Patent Application
20090255740
An extremely large percentage of the world's vehicles run on gasoline using an internal combustion engine. The use of such vehicles, more specifically the use of vehicles which rely on fossil fuels, i.e., gasoline, creates two problems. First, due to the finite size and limited regional availability of such fuels, major price fluctuations and a generally upward pricing trend in the cost of gasoline are common, both of which can have a dramatic impact at the consumer level. Second, fossil fuel combustion is one of the primary sources of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, and thus one of the leading contributors to global warming. Accordingly, considerable effort has been spent on finding alternative drive systems for use in both personal and commercial vehicles. Electric vehicles offer one of the most promising alternatives to vehicles that use internal combustion drive trains.
One of the principal issues involved in designing a comfortable and efficient electric drive for a vehicle lies in the control of the motor. Motor control has generally evolved from industrial, on-grid applications where power efficiency and constantly variable speed and torque commands are less prevalent. In on-grid and off-grid applications, it may be beneficial to be able to get additional torque above the base speed of a motor.
Embodiments of inventive subject matter may be best understood by referring to the following description and accompanying drawings, which illustrate such embodiments. In the drawings:
In the following description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration specific embodiments which may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that structural, logical and electrical changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. The following description of example embodiments is, therefore, not to be taken in a limited sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims.
The vehicle propulsion battery 104 can include a lithium ion battery in various examples. In some embodiments, the vehicle propulsion battery 104 includes a plurality of lithium ion batteries coupled in parallel and/or in series. Some examples include cylindrical lithium ion batteries. In some examples, the ESS includes one or more batteries compatible with the 18650 battery standard, but the present subject matter is not so limited. The vehicle propulsion battery 104, in some examples, provides approximately 390 volts.
Additionally illustrated is a controller 108. The controller 108 may be part of a larger system which is used to convert energy from the vehicle propulsion battery 104 into voltage signals to drive the at least one propulsion motor 106. The controller 108 may include an energy converter according to some embodiments. Additionally, the controller 108 may be separate from an energy converter. The controller 108 controls the operation of the motor 106. Commands for torque or speed for example may come from a driver or another source and can be translated by the controller 108 to derive output at the motor 106. One or more algorithms which may include estimates and measurements may be used by the controller 108 in order to provide appropriate voltages to the motor 106 for output. Operating estimates and measurements may vary with time, motor speed, vehicle speed, battery voltage, system resistance and other factors. Changes in these and other factors can influence the algorithms and equations used to derive commands for the motor 106 in the controller 108.
According to various embodiments, the controller 108 includes control modules 120 which may operate to provide voltage commands to be used in controlling motor operation. The voltage commands may be generated by the control modules 120 in order to cause the motor 106 to produce a particular torque output. Sometimes the voltage command requested and the actual voltage given to the motor may differ. Rather than directly measuring the actual voltage given to the motor, a voltage estimator 122 may be used to estimate that voltage value. The estimated voltage determined by the voltage estimator 122 may then be used by a flux estimator 124 to estimate the flux through the motor 106. This flux estimate may then be used by the control modules 120 to determine an appropriate voltage command to allow the motor 106 to generate a desired amount of torque.
In some examples, the controller 108 and the control modules 120, voltage estimator 122 and flux estimator 124 include transistors. Some examples include one or more field effect transistors. Some examples include metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors. Some examples include one or more insulated gate bipolar transistors. As such, in various examples, the controller 108 may include a switch bank or inverter which is configured to receive a direct current (“DC”) power signal from the vehicle propulsion battery 104 and to output a three-phase alternating current (“AC”) signal to power the vehicle propulsion motor 106.
The propulsion motor 106 is a three phase AC propulsion motor, in various examples. Some examples include a plurality of such motors. Other motor types are also contemplated, including brushless direct current (BLDC) motors. The present subject matter can optionally include a transmission 110 in some examples. While some examples include a 2-speed transmission, other examples are contemplated. Manually clutched transmissions are contemplated, as are those with hydraulic, electric, or electrohydraulic clutch actuation. Some examples employ a dual-clutch system that, during shifting, phases from one clutch coupled to a first gear to another clutch coupled to a second gear. Rotary motion is transmitted from the transmission 110 to wheels 112 via one or more axles 114, in various examples.
A power connector 118 may be provided to transmit energy with the vehicle propulsion battery 104, in various examples. In some examples, the power connector 118 converts power from a 110V AC power source into power storable by the vehicle propulsion battery 104. In additional examples, the power connector 118 converts power from a 220V AC power source into power storable by the vehicle propulsion battery 104. The present subject matter is not limited to examples in which a converter for converting energy from an external source to energy usable by the vehicle 102 is located outside the vehicle 102, and other examples are contemplated.
The control unit 206 generates a command signal for the purpose of controlling a motor. The command signal may be for example a voltage command (Vs*). The voltage command may be determined based on a number of factors including a requested torque value, motor speed, current through the motor, flux linkage (“flux”) within the motor, and others. In order to apply the voltage command, the modulation unit 202 may modulate the voltage command. The modulation unit 202 may take the voltage command as an input, and apply necessary modulation and/or conversion to generate an output voltage (Vs). In some embodiments, the output voltage may be a voltage signal or signals applied to phases of a motor, and in other embodiments, the output voltage may be the actual voltage or voltages across phases of the motor. The output voltage can be a useful value for the control unit 206 to know in order to determine subsequent voltage commands. Rather than measuring the output voltage directly, the estimator 204 may estimate the output voltage based on the value of the voltage command according to an embodiment. According to other embodiments, the estimator 204 may estimate the output voltage based on control signals or other voltages generated by the modulation unit 202.
According to various embodiments, the estimator 204 may use the estimated output voltage to estimate a flux value. The estimator 204 may then send the estimated flux value to the control unit 206 to be used in generating a new voltage command. In some embodiments, the estimator 204 and the modulation unit 202 may be integrated within the control unit 206.
According to some embodiments, the output voltage may not be of similar magnitude as the voltage command. In some instances, the voltage command may be above a threshold and the modulation unit 202 may overmodulate or clip the voltage command to create the output voltage at or below a threshold. The estimator 204 estimates the output voltage based on the overmodulated or clipped voltage command. In some embodiments, the estimator 202 may be aware of the threshold voltage at which clipping may occur and also the amount or type of clipping that is performed by the modulation unit 202. The estimator 204 is able to create a feedback loop to the control unit 206 through an estimation process rather than direct measurement.
Similar to the control unit 202 described above with reference to
For more accurate, efficient and stable operation of the system 300, a feedback loop may be utilized to determine various attributes of the operation of the motor 310. The phase voltages, as well as the flux through the motor are values which can impact the voltage command generated by the control modules 302. In order to accurately respond to a torque request, a determination of the flux through the motor 310 may be used. The flux value may be estimated if phase voltages are known. Sometimes phase voltages are difficult to measure. The voltage estimator 312 may take the control signals from the modulation unit 304 as an input and determine estimated phase voltages. The control signals may first need to be converted from 3-phase to 2-phase by the 3-phase to 2-phase converter 316. According to various embodiments, the 3-phase to 2-phase converter 316 may be a Clarke transform (also known as a Clark transform). The voltage estimator 312 may estimate phase voltages by multiplying the control signals (duty cycles) by the voltage on the battery bus (Vbus) from the battery 306. The phase voltage estimation by the voltage estimator may take into account dead-time compensation, IR drop across phase windings, diode or p-n junction voltage drops, and other factors which may affect the actual voltage across phase windings. In some embodiments, an estimated phase voltage may represent a line to neutral voltage.
The estimated phase voltages may be used by the flux estimator 314 to estimate the flux through the motor 310. The flux estimator 314 may then send the estimated flux value to the control modules 302 to be used to generate subsequent voltage commands. In an example embodiment, the flux estimator 314 may estimate a flux value with a stator flux estimate using the phase voltage estimation. As mentioned above, the phase voltage estimation may be based on a dead-time compensated phase voltage command minus a voltage drop for the stator winding in that particular phase. The determined phase voltage Vs may be used to calculate the flux in the stator by λ=∫Vs*dt. Other examples of voltage based flux estimate calculation are also considered.
At times, the voltage command will be high enough that resulting phase voltages would peak at or above the voltage on the battery bus (Vbus) provided by the battery 306. In some embodiments, this occurs when the voltage command represents a commanded line-to-line voltage which would result in a peak line-to-line voltage of the fundamental harmonic of the desired electrical frequency for the motor 310 above Vbus. In order to compensate, the modulation unit 304 may overmodulate the voltage command to produce a limited voltage represented by control signals da, db, and dc. Using SVM, according to some embodiments, overmodulation may allow additional bus utilization, although a non-sinusoidal phase winding operation may result. This overmodulation may allow for the production of additional torque above base speed. With reference to
With reference again to
According to some embodiments, phase currents and resistance may be taken into consideration by the voltage estimator 312 or the flux estimator 314. After estimating a phase voltage to be applied to the motor 310, the voltage estimator 312 may use a phase current I measurement multiplied by a phase winding resistance R to determine a voltage drop IR in the phase winding. This voltage drop may be subtracted from the estimated phase voltage by the voltage estimator 312 before communicating with the flux estimator 314. According to other embodiments, the flux estimator 314 may receive a phase voltage estimate and may perform the IR phase winding voltage drop subtraction itself.
There are a number of characteristics that may be useful in generating a new voltage command to control the operation of the motor. Characteristics such as the flux through the motor, the voltages applied to each phase, the current through the motor, motor speed, and others are used in various calculations that may determine voltage command values necessary to produce desired amounts of torque. Being able to obtain the above mentioned characteristic data may help assure accurate, predictable and stable operation of the motor. Once a voltage command is received, modulated, and converted to an AC signal, the final voltage applied to each phase of the motor may be useful in estimating the flux across the motor. The estimated flux value may be used in calculating a voltage command to correspond to a particular torque request or command.
The Abstract is provided to comply with 37 C.F.R. §1.72(b) to allow the reader to quickly ascertain the nature and gist of the technical disclosure. The Abstract is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.
