Patent ID: 8310186

Claim:
An apparatus for driving a plurality of switching elements of a power converter so that each of the plurality of switching elements selectively establishes electrical connection and electrical disconnection between a terminal of a rotary machine and a voltage application unit for applying a plurality of different voltage levels to the terminal of the rotary machine through the power converter to thereby control a controlled variable of the rotary machine, the apparatus comprising: a predicting unit configured to predict, based on a target value of a drive mode of the power converter at a next timing, a first value of the controlled variable, the drive mode being indicative of a switching-state of each of the plurality of switching elements, the target value of the drive mode of the power converter at the next timing being temporarily set at a present timing prior to the next timing; and a driving unit configured to: drive the plurality of switching elements of the power converter based on the target value of the drive mode of the power converter at the next timing while limiting a number of switching-state changes in the plurality of switching elements from the present timing to the next timing as long as the deviation between the predicted first value of the controlled variable and a command value therefor is within a threshold range.