A controller for a motor system includes an input terminal to receive a signal indicating a speed of an electric motor and a regenerative brake current interpolator to indicate a brake current to be applied to the electric motor responsive to the speed of the electric motor. Values of the brake current vary with variation of the speed of the electric motor.

An electric powertrain includes a sensor-controller interface, an inverter-controller electrically connected to the battery pack, and an electric machine connected to the inverter-controller and having a rotor with an angular position. The rotor powers a driven load at a torque and/or speed level controlled by the inverter-controller in response to position signals indicative of the angular position. A rotary position sensor is operatively connected to the rotor to generate and output the position signals. The sensor derives the position signals from unmodulated sine and cosine signals, and communicates the position signals and a binary sensor state of health (SOH) to the inverter-controller over the interface. The inverter-controller also decodes the position signals and the binary sensor SOH to generate decoded control data, and controls the torque and/or speed level using the decoded control data.

An electric powertrain includes a sensor-controller interface, an inverter-controller electrically connected to the battery pack, and an electric machine connected to the inverter-controller and having a rotor with an angular position. The rotor powers a driven load at a torque and/or speed level controlled by the inverter-controller in response to position signals indicative of the angular position. A rotary position sensor is operatively connected to the rotor to generate and output the position signals. The sensor derives the position signals from unmodulated sine and cosine signals, and communicates the position signals and a binary sensor state of health (SOH) to the inverter-controller over the interface. The inverter-controller also decodes the position signals and the binary sensor SOH to generate decoded control data, and controls the torque and/or speed level using the decoded control data.

A method for operating a motor vehicle having at least one electric machine, which is electrically coupled across a pulse inverter to a DC distribution bus of a high-voltage onboard network of the motor vehicle, includes, by means of a compensation unit electrically coupled to the DC distribution bus, feeding an electric compensation voltage to the DC distribution bus such that ripple of the electric DC voltage present in the DC distribution bus which is caused by the pulse inverter is at least partly compensated.

A control device 60 includes: a PWM generation unit 63 that outputs a PWM drive signal to an inverter 40; and a torque limiting unit that outputs a post-limitation torque command to the PWM generation unit 63 based on a torque command from a higher-order control unit and a motor temperature. The torque limiting unit includes: a torque limiting factor calculation unit 61 that calculates a torque limiting factor based on the motor temperature; and a post-limitation torque calculation unit 62 that outputs the post-limitation torque command to the PWM generation unit 63 based on the torque command and the torque limiting factor. The torque limiting factor calculation unit 61 limits an output torque based on the motor temperature in a case where the motor temperature is higher than a predetermined temperature, and limits a torque to make the torque change more gently in a case where a rate of change over time in the motor temperature is larger than a predetermined value as compared with a case where the rate of change over time is equal to or smaller than the predetermined value.

A control device 60 includes: a PWM generation unit 63 that outputs a PWM drive signal to an inverter 40; and a torque limiting unit that outputs a post-limitation torque command to the PWM generation unit 63 based on a torque command from a higher-order control unit and a motor temperature. The torque limiting unit includes: a torque limiting factor calculation unit 61 that calculates a torque limiting factor based on the motor temperature; and a post-limitation torque calculation unit 62 that outputs the post-limitation torque command to the PWM generation unit 63 based on the torque command and the torque limiting factor. The torque limiting factor calculation unit 61 limits an output torque based on the motor temperature in a case where the motor temperature is higher than a predetermined temperature, and limits a torque to make the torque change more gently in a case where a rate of change over time in the motor temperature is larger than a predetermined value as compared with a case where the rate of change over time is equal to or smaller than the predetermined value.

The present invention addresses the problem of properly performing motor control during overmodulation. In a motor control device 1, a carrier wave frequency adjusting unit 16 adjusts a carrier wave frequency fc so as to change a voltage phase error Δθv representing the phase difference between three-phase voltage commands Vu*, Vv*, Vw* and a triangular wave signal Tr. When a modulation factor H in accordance with the voltage amplitude ratio between the DC power supplied from a high voltage battery to an inverter and AC power output from the inverter to a motor exceeds a predetermined value, for example, 1.15, a current control unit 14 corrects the amplitudes and phases of a d-axis voltage command Vd* and a q-axis voltage command Vq* on the basis of a carrier wave phase difference Δθcarr representing the phase of the triangular wave signal Tr.

An electric powered vehicle includes: a motor; an inverter configured to convert electric power from a battery to drive the motor; a transmission configured to shift the rotation output of the motor at a variable transmission gear ratio; and a controller configured to control the inverter to control the driving of the motor and to control a change in the shift gear stage, and to perform high surge region avoidance control for changing the gear ratio of the transmission to change a motor rotation speed while maintaining a vehicle speed and changing an operation point outside a high surge region, when the operation point of the motor enters the high surge region where the inverter is controlled by a PWM overmodulation control system, and the high surge region is defined to be equal to or higher than a predetermined rotation speed and equal to or less than predetermined torque.

A method for operating switching elements of an inverter of a vehicle that is driven by way of a three-phase synchronous machine. The inverter has a series circuit of switching elements for the phases. When the vehicle brakes, the synchronous machine is used to set a cycle rate for the operation of the switching elements depending on a frequency of AC phase currents of the synchronous machine. The electrical energy provided by the synchronous machine is fed to a DC voltage intermediate circuit. The cycle rate is set according to the frequency of the AC phase currents, such that it corresponds to the frequency of the respective AC phase currents of the synchronous machine. Zero points of the AC phase currents are determined, and the switching elements are operated to set a predefined phase difference between the respective AC phase current and a respectively associated AC phase voltage.

A software-defined powertrain transmits commands to at least 4 distributed polyphase motor controllers. A single vehicle control unit transforms operator control indicia into a plurality of individual commands, and securely transmits said commands to each one of a plurality of independent motor controllers mechanically coupled to a single wheel by a polyphase electric motor. The motor controllers are DC to variable AC electrical converters which each receives phase and magnitude requirements. A mixed criticality operating system provides an encrypted application-programming interface to operate functions such as torque vectoring, cooling, braking, and battery management. The OS provides an isolated trust zone to each of a plurality of cores for authentication and validation.