A switched reluctance motor for an electric vehicle. The switched reluctance motor includes an inverter with switchable windings to control the inductance of the motor. The motor also includes a high speed and low speed mode corresponding to the inductance of the motor. The inverter may include parallel switches, selectively running current to the windings in order to control the inductance.

The present disclosure is directed to an electric generator and motor transmission system that is capable of operating with high energy, wide operating range and extremely variable torque and RPM conditions. In accordance with various embodiments, the disclosed system is operable to: dynamically change the output size of the motor/generator by modularly engaging and disengaging rotor/stator sets as power demands increase or decrease; activate one stator or another within the rotor/stator sets as torque/RPM or amperage/voltage requirements change; and/or change from parallel to series winding configurations or the reverse through sets of 2, 4, 6 or more parallel, three-phase, non-twisted coil windings with switchable separated center tap to efficiently meet torque/RPM or amperage/voltage requirements.

A motor/generator/transmission system includes: an axle; a stator ring having a plurality of stator coils disposed around the periphery of the stator ring, wherein each phase of the plurality of stator coils includes a respective set of multiple parallel non-twisted wires separated at the center tap with electronic switches for connecting the parallel non-twisted wires of each phase of the stator coils all in series, all in parallel, or in a combination of series and parallel; a rotor support structure coupled to the axle; a first rotor ring and a second rotor ring each having an axis of rotation coincident with the axis of rotation of the axle, at least one of the first rotor ring or the second rotor ring being slidably coupled to the rotor support structure and configured to translate along the rotor support structure in a first axial direction or in a second axial direction.

Methods and systems are provided for operating an electric motor including multiple rotor and stator sections. In one example, a system may include the multiple rotor sections configured to be mechanically coupled and decoupled from each other concurrently with multiple stator sections configured to be electrically coupled and decoupled from each other, within certain regimes of operation of the electric motor.

An electric motor drive device includes: a wire connection switching unit; an inverter; a control device controlling the wire connection switching unit and the inverter; and an overcurrent protection circuit preventing current exceeding a predetermined value from continuously flowing through the electric motor. The overcurrent protection circuit includes: determination circuits each correlated one-to-one with any one of possible wire connection states of a stator winding and determining whether current flowing through the inverter is abnormal; a combining circuit combining determination results; and an invalidation circuit invalidating a determination process by one or more of the determination circuits, and causing the combining circuit to output a determination result by the determination circuit correlated with a selected wire connection state of the stator winding. When the determination result output from the combining circuit indicates an abnormal value of the current flowing through the inverter, the control device stops the inverter.

A multiple-phase electric machine provided with multiple inverter power circuits is described herein. The present multiple-phase electric machine aim at performing configuration changes while reducing the loss of torque when machines are switched between configurations. This is done by forming groups of phases defining machine portions that are powered by a separate inverter power circuit and by switching the machine portions separately with controlled switching devices.

A method includes adjusting currents of a plurality of windings of a motor through a plurality of power converters coupled to the plurality of windings so that the number of poles and the number of phases of the motor are dynamically adjustable, and injecting a plurality of high-order harmonic currents into the plurality of windings of the motor through controlling the plurality of power converters to improve a performance index of the motor.

An apparatus for driving a motor for an eco-friendly vehicle is provided. The apparatus includes a motor that has a rotor and a stator and a controller that operates the motor. The motor includes a plurality of stator coils and stator relays and the controller operates the stator relays based on an operation mode to adjust the number of turns of the stator coils.

This application generally relates to electric machines with coils or windings (e.g., generators and motors), and more particularly to systems, apparatus, and methods that configure coils or windings of electric machines, for instance dynamically in response to operational condition and under load.

Method for controlling the speed of rotation of an electric motor by means of a variable speed drive supplied with power by a mains electrical power supply, in which method in a variable speed mode of operation the motor is supplied with power by the variable speed drive and in a fixed speed mode of operation the motor is supplied with power directly by the mains supply, and in which method before the changeover from the supply of power by the variable speed drive to the direct supply of power by the mains supply, the motor is first accelerated by the variable speed drive, the variable speed drive operating beyond its nominal current during the acceleration preceding the changeover.