An apparatus for controlling operation of a walk-behind electric lawn mower equipped with an electric motor, a blade cutter connected to the electric motor and a rechargeable battery mounted connected to the electric motor and a motor driver circuit. In the apparatus, when an instruction to stop the electric motor is inputted, the operation of the motor driver circuit is controlled to output regenerative electric current from three-phase coils of the electric motor. At that time, it is determined whether a rotational speed of the electric motor is equal to or less than a switching rotational speed and when it is, the motor driver circuit is controlled to switch from the regenerative braking to short-circuit braking that short-circuits the three-phase coils of the electric motor.

A fuel cell system includes a drive motor, a fuel cell, an auxiliary machine, a secondary battery, a temperature sensor, a current sensor, and a control section. The control section controls the secondary battery for discharging by driving the drive motor or the auxiliary machine and for charging through power generation by the fuel cell or regeneration by the drive motor when a temperature measured by the temperature sensor is lower than a specified value.

A modular boost converter includes a fuel cell, a modular boost converter, a battery, a motor, and a capacitor. The modular boost converter includes a plurality of modules. Each of the plurality of modules include a boost system. Only one converter is necessary to utilize each of the fuel cell and the capacitor. The single converter can have a capacity to convert power greater than the energy of the fuel cell, but the total output power of the converter is less than the total energy provided by the fuel cell and the capacitor combined. The modular boost converter utilizes internal module switching to selectively draw energy from at least one of the fuel cell and the capacitor.

Aircraft power and propulsion systems and methods of operating the systems, one method includes: operating electric machines of gas turbine engines as generators to extract mechanical power from spools and generating electrical power therefrom; meeting an electrical power demand of a plurality of electrical loads connected with an electrical system by supplying the plurality of electrical loads with electrical power generated by the electric machines; determining when there is an electrical system and/or the gas turbine engine fault and an amount of electrical power generated by the power and propulsion system is reduced to a lower level; and responsive to the determination: during a time period ΔT, controlling the plurality of electrical loads reducing the electrical power demand; and during the time period ΔT, meeting at least part of the electrical power demand of the plurality of electrical loads by discharging the electrical energy storage system.

The invention relates to a vehicle comprising an internal combustion engine and a vehicle electrical system, which comprises a battery, a current distributor, a starter, a generator, and electrical loads, in such a way that the vehicle comprises a first supply line, the first supply line connects the current distributor to a starter terminal or to the starter, the vehicle comprises a second supply line, the second supply line connects the current distributor to a support point, and the electrical loads and the generator are electrically connected to the support point.

A vehicular starter battery management system includes a detection unit, a processing unit, a control unit, a discharging circuit and a communication unit. The detection unit, the control unit, and the communication unit are coupled respectively with the processing unit. The discharging circuit is coupled with the control unit. The detection unit includes a static detection circuit and a dynamic detection circuit. The static detection circuit includes a micro current detection circuit, an anti-theft detection circuit and a static voltage detection circuit. The dynamic detection circuit includes a dynamic voltage detection circuit, a dynamic current detection circuit and a temperature detection circuit. The processing unit transmits a signal to the control unit and the communication unit based upon the current intensity, the voltage, the temperature and the time at which the battery management system enters into the static mode, detected by the detection unit, thereby operating the control unit to protect the vehicular starter battery. The processing unit uses the communication unit to transmit a signal to and receive a signal from a hand-held communication device equipped with an application.

Provided is a work machine capable of improving workability. The work machine is provided with: a motor 14; a first power supply unit 180 connected to a battery pack 5 and supplying a boosted power to the motor 14; and a second power supply unit 130 connected to an external AC power supply and supplying a boosted power to the motor 14. The voltage and current of the first power supply unit 180 and the voltage and current of the second power supply unit 130 can be variably controlled by a control circuit 182 and a control circuit 136, respectively. The control circuits 136, 182 perform control so that the power output from the respective first power supply unit 180 and the second power supply unit 130 is combined and supplied to the motor 14.

In a power control device, when the necessary power is greater than an upper limit value and either the integral power value or the duration time of an assist provided by an electric storage device during a continuous assist by the electric storage device exceeds a predetermined first threshold value, a controller performs a first control of reducing an assist power by the electric storage device to a value smaller than an assist power for the regular control and greater than zero. Further, when the necessary power is greater than the upper limit value and either the integral power value or the duration time exceeds a predetermined second threshold value greater than the first threshold value, the controller performs a second control of setting the assist power to zero.

On a start of a fuel cell system, (i) when the temperature of a high-voltage secondary battery obtained from a temperature sensor is higher than a predetermined reference value, a controller of the fuel cell system is configured to set an output voltage on a step-down side of a DC-DC converter to a higher voltage than a voltage of a low-voltage secondary battery and subsequently start an FC auxiliary machine using electric power from the high-voltage secondary battery. (ii) When the temperature of the high-voltage secondary battery obtained from the temperature sensor is equal to or lower than the predetermined reference value, on the other hand, the controller of the fuel cell system is configured to set the output voltage on the step-down side of the DC-DC converter to a lower voltage than the voltage of the low-voltage secondary battery and subsequently start the FC auxiliary machine using the electric power from the high-voltage secondary battery.

A method manages energy of a hybrid vehicle. The vehicle includes a heat engine, one or more electric traction motors, a high-voltage traction battery, a low-voltage on-board battery for accessories of the vehicle, a current inverter to transform direct currents into alternating currents for the electric motor, and a reversible current transformer to convert high-voltage current into low-voltage current of the on-board battery and to use a stock of energy available in the low-voltage battery to not draw energy from the high-voltage battery when it has a relatively low level of charge. The method includes determining an operating point of the vehicle involving a minimum fuel consumption in the heat engine by imposing on the electric motor a torque that minimizes a criterion of total fuel consumption by the consumption of the heat engine, power consumed in the traction battery, and power consumed in the on-board battery.