1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to the field of dynamic brakes for electric motors, and, more particularly, to an electronic braking circuit system and method for providing an electromotive braking force for an electric motor having no permanent magnets, for example, in an emergency situation such as a motion controller failure, or actuation of a limit switch by a driven member of a linear motor.
2. Related Art
Braking of electric motors having permanent magnets typically is accomplished by shorting the motor coils, for example, through a resistor thereby applying a large load to the electromotive force generated in the motor's coils in the presence of permanent magnets. Of course, such a solution is not possible with motors having no permanent magnets. For example, according to U.S. Pat. No. 3,832,613, a permanent magnet motor is simply controlled by a dynamic brake 162 which takes advantage of the generator action of the motor to create a reverse torque for braking. Dynamic brakes for DC motors are also described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,786,329 and 4,767,970.
A method and system for braking an electric motor having no permanent magnets is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,828,195. However, the braking system according to this patent incorporates position tracking sensors, which, inter alia, significantly increases the cost of the system. In addition, for braking a linear motor the sensors have to be mounted on the moving member, which requires special fixtures and expensive flex cables. The accuracy of the location of the sensor in relation to the specific motor parts is very critical, because a small displacement from the optimum position can significantly affect the braking performance or even cause acceleration of the motor.
It can be seen from above, that there exists in the art a requirement for a system and method, of braking without using any position tracking devices, for braking an electric motor having no permanent magnets.
Thus, it is one object of the present invention to provide a sensorless braking system for utilization in braking electric motors having no permanent magnets.
The problems and failures of the prior art are solved by the principles of the present invention, an electronic sensorless braking system which applies pulsed current to at least one phase coil of the motor for reversing and thereby braking motor movement (in the case of a linear motor) or rotation (in the case of a rotational motor).
In a first general aspect, the present invention provides a system for braking either a linear or rotary electric motor having no permanent magnets and having either a stator or a rotor with equally spaced teeth comprising:
Although certain embodiments of the present invention will be shown and described in detail, it should be understood that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the appended claims. The scope of the present invention will in no way be limited to the number of constituting components, the materials thereof, the shapes thereof, the relative arrangement thereof, etc., and are disclosed simply as an example of an embodiment. The features and advantages of the present invention are illustrated in detail in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout the drawings.
As a preface to the detailed description, it should be noted that, as used in this specification and the appended claims, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” include plural referents, unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.
The present invention is directed to the braking of an electric motor without permanent magnets in an emergency through the generation of an electromotive force opposite to the direction of motor motion. This braking is employed in the event motor motion must be rapidly ceased as a result of an emergency. Examples include but are not limited to motion controller system failure, limit switch actuation, line power failure, or any other emergency event which should trigger the braking force.
The present invention will be described in the context of an uncoupled variable reluctance linear motor used for moving a member from one end of a linear track to another. As used herein, the term uncoupled describes the arrangement where each phase of the motor produces magnetic flux that is for practical purposes not coupled to other phases. Such linear motors are typically utilized in robotic systems, for example, pick and place systems, in which a first linear motor moves a beam mounted to a sliding device along one axis and a second linear motor moves a carriage along the beam on an orthogonal axis so as to provide Cartesian movement of robotics end effector mounted on the carriage over a desired work area. The present invention is not limited to this use. It may also be used to brake many electric motor types, which have no permanent magnets. The present invention also is adaptable to rotary motors.
The first number of each element in a given figure represents the figure number where said element first appears. For a given element, the same element number is used in subsequent figures in which said element appears.
With regards to
Referring now to
When the current error signal 122 becomes greater than zero, the current command 116 changes from a higher value 414 to a lower value 416. In response to this the phase current in the motor coil starts to decrease. During the current fall time 412, current error signal 122 is negative. One may wait at least as long as the fall time 412 before responding to the change of current error signal in order to avoid continuous oscillation of the current command 116. The current error signal returns to above zero when the current in the phase coil reaches its lower value.
The above description provides a basic description of the operation of the braking system. Numerous variations are appropriate to achieve variations in performance, reliability, size, ease of manufacturing, cost, and other design features. Moreover, with experimentation, different versions may better suit other specific applications. Other embodiments and applications of the present invention may come to mind by reading the above description of the present invention. Moreover, the scope of the present invention should only be deemed to be limited by the claims that follow.