The present invention relates to an electric power steering apparatus that vector-controls a driving of a 3-phase brushless motor on a dq-phase rotational coordinate system, performs a dead time compensation of an inverter based on a current command value model that dq-phase current command values are converted into 3-phase values, by correcting a dead time compensation amount, which is calculated at an inverter applying voltage-sensitive compensation-amount calculating section depending on a temperature of a control section (a temperature of the inverter or a temperature in the neighborhood of the inverter), processing the temperature-corrected dead time compensation amount using compensation signs based on the dq-phase current command values and adding the processed values to dq-phase voltage command values or 3-phase voltage command values, and enables to perform a smooth assist control without a steering sound.
There exists an electric power steering apparatus (EPS) which provides a steering mechanism of a vehicle with a steering assist torque (an assist torque) by means of a rotational torque of a motor. The electric power steering apparatus applies a driving force of the motor as an actuator to a steering shaft or a rack shaft by means of a transmission mechanism such as gears or a belt through a reduction mechanism. In order to accurately generate the steering assist torque, such a conventional electric power steering apparatus performs a feed-back control of a motor current. The feed-back control adjusts a voltage supplied to the motor so that a difference between a steering assist command value (a current command value) and a detected motor current value becomes small, and the adjustment of the voltage supplied to the motor is generally performed by an adjustment of duty command values of a pulse width modulation (PWM) control.
A general configuration of the conventional electric power steering apparatus will be described with reference to
A controller area network (CAN) 40 to send/receive various information and signals of the vehicle is connected to the control unit 30, and it is also possible to receive the vehicle speed Vs from the CAN 40. Further, a Non-CAN 41 is also possible to connect to the control unit 30, and the Non-CAN 41 sends and receives a communication, analogue/digital signals, electric wave or the like except for the CAN 40.
In such an electric power steering apparatus, the control unit 30 mainly comprises a central processing unit (CPU) (including a micro processor unit (MPU), a micro controller unit (MCU) and so on), and general functions performed by programs within the CPU are, for example, shown in
Functions and operations of the control unit 30 will be described with reference to
A current control such as a proportional integral (PI) is performed to a deviation ΔI (=Irefm−Im), which is the subtracted result at the subtracting section 32B, at a PI-control section 35. The voltage control command value Vref obtained by the current control, and a modulation signal (a triangle wave carrier) CF are inputted into a PWM-control section 36, and duty command values are calculated. The motor 20 is PWM-driven by an inverter 37 with PWM-signals calculated from the duty command values. The motor current value Im of the motor 20 is detected by a motor current detector 38 and is inputted into the subtracting section 32B for the feed-back.
The compensating section 34 adds a detected or estimated self-aligning torque (SAT) to an inertia compensation value 342 at an adding section 344. The added result is further added with a convergence control value 341 at an adding section 345. The added result is inputted into the adding section 32A as the compensation signal CM and the control characteristics are improved.
Recently, the 3-phase brushless motor is mainly used as an actuator of the electric power steering apparatus, and since the electric power steering apparatus is automotive products, the operating temperature range is wide. Further, from a view point of a fail-safe, a dead time of the inverter to drive the motor needs greater (industrial equipment<EPS) than that for general industrial purpose products such as home appliances. Generally, since a switching device (for example, a field-effect transistor (FET)) has a delay time when the operation is turned-OFF, a direct current link is shorted when the switching devices of an upper-arm and a lower-arm simultaneously switches a turned-OFF operation and a turned-ON operation. In order to prevent the above problem, a time (a dead time) that the operations of the switching devices of both arms are turned-OFF, is set.
As a result, a current waveform is distorted, and a responsibility of the current control and a steering feeling are badly affected. For example, when the driver slowly steers the handle in a situation that the handle is around a straight running state (an on-center state), a discontinuous steering feeling by means of the torque ripple and like is occurred. Because a back electromotive force (a back-EMF) of the motor in a medium speed steering or a high speed steering, and the interference voltage between the windings operate as the disturbance against the current control, a steering follow-up performance and the steering feeling in a turn-back steering are badly affected. The steering sound in the medium speed steering or the high speed steering becomes louder.
A q-phase that is a coordinate axis of the rotor of the 3-phase brushless motor and controls the torque of the rotor of the 3-phase brushless motor, and a d-phase that controls strength of a magnetic field are independently set. Since the d-phase crosses at 90° against the q-phase, the vector control system that controls the vectors corresponding to the respective phase currents (a d-phase current command value and a q-phase current command value) is known.
3-phase motor currents iu, iv and iw of the motor 100 are detected at the current detector 162, and the detected 3-phase currents iu, iv and iw are inputted into the 3-phase to dq-phase converting section 130. The 2-phase feed-back currents id and iq that are converted at the 3-phase to dq-phase converting section 130 are subtraction-inputted into the subtracting sections 131d and 131q, and a d-q decoupling control section 140. The rotational sensor or the like is attached to the motor 100, and the motor rotational angle θ and the motor angular velocity (the motor rotational velocity) ω are outputted from the angle detecting section 110 that processes a sensor signal. The motor rotational angle θ is inputted into the dq-phase to 3-phase converting section 150 and the 3-phase to dq-phase converting section 130, and the motor angular velocity ω is inputted into the d-q decoupling control section 140. 2-phase voltages vd1* and vq1* from the d-q decoupling control section 140 are inputted into the subtracting section 141d and the adding section 141q, respectively. The voltage command value Δvd calculated at the subtracting section 141d and the voltage command value Δvq calculated at the adding section 141q are inputted into the dq-phase to 3-phase converting section 150.
Such a vector-control type electric power steering apparatus described above is an apparatus to assist a steering of the driver, and a sound and a vibration of the motor, a torque ripple and the like are transmitted to the driver as a force sense via the handle. The field-effect transistors (FETs) are generally used as a power device to drive the inverter, and the current is applied to the motor. In a case that the 3-phase motor is used, the FETs, which are connected in series for respective phases, of the upper-arm and the lower-arm are used as shown in
In this connection, in order that the upper-arm FET and the lower-arm FET do not simultaneously turn-ON, the ON-signal is usually given to the gate driving circuit with a predetermined period being a dead time. Since the dead time is nonlinear, the current waveform is distorted, the response performance of the control is badly affected and the sound, the vibration and the torque ripple are generated. In a column type electric power steering apparatus, since an arrangement of the motor directly connected to a gear box which is connected by the handle and the column shaft made of steel is extremely near the driver in the mechanism, it is necessary to especially consider the sound, the vibration, the torque ripple and the like due to the motor in comparison with a downstream type electric power steering apparatus.
Conventionally, as a method to compensate the dead time of the inverter, there are methods to add the compensation value to the dead time by detecting a timing occurring the dead time or to compensate the dead time by a disturbance observer on the dq-phase in the current control.
The electric power steering apparatus to compensate the dead time of the inverter is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent No.4681453 B2 (Patent Document 1) and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No.2015-171251 A (Patent Document 2). In Patent Document 1, there is provided a dead band compensation circuit that generates a model current based on the current command values by inputting the current command values into a reference model circuit of the current control loop including the motor and the inverter, and compensates the influence of the dead time of the inverter based on the model current. Further, in Patent Document 2, there is provided a dead time compensating section to correct the duty command values based on the dead time compensation values, and the dead time compensating section comprises a basic compensation value calculating section to calculate a basic compensation value being a basic value of the dead time compensation values based on the current command values and a filtering section to perform a filtering-process corresponding to a low pass filter (LPF) for the basic compensation value.
The apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1 is a system that estimates the compensation signs by using a calculation of the dead time compensation amount due to the q-phase current command value and the 3-phase current reference model. The output value of the compensation circuit is a changing value in proportion to the model current in a region being a predetermined fixed value or less, and is an added value of the changing values in proportion to the fixed value and the model current in a region being the predetermined fixed value or more. In this way, the output value of the compensation circuit is outputted from the current command to the voltage command. However, the tuning operation for determining the hysteresis characteristic to output the predetermined fixed value is necessary.
Further, in the apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 2, when the dead time is determined, the dead time compensation is performed by using the q-phase current command value and the compensation value in which the q-phase current command value is LPF-processed. Thus, the delay occurs, and there is a problem that the dead time compensation value is not operated for the final voltage command to the motor.
The present invention has been developed in view of the above-described circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide the vector-control type electric power steering apparatus that compensates the dead time of the inverter depending on the temperature of the control section (ECU) without the tuning operation, improves the distortion of the current waveform and the responsibility of the current control, and suppresses the sound and the vibration of the motor and the torque ripple.
The present invention relates to a vector-control type electric power steering apparatus that converts dq-phase current command values calculated based on at least a steering torque into 3-phase duty command values, drives and controls a 3-phase brushless motor by a pulse width modulation (PWM) controlled inverter, and applies an assist torque to a steering mechanism of a vehicle, the above-described object of the present invention is achieved by that: comprising a temperature coefficient calculating section to calculate a temperature coefficient depending on a temperature of a control section including the inverter, wherein a dead time compensation of the inverter is performed by estimating compensation signs of 3-phase current model command values in which the dq-phase current command values are converted into a 3-phase current command value model, calculating a first dead time compensation amount based on an inverter applying voltage, calculating a second dead time compensation amount by multiplying the first dead time compensation amount by the temperature coefficient, and adding dead time compensation values in which values multiplied the second dead time compensation amount by the compensation signs are converted into 2-phase values, to dq-phase voltage command values; or
comprising a temperature coefficient calculating section to calculate a temperature coefficient depending on a temperature of a control section including the inverter, wherein a dead time compensation of the inverter is performed by estimating compensation signs of 3-phase current model command values in which the dq-phase current command values are converted into a 3-phase current command value model, calculating a first dead time compensation amount based on an inverter applying voltage, calculating a second dead time compensation amount by multiplying the first dead time compensation amount by the temperature coefficient, and adding dead time compensation values in which the second dead time compensation amount is multiplied by the compensation signs, to 3-phase voltage command values.
According to the electric power steering apparatus of the present invention, the dead time of the inverter is compensated by converting the dq-phase current command values into the 3-phase current model command values, estimating the compensation signs, correcting the dead time compensation amount obtained from the inverter applying voltage depending on the temperature of the control section (ECU), calculating the dead time compensation values based on the temperature-corrected dead time compensation amount and the compensation signs, and converting the dead time compensation values into the 2-phase values and adding (feed-forwarding) the 2-phase values to the dq-phase voltage command values, or adding (feed-forwarding) the dead time compensation values to the 3-phase voltage command values. Thereby, the electric power steering apparatus compensates the dead time of the inverter which is corrected depending on the temperature of the control section (ECU), on the dq-phase or on the 3-phase without the tuning operation, and improves the distortion of the current waveform and the responsibility of the current control.
Since the control is smoothly performed by using the feed-forward compensation of the dead time based on the dq-phase current command values, the sound and the vibration of the motor and the torque ripple can be suppressed. The present invention has an advantage that the compensation can simply be performed since the phase deviation is small even in the high speed steering region. Because the compensation method is not changed even in the d-phase control, the present invention can simply be performed in the d-phase control.
In a case of entering the d-phase control, it can be considered that the compensation logics are switched depending on the condition whether the d-phase current command value is existed or not, and the compensation is performed by using the dedicated logic for the d-phase. However, in the present invention, since the calculation of the current command value model includes the d-phase current command value, when the d-phase current command value is equal to zero, the 3-phase current model command values which are calculated under the condition that the d-phase current command value is equal to zero are outputted. In a case that the d-phase current command value is not equal to zero, because the 3-phase current model command values are outputted depending on the d-phase current command value and the q-phase current command value, the dedicated logic for the d-phase is not required. Since the calculation method of the present invention is not changed depending on the condition whether the d-phase current command value is existed or not, the compensation can be performed without switching the logics and the additional logic.
In the accompanying drawings:
In order to resolve problems that a current distortion and a torque ripple occur and a steering sound becomes louder due to an influence of a dead time of an inverter in a control section (ECU), the present invention performs a dead time compensation by converting dq-phase current command values into 3-phase current model command values, estimating compensation signs, calculating a dead time compensation amount which is calculated from an inverter applying voltage and is corrected depending on a temperature of the ECU, calculating dead time compensation values based on the dead time compensation amount and the estimated compensation signs, and converting the dead time compensation values into 2-phase values and adding (feed-forwarding) the 2-phase values to dq-phase voltage command values (the first embodiment), or adding (feed-forwarding) the dead time compensation values to 3-phase voltage command values (the second embodiment). Thereby, the electric power steering apparatus compensates the dead time of the inverter on the dq-phase or on the 3-phase without a tuning operation, and improves the distortion of the current waveform and the responsibility of the current control.
Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings as follows.
The d-phase current command value id* and the q-phase current command value iq* in which the maximum values of the steering assist command values calculated at a steering assist command value calculating section (not shown) are limited are respectively inputted into subtracting sections 131d and 131q, and a current deviation Δid* between the d-phase current command value id* and the feed-back current id and a current deviation Δiq* between the q-phase current command value iq* and the feed-back current iq are respectively calculated at the subtracting sections 131d and 131q. The calculated current deviation Δid* is inputted into a PI-control section 120d, and the calculated current deviation Δiq* is inputted into a PI-control section 120q. The PI-controlled d-phase voltage command value vd and the PI-controlled q-phase voltage command value vq are respectively inputted into adding sections 121d and 121q, and are compensated by respectively adding to the dead time compensation values vd* and vq* from the dead time compensating section 200 described below. The compensated voltage values are inputted into a subtracting section 141d and an adding section 141q, respectively. The voltage vd1* from a d-q decoupling control section 140 is inputted into the subtracting section 141d and a d-phase voltage command value vd** which is the difference is obtained at the subtracting section 141d. The voltage vq1* from the d-q decoupling control section 140 is inputted into the adding section 141q and a q-phase voltage command value vq** which is the added result is obtained at the adding section 141q. The voltage command values vd** and vq** whose dead time is compensated are inputted into a space vector modulating section 300, and converted from 2-phase values on the dq-phase into 3-phase values constituted by U-phase, V-phase and W-phase, in which the third-harmonic is superimposed. The 3-phase voltage command values Vu*, Vv* and Vw* which are vector-modulated at the space vector modulating section 300 are inputted into a PWM-control section 160, and the motor 100 is driven and controlled via the PWM-control section 160 and the inverter 161 as described above.
Next, the dead time compensating section 200 will be described.
The dead time compensating section 200 comprises an adding section 201, multiplying sections 202 and 281, an inverter applying voltage-sensitive compensation-amount calculating section 210, a 3-phase current command value model 220, a phase current compensation sign estimating section 221, a phase adjusting section 230, a 3-phase to dq-phase converting section 240, and a temperature coefficient calculating section 280. As well, a dead time compensation value outputting section comprises the multiplying section 202 and the 3-phase to dq-phase converting section 240. A motor rotational angle θ is inputted into an adding section 201 and a motor angular velocity ω is inputted into a phase adjusting section 230. An inverter applying voltage VR is inputted into the inverter applying voltage-sensitive compensation-amount calculating section 210, and a phase-adjusted motor rotational angle θm calculated at the adding section 201 is inputted into the 3-phase current command value model 220.
In a case that the dead time compensation timing is hastened or is delayed in response to the motor angular velocity ω, there is provided the phase adjusting section 230 which has a function for calculating the adjustment angle depending on the motor angular velocity ω. The phase adjusting section 230 has a characteristic as shown in
After detecting a motor electric angle and calculating the duty command values, a time delay whose time is several tens of microseconds to one hundred microseconds is existed until actually correcting the PWM-signals. Since the motor is rotating during the delay time, a phase deviation between the motor electric angle in the calculation and the motor electric angle in the correction is generated. In order to compensate this phase deviation, the lead angle is performed depending on the motor angular velocity ω and the phase is adjusted.
Since the optimal dead time compensation amount varies depending on the inverter applying voltage VR, the present invention calculates the dead time compensation amount DTC depending on the inverter applying voltage VR and makes the dead time compensation amount DTC be changeable. The configuration of the inverter applying voltage-sensitive compensation-amount calculating section 210 to output the dead time compensation amount DTC by inputting the inverter applying voltage VR is shown in
The characteristic of the inverter applying voltage/dead time compensation-amount conversion table 212 is shown, for example, in
The temperature detecting section 400 detects (or estimates) the temperature of the control section (ECU), for example the temperature of the power device such as the FETs or the temperature in the neighborhood of the power device, and the detected temperature Tm is inputted into the temperature coefficient calculating section 280 in the dead time compensating section 200. As shown in
The temperature coefficient Tc from the temperature coefficient calculating section 280 is inputted into the multiplying section 281 and is multiplied by the dead time compensation amount DTC. The dead time compensation amount DTCb which is corrected by the temperature coefficient Tc is inputted into the multiplying section 202.
The d-phase current command value id*, the q-phase current command value iq* and the motor rotational angle θm are inputted into the 3-phase current command value model 220. The 3-phase current command value model 220 calculates the sinusoidal 3-phase current model command values Icm whose phases are shifted each other by 120 [deg] as shown in
The respective phase current command values are calculated from the above Expression 1, and the U-phase current command value model iref_u, the V-phase current command value model iref_v and the W-phase current command value model iref_w are represented by the following Expression 2.
i
ref_u
=i
ref_d·cos(θe)+iref_q·sin(θe)
i
ref_v
=i
ref_d·cos(θe−⅔π)+iref_q·sin(θe⅔π)
i
ref_w
=i
ref_d·cos(θe+⅔π)+iref_q·sin(θe+⅔π) [Expression 2]
The table may be stored in an electrically erasable and programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) or may be loaded to a random access memory (RAM). In using the Expression 2, only the values of “sin θe” are stored in the table. The values of “cos θe” may be calculated by offsetting the input θe to 90° and other sine function terms may be calculated by offsetting the input θe to 120°. In a case that the capacity of the ROM is sufficiently large or the command value model, for example, a model with respect to a pseudo rectangular wave motor or the like, is complicated, all the values in the Expression 2 are stored in the table.
The 3-phase current model command values Icm are inputted into the phase current compensation sign estimating section 221. The phase current compensation sign estimating section 221 outputs compensation signs SN, which have a positive value “+1” or a negative value “−1” and indicate a hysteresis characteristic shown in
In a case that the signs of the dead time compensation values are simply determined from the current signs of the phase current command value model, the chattering is occurred in the low load. For example, when the handle is slightly steered to the left or the right near the on-center, the torque ripple is occurred. In order to improve this problem, the hysteresis is adopted in the sign judgement (±0.25 [A] in
The dead time compensation amount DTCb from the multiplying section 281 is inputted into the multiplying section 202. The multiplying section 202 outputs the dead time compensation amounts DTCa (=DTCb×SN) that the dead time compensation amount DTCb is multiplied by the compensation signs SN. The dead time compensation amounts DTCa are inputted into the 3-phase to dq-phase converting section 240. The 3-phase to dq-phase converting section 240 outputs the 2-phase dead time compensation values vd* and vq* synchronized with the motor rotational angle θm. The dead time compensation value vd* and vq* are added to the voltage command values vd and vq at the adding sections 121d and 121q, respectively, and the dead time compensation of the inverter 161 is performed.
In the present invention, the dead time of the inverter is compensated by converting the dq-phase current command values into the 3-phase current model command values, estimating the compensation signs, correcting the dead time compensation amount of the inverter obtained from the inverter applying voltage depending on the temperature of the control section, calculating the dead time compensation values based on the temperature-corrected dead time compensation amount and the compensation signs, and converting the dead time compensation values into 2-phase values and adding (feed-forwarding) the 2-phase values to the dq-phase voltage command values. The 3-phase current model command values are used for determining the compensation signs of the dead time, the dead time compensation amount is calculated from the inverter applying voltage VR and the compensation values are variable so that the magnitudes and directions of the compensation values are optimal depending on the magnitude of the current command values (id* and iq*) and the magnitude of the inverter applying voltage VR.
Next, the space vector modulation will be described. As shown in
That is, the space vector modulation has a function that controls the rotation of the motor by performing a following coordinate transformation based on the voltage command values vd** and vq** on the dq-phase space, the motor rotational angle θ and a sector number n (#1 to #6), and supplying switching patterns S1 to S6, which control turning-ON/turning-OFF of the FETs (the upper-arm Q1, Q3 and Q5, and the lower-arm Q2, Q4 and Q6) of the inverter with the bridge configuration and are corresponding to the sectors #1 to #6, to the motor. With respect to the coordinate transformation, in the space vector modulation, the voltage command values vd** and vq** are coordinate-transformed into the voltage vectors Vα and Vβ in the α-β coordinate system based on an Expression 3. A relationship between the coordinate axes (the phases) that are used in this coordinate transformation and the motor rotational angle θ are shown in
A relationship shown in an Expression 4 between a target voltage vector in the d-q coordinate system and a target voltage vector in the α-β coordinate system is existed. The absolute value of the target voltage vector V is conserved.
|V|=√{square root over ((vd**)2+(vq**)2)}=√{square root over (Vα2+Vβ2)} [Expression 4]
In the switching patterns of the space vector control, the output voltage of the inverter is defined by using eight discrete reference voltage vectors V0 to V7 (non-zero voltage vectors V1 to V6 that the phase differs every π/3 [rad] and zero voltage vectors V0 and V7) that are shown in the space vector diagram of
The space vector modulation generates the switching patterns S1 to S6 depending on the sector number that is obtained based on the target voltage vector V. In
In a case that the space vector modulation is not performed, the dead time compensation of the present invention is applied on the dq-phase, and the dead time compensation value waveform (the U-phase waveform) that the dq-phase to 3-phase conversion is performed to only the dead time compensation value is shown in a waveform represented by a dashed line of
In contrast,
In
Next, the second embodiment which compensate the dead time by adding (feed-forwarding) the dead time compensation values based on the estimated compensation signs to the 3-phase voltage command values will be described with reference to
In the second embodiment shown in
The characteristics and the operations of the inverter applying voltage-sensitive compensation-amount calculating section 210, the 3-phase current command value model 220, the phase current compensation sign estimating section 221, the phase adjusting section 230 and the temperature coefficient calculating section 280 are similar to those of the first embodiment. The effects of the second embodiment are shown in
In the above-described embodiments, the column type electric power steering apparatus is described. The present invention can similarly be applied to the downstream type electric power steering apparatus.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2018-013834 | Jan 2018 | JP | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/JP2019/001003 | 1/16/2019 | WO | 00 |