Electric vehicle control system
First Claim
Patent Images
1. Control system for controlling an electric vehicle powered by an electric motor, said control system comprising:
- at least two power converters coupled to supply electric power to said electric motor;
a control unit for controlling each of said at least two power converters to cooperate to supply an electric current to said electric motor, having a magnitude which achieves a desired torque output of said motor according to a torque command value; and
means for detecting a failure of any of said at least two power converters and for providing converter failure signals indicative thereof;
said control unit including means for disabling any of said at least two power converters in response to said converter failure signals indicative of failure thereof, and for adjusting power output of at least one remaining power converter other than a disabled power converter in response to said converter signals.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An electric vehicle control system for driving a battery powered motor with use of power inverters. First and second inverters are connected with the respective three-phase primary windings of an induction motor. If one of the inverters fails, failure detection circuits detect it, and a control unit stops the failed inverter and allows the other normal inverter to drive the induction motor to move the electric vehicle. Driving the single motor with a plurality of power inverters allows the electric vehicle to move and run even if one of the power inverters fails.
119 Citations
34 Claims
-
1. Control system for controlling an electric vehicle powered by an electric motor, said control system comprising:
-
at least two power converters coupled to supply electric power to said electric motor; a control unit for controlling each of said at least two power converters to cooperate to supply an electric current to said electric motor, having a magnitude which achieves a desired torque output of said motor according to a torque command value; and means for detecting a failure of any of said at least two power converters and for providing converter failure signals indicative thereof; said control unit including means for disabling any of said at least two power converters in response to said converter failure signals indicative of failure thereof, and for adjusting power output of at least one remaining power converter other than a disabled power converter in response to said converter signals. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
-
-
9. Method of controlling an electric vehicle powered by an electric motor, said method comprising the steps of:
-
providing at least two power converter units coupled to supply electric power to said motor; controlling each of said at least two power converters to cooperate to supply an electric current to said motor, having a magnitude which achieves a desired torque output of said motor according to a torque command value; detecting a failure of any of said power converters and providing converter failure signals indicative thereof; and disabling any of said at least two power converters in response to said converter failure signal. - View Dependent Claims (10)
-
-
25. Control system for controlling an electric vehicle powered by an electric motor having a primary winding which comprises at least three electrically independent phase windings, said control system comprising:
-
at least three single-phase DC-AC inverters, each of said inverters being coupled to supply a field current to a different one of said phase windings; a control unit for controlling each of said at least three inverters to cooperate to supply electric power to said electric motor, having a magnitude which achieves a desired torque output of said motor according to a torque command value; and means for detecting a failure of any of said at least three inverters and for providing inverter failure signals indicative thereof; said control unit including means for disabling any of said at least three power inverters in response to said inverter failure signals indicative of failure thereof, and for adjusting power output of remaining inverters other than a disabled inverter in response to said converter signals.
-
-
32. Apparatus for controlling operation of an electric motor having a primary winding which comprises at least three phase windings, each of said phase windings being connected to a common neutral point, said apparatus comprising:
-
a power converter coupled to supply multiphase electric current to said electric motor, one such phase being coupled to each phase winding of said electric motor; means for detecting a failure of the current supply to any of said electric phase windings of said motor and for providing a phase failure signal indicative thereof; a control unit for controlling said power converter to provide electric power to said electric motor, having a magnitude which achieves a desired torque output of said motor according to a torque command value, said control unit including means for generating a disabling signal for any of said phase windings in response to a phase failure signal indicative of a failure thereof; and a switching unit comprising a plurality of switch elements coupling said phases of said multiphase electric current from said power converter to said phase windings of said electric motor, each of said switch elements being responsive to said disabling signal to disable one of said phase windings in response to failure thereof. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34)
-
Specification