Motor control system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11316459-B2
Application number	US-201616062843-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 16, 2016
Priority date	Dec 16, 2015
Publication date	Apr 26, 2022
Grant date	Apr 26, 2022

Abstract

A control system for an electric motor comprises a controller which receives as an input a demanded motor current and produces at an output an intermediate voltage demand signal, a voltage demand signal correction means arranged to generate a voltage demand correction signal, and a combining means arranged to combine the intermediate voltage demand signal and the voltage demand correction signal to produce an actual voltage demand signal that is applied to the motor by pulse width modulation of the switches of a motor bridge driver. The correction signal compensates for unwanted non-linearities caused by interlock delays in the switching of the motor bridge switches.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A control system for an electric motor, the control system comprising:
a controller which receives as an input a demanded motor current, the controller producing at an output an intermediate voltage demand signal,
a voltage demand signal correction means arranged to receive the demanded motor current and generate a voltage demand correction signal which directly corresponds to a demanded motor current value stored in a given data table disposed within memory, wherein the given data table is selected from multiple data tables disposed within the memory based on a property of a motor bridge driver for driving a motor, wherein each data table is associated with a different motor bridge driver for driving the motor, and
a combining means arranged to combine the intermediate voltage demand signal and the voltage demand correction signal to produce an actual voltage demand signal that is applied to the electric motor by pulse width modulation of switches of the motor bridge driver,
wherein the voltage demand correction signal is determined solely upon the value of the demanded motor current which is received by the voltage demand signal correction means.

2. The control system according to claim 1 in which the controller comprises a PI controller that includes, at an input stage, a comparator which generates a current difference signal dependent upon the difference between the demanded motor current and an actual current flowing in the electric motor.

3. The control system according to claim 1 in which the voltage demand signal correction means generates the voltage demand correction signal by taking as an input a signal that is derived from the demanded motor current.

4. The control system according to claim 3 in which the demanded motor current signal input to the voltage demand signal correction means is passed through a filter so that a bandwidth of the signal fed to the voltage demand signal correction means does not exceed a bandwidth of the controller.

5. The control system according to claim 4 in which a cut off frequency of the filter is matched to the bandwidth of the controller.

6. The control system according to claim 4 in which the filter comprises a first order low pass filter.

7. The control system according to claim 1 in which the given data table comprises a look up table that holds a set of demanded motor current values and a corresponding set of correction signal voltage values.

8. The control system according to claim 1 in which the controller is arranged to output an intermediate demanded voltage in a frame of reference of a rotor of the electric motor, and defined as D and Q axis components, and wherein the voltage demand correction signal is in the DQ frame.

9. The control system according to claim 1 , wherein the voltage demand correction signal is determined without taking an actual current flowing in the electric motor into account.

10. The control system according to claim 1 , wherein the known amount of non-linearity left is tuned to a non-linearity in the motor bridge driver.

11. The control system according to claim 1 , wherein the given data table is selected from the multiple data tables in response to a user input.

12. The control system according to claim 1 , wherein the voltage demand signal correction means:
interpolate from two neighboring values in the given table representative of a respective demanded motor current value to identify the demanded motor current value; and
generate the voltage demand correction signal based on the demanded motor current value.

Assignees

• Trw Ltd
• Trw Automotive Us Llc
• Zahnradfabrik Friedrichshafen
• Zf Automotive Uk Ltd
• Zf Active Safety & Electronics Us Llc

Inventors

• Dixon Christopher David
• Williams Connel Brett
• Terway Prerit
• Ghafari Abraham
• Lamsahel Hassan
• Er Mesut

Classifications

• H02P21/22

  Current control, e.g. using a current control loop · CPC title

• H02P21/0025

  implementing a off line learning phase to determine and store useful data for on-line control · CPC title

• H02M7/53871

  with automatic control of output voltage or current · CPC title

• H02M1/38

  Means for preventing simultaneous conduction of switches · CPC title

• H02M1/385

  with means for correcting output voltage deviations introduced by the dead time · CPC title