Vehicle control device and railroad vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9837950-B2
Application number	US-201615005402-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 25, 2016
Priority date	Aug 7, 2013
Publication date	Dec 5, 2017
Grant date	Dec 5, 2017

Abstract

A vehicle control device according to one embodiment includes an inverter converting a DC power to a three-phase AC power and supplying the three-phase AC power to a motor driving a vehicle. A detector detects a current value between the inverter and the motor. A controller PWM-controls the inverter based on a current value detected by the detector, a speed command signal, and a rotor frequency of the motor. The controller determines occurrence of a malfunction when a PWM modulation rate is equal to or higher than a predetermined value and the rotor frequency is equal to or lower than a predetermined value.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A vehicle control device comprising:
an inverter which converts a DC power to a three-phase AC power and supplies the three-phase AC power to a motor driving a vehicle;
a detector which detects a current value between the inverter and the motor; and
a controller which controls the inverter in a PWM manner based on a current value detected by the detector, a speed command signal, and a rotor frequency of the motor, wherein a PWM modulation rate of the controller is proportional to the rotor frequency during normal operation, and
wherein the controller determines whether a malfunction has occurred based on the PWM modulation rate and the rotor frequency, wherein the controller determines that a malfunction has occurred when the PWM modulation rate is equal to or higher than a first predetermined value and the rotor frequency is equal to or lower than a second predetermined value.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the controller determines that the malfunction is an open phase, when the current value detected by the detector is lower than a third predetermined value.

3. The device of claim 1 , wherein the motor to which the inverter supplies the three-phase AC power includes a first motor and a second motor.

4. The device of claim 3 , wherein:
a wire connecting the inverter and the first and second motors is branched at a branch point into a first wire and a second wire, the first wire being connected to the first motor and the second wire being connected to the second motor, and
the detector includes a first detector provided in the first wire and a second detector provided in the second wire.

5. The device of claim 4 , wherein:
the controller determines that the malfunction has occurred when a current value detected by the first detector, a current value detected by the second detector, or a sum of the current values detected by the first and second current detectors is smaller than a predetermined threshold.

6. A railroad vehicle comprising:
the vehicle control device of claim 3 , and
the motor to which the three-phase AC power is supplied from the inverter.

7. A railroad vehicle comprising:
the vehicle control device of claim 1 , and
the motor to which the three-phase AC power is supplied from the inverter.

Assignees

• Toshiba Kk

Inventors

• Otani Hiroaki
• Itoh Masanao

Classifications

• B60L2240/423

  Torque · CPC title

• Y02T10/642

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• B60L2250/10

  by alarm · CPC title

• B60L2240/429

  Current · CPC title

• B60L2240/421

  Speed · CPC title