METHOD FOR DETERMINING AN ANGULAR POSITION OF A ROTATING COMPONENT, IN PARTICULAR OF AN ELECTRIC MOTOR FOR A CLUTCH ACTUATION SYSTEM OF A VEHICLE

Abstract

A method for determining an angular position of a rotating component is disclosed. A sensor system is positioned at a radial distance from an axis of rotation of the rotating component. A magnetic ring is arranged fixedly and concentrically on the rotating component, generating a magnetic field that changes with respect to the sensor system. The sensor system detects the magnetic field in which a signal is captured and evaluated with respect to the angular position. Errors in the measurement of the angular position can be corrected. The signal captured by the sensor system is evaluated with respect to the amplitude information of the magnetic field. A correction parameter is determined from the amplitude information, and an angle error is of the angular position is determined based on the correction parameter. The angle error is used to correct the angular position.

Claims

1. A method for determining an angular position of a rotating component for a clutch actuation system of a vehicle, in which the angular position of the rotating component is obtained from a sensor arrangement that is radially spaced apart from a rotation axis of the rotating component, wherein a magnetic ring that is fixed to and concentrically disposed on the rotating component builds up a magnetic field changing in relation to the sensor arrangement that is detected by the sensor arrangement, wherein a signal obtained from the sensor arrangement is evaluated with respect to the angular position, wherein the signal obtained from the sensor arrangement is evaluated with respect to amplitude information of the magnetic field, wherein a correction parameter is determined from the amplitude information, by which an angular error of the angular position obtained from the signal of the sensor arrangement is determined, wherein the angular error is used to correct the angular position determined from the signal obtained from the sensor arrangement.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein for the determination of the correction parameter from the amplitude information an amplitude of a tangential magnetic field direction and an amplitude of a radial magnetic field direction of a magnetic flux are determined, which give the correction parameter when set in relation to each other.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the correction parameter is determined after assembly of the sensor arrangement.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the correction parameter is a constant.

5. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the correction parameter is adapted during a process of measuring the angular position of the rotating component, wherein the correction parameter that is determined after assembly is used as an initial correction parameter at a start of the measurement process.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein evaluation electronics contained in the sensor arrangement are used for evaluation of the signal obtained from the sensor arrangement with respect to the amplitudes of the magnetic field and the angular position of the rotating component.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the angular position of the rotating component output by the evaluation electronics is sampled at high frequency.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the amplitude of the magnetic field output by the evaluation electronics is sampled at low frequency.

9. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the amplitude of the magnetic field is sampled at least twice per revolution of the rotating component.

10. A method for determining an angular position of electric motor for a clutch actuation system of a vehicle, the method comprising: providing a sensor arrangement radially spaced apart from a rotation axis of a rotating component; obtaining a signal from the sensor arrangement; evaluating the signal obtained from the sensor arrangement with respect to amplitude information of a magnetic field generated by an interaction between the rotating component and a magnet, wherein the amplitude information includes an amplitude of a tangential magnetic field direction and an amplitude of a radial magnetic field direction of a magnetic flux; determining a correction parameter based on a comparison of an amplitude of the tangential magnetic field direction and the amplitude of a radial magnetic field direction of the magnetic flux; determining an angular error of the angular position obtained from the signal of the sensor arrangement based on the correction parameter, and correcting the angular position determined from the signal output by the sensor arrangement based on the determined angular error.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of determining the correction parameter is performed after assembly of the sensor arrangement.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the correction parameter is a constant.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the correction parameter is determined after assembly of the sensor arrangement and is used as an initial correction parameter at a beginning of the measurement process.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the amplitude of the magnetic field is sampled at least twice per revolution of the rotating component.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0021] Various embodiments are described in more detail on the basis of the figures shown in the drawing.

[0022] In the figures:

[0023] FIG. 1 shows an actuator with a sensor arrangement in a sectional side view,

[0024] FIG. 2 shows a basic representation of a sensor arrangement containing an evaluation device,

[0025] FIG. 3 shows a basic representation of a processing signal within the sensor arrangement,

[0026] FIG. 4 shows a basic representation of the magnetic directions of a magnetic flux of the magnetic field caused by the magnetic ring on the basis of a Lissajous figure,

[0027] FIG. 5 shows an exemplary embodiment of the method,

[0028] FIG. 6 shows a representation of the angular error as a function of the signal output by the sensor arrangement.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0029] In FIG. 1 an exemplary embodiment of an actuator 1 with a sensor arrangement is shown in a side view, in which the actuator 1 comprises an electric motor comprising a rotor 2 and a fixed stator 3 enclosing the rotor 2. A magnetic ring 4 with diametric magnetization is disposed on the end face of the rotor 2. The sensor arrangement 6 in the form of a measuring and evaluation unit is positioned on a board 5, wherein said sensor arrangement 6 is radially spaced apart from the axis of rotation 7 of the electric motor 2, 3.

[0030] The sensor arrangement 6 is reproduced in FIG. 2 in a basic representation. A number of Hall sensors 8 that are positioned circularly disposed about a central axis capture the magnetic field of the magnetic ring 4. The Hall sensors 8 output a sinusoidal output signal, as shown in FIG. 3. In FIG. 3 the magnetic field of the magnetic ring 4 is shown against the angle of the rotating magnetic field. Each point 10 of the sinusoidal signal reflects the information of each of the Hall sensors 8. Said Hall sensors 8 thus form a single-turn sensor for a measuring range of 360 degrees of angle.

[0031] In one measurement, all values output by the Hall sensors 8 are recorded simultaneously and the sinusoidal signal shown in FIG. 3 is calculated. Then the direction of the magnetic field generated by the magnetic ring 4 is determined based on the null transition 9. The amplitude of the output signal of the sensor arrangement 6 corresponds to the magnitude of the magnetic field in this case. The magnetic field of the magnetic ring 4 has a magnetic flux B, which can be represented at any position in the magnetic field by a vector. This vector has a tangential magnetic field direction B.sub.Y, a radial magnetic field direction B.sub.X and a normal magnetic field direction B.sub.Z. The tangential magnetic field direction B.sub.Y is aligned parallel to the x-y plane and runs parallel to an orientation of the poles of the magnetic ring 4. The radial magnetic field direction B.sub.X is formed parallel to the x-y plane and runs transversely to the orientation of the magnetic poles. The normal magnetic field direction B.sub.Z, which will not be considered further, runs transversely to the tangential and radial magnetic field directions.

[0032] The tangential and radial magnetic field directions are shown using a Lissajous figure in FIG. 4. The circle A represents the radial magnetic field direction and the ellipse B represents the tangential magnetic field direction during a rotation of the magnetic ring 4. The circle A represents the desired ideal form. The circle A has a major axis a, while the ellipse B has a major axis b. In addition, in FIG. 4 the actual angular position θ obtained from the signal of the sensor arrangement 6 and an expected angle position φ are reproduced. The actual angular position θ obtained from the signal of the sensor arrangement 6 deviates from the expected angular position φ by the angular error γ.

[0033] An exemplary method is shown in FIG. 5. In block 100, a correction parameter β is determined taking into account the long major axis b of the ellipse B and the short major axis a of the ellipse A of the magnetic flux determined from the tangential and radial magnetic field directions.

β=b/a.  (1)

[0034] In block 200, the correction parameter β determined in this way is used to determine the angular error γ.

[00001]$\begin{array}{cc}Y=\arctan \left[\frac{\left(\beta -1\right).Math.\tan \left(\theta \right)}{\beta +{\tan }^2\left(\theta \right)}\right]& \left(2\right)\end{array}$

[0035] From the actual measured angular position θ and the angular error γ, the actual angular position φ of the rotor 2 of the electric motor is then determined.

γ=θ−φ.fwdarw.φ=θ−γ  (3)

[0036] The change of the angular error γ as a function of the correction parameter β and the currently determined angular position φ are shown in FIG. 6.

[0037] The angular error γ is highly dependent on the correction factor β. For a static application, β is a constant. This constant is learned, for example, at the end of actuator production. For dynamic applications, however, β is variable since a tolerance range must be found.

[0038] While the angular positions are monitored at high frequency, the long and short major axes a, b are read out with a much slower sampling frequency. Monitoring twice per revolution of the electric motor is sufficient here. As a result, the correction parameter β is adjusted multiple times during a rotation.

[0039] The proposed solution allows reliable determination of the actual angular position of the rotor 2 of the electric motor using the elliptical nonlinearity correction method in which a circle is produced from the ellipse in a Lissajous figure representation.

REFERENCE CHARACTER LIST

[0040] 1 Actuator [0041] 2 Rotor [0042] 3 Stator [0043] 4 Magnetic ring [0044] 5 Board [0045] 6 Sensor arrangement [0046] 7 Rotation axis [0047] 8 Hall sensor [0048] 9 Null transition [0049] 10 Point on sinusoidal output signal