is most suitable because of its direct control over the harmonic spectrum. This paper proposes a method for obtaining multiple solutions for selectively eliminating specific harmonics in a wide range of modulation indices by using modified Newton–Raphson (NR) and pattern generation techniques. The different pattern generation and synthesis approach provide more degrees of freedom and a way to operate the converter in a wide range of modulation. The modified Newton–Raphson technique is not complex and ensures fast convergence on a solution. Moreover, multiple solutions are obtained by keeping a very small increase in the modulation index. In the previous methods, solutions were not obtainable at all modulation indices. In this paper, only exact solutions to the low-order harmonics elimination for Cascaded H-bridge inverter are reported for all modulation indices. Analytical and simulation results prove the robustness and correctness of the technique proposed in this paper.