Drive inverter shared by different motors in a vehicle
First Claim
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1. A vehicle comprising at least one actuated mechanism and further comprising:
- two or more electric motors, one of said two or more motors used for locomotion of said vehicle and all others of said two or more motors used for other than locomotion of said vehicle, said all others of said two or more motors comprising one or ore electric motors connected to said at least one actuated mechanism, with only one of said two or more motors being powered at a given time; and
at least one drive inverter unit shared between said two or more motors and configured for providing power to said only one of said two or more motors at said given time, wherein said at least one driver inverter unit is further configured for storing for each of said two or more motors that is not powered at said given time an associated set of parameters and configuration data in order to provide data for controlling the vehicle.
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Abstract
The drive inverter units that power the traction motors and steering motors of a manned or unmanned vehicle such as a mobile robot or automated guided vehicles (AGVs), industrial trucks or remote controlled vehicles that are equipped with a robot arm or other actuated mechanisms are also used to power the axes of the robot arms or other additional high power actuators (e.g. a lift table). The traction and steering motors can be disconnected from the drive and the motors of a robot arm or actuator can be connected to the drive and vice versa. The prerequisite is that driving and robot arm/actuator motion do not take place at the same time.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. A vehicle comprising at least one actuated mechanism and further comprising:
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two or more electric motors, one of said two or more motors used for locomotion of said vehicle and all others of said two or more motors used for other than locomotion of said vehicle, said all others of said two or more motors comprising one or ore electric motors connected to said at least one actuated mechanism, with only one of said two or more motors being powered at a given time; and at least one drive inverter unit shared between said two or more motors and configured for providing power to said only one of said two or more motors at said given time, wherein said at least one driver inverter unit is further configured for storing for each of said two or more motors that is not powered at said given time an associated set of parameters and configuration data in order to provide data for controlling the vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method for electrically powering a vehicle having at least an actuated mechanism and two or more electric motors with only one motor of said two or more motors powered at a given time and at least one drive inverter unit connects to said two or more motors, said method comprising:
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using one of said two or more motors for traction for said vehicle; using all others of said two or more motors for other than traction of said vehicle, said all others of said two or more motors comprising one or more electric motors connected to said at least one actuated mechanism; and sharing between said two or more electric motors said at least one drive inverter unit for delivering electric power to only one motor of said two or more motors, said at least one drive inverter unit only delivering at a given time electric power to that one of said two or more motors that is powered at said given time; storing for each of said two or more motors that is not powered at said given time an associated set of parameters and configuration data in order to provide data; and controlling the vehicle by using said data. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18)
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Specification