Patents Examined by Cortez Cook
  • Patent number: 9621095
    Abstract: An amplitude control unit (40) detects the amplitude of a movable element (12) that reciprocates relative to a stator (11), detects fluctuations in a load over time according to detected fluctuations over time in the amplitude, and detects an abnormality on the basis of the detected fluctuations over time in the load. The amplitude control unit (40) outputs the detected amplitudes to a control output unit (50). The control output unit (50) controls a drive current (Id) for reciprocating the movable element (12) on the basis of the amplitude information supplied from the amplitude control unit (40).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 19, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2017
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yasuo Ibuki, Takafumi Ohba, Kazunori Watanabe
  • Patent number: 9602039
    Abstract: A PWM rectifier includes a main circuit unit which performs a power conversion on the basis of a PWM control signal, a DC voltage loop control unit which generates a current command, a current command restriction unit which sets, when an absolute value of the current command exceeds a limit value, the limit value as a final current command, and otherwise sets the current command as the final current command, a DC voltage loop saturation determination unit which determines a saturation state when the final current command is set to the limit value and otherwise determines as a non-saturation state, a DC voltage command calculation unit which changes the DC voltage command into a value obtained by adding an offset to a minimum or maximum value of the DC voltage value, and a PWM control signal generation unit which generates the PWM control signal from the final current command.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 10, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2017
    Assignee: Fanuc Corporation
    Inventors: Masakazu Niwa, Kenta Yamamoto
  • Patent number: 9593689
    Abstract: The present invention is to provide a fan control circuit, which includes a filter circuit for converting a pulse-width modulation (PWM) voltage signal into a DC voltage signal; an amplifier circuit having an input end for receiving the DC voltage signal and a static voltage signal and generating an amplified voltage signal at an output end thereof; a current expansion circuit configured to perform current expansion on the amplified voltage signal and thereby generate a driving voltage signal for a fan; and a feedback circuit connected between another input end of the amplifier circuit and an output end of the current expansion circuit so that magnitude of the driving voltage signal is in direct proportion to the duty cycle of the PWM voltage signal and is greater than or equal to a lowest driving voltage value of the fan when the duty cycle of the PWM voltage signal approaches zero.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 14, 2017
    Assignee: ALPHA NETWORKS INC.
    Inventor: Cheng-Xian Lv
  • Patent number: 9577566
    Abstract: A motor driving circuit is provided, which selects a Hall sensor or a Sensor-less controller to achieve the phase commutation of a magnetic pole of a motor through a hall positive terminal and a hall negative terminal of a hall control device. When the hall positive terminal and the hall negative terminal receive a first hall signal and a second hall signal generated by the Hall sensor, the motor driving circuit selects the Hall sensor and then accordingly drives the motor. When the hall positive terminal and the hall negative terminal are floating, or one of them receives a high-voltage, the motor driving circuit selects the sensor-less controller and then accordingly drives the motor. Accordingly, the motor driving circuit can select different sensing devices to achieve the phase commutation of the magnetic pole of the motor according to the motor characteristics.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2017
    Assignee: ANPEC ELECTRONICS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kun-Min Chen
  • Patent number: 9562605
    Abstract: A motor control apparatus controls a rotation of a motor based on a resolver signal that is output from a resolver and is in synchronization with a rotation angle of the motor. The motor control apparatus includes a control hardware block configured to correct the resolver signal; and a memory installed outside the control hardware block and configured to store error data of the resolver signal. The control hardware block includes an access part configured to read corresponding error data corresponding to a predetermined resolver rotation angle at which the resolver signal will be detected in the future from among the error data stored by the memory, a memory area configured to store the corresponding error data that is read by the access part, and a correction part configured to correct the detected resolver signal based on the corresponding error data stored in the data area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2017
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Eiichiro Shigehara
  • Patent number: 9559618
    Abstract: A control (18) for a seat belt positioning device (10) includes a motor (12) for positioning a seat belt component (16). A locking tongue sensor (20) generates a locking tongue signal (S) depending on whether a locking tongue is inserted in a belt buckle (16). A trigger circuit (22) connected to the locking tongue sensor (20) generates a trigger signal (TR, TR1, TR2, VT, TM) in response to the locking tongue signal (S) A timer (32) or a motor load circuit (33) connected to the trigger circuit (22) generates a motor signal (M) having a predetermined period or depending on a motor load in response to the trigger signal (TR, TR1, TR2, VT, TM). A motor control circuit (34) connected to the timer (32) and the trigger circuit (22) turns the motor on and off in response to the motor signal (M). The direction of motion of the motor (12) is selected depending on the trigger signal (TR, TR1, TR2, VT, TM).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2017
    Assignee: TRW Automotive GmbH
    Inventors: Martin Prokscha, Wolfgang Holbein
  • Patent number: 9534882
    Abstract: To improve the energy efficiency of electrical drive systems for doors, the electric motor is actuated position-dependently, the electrically driven door is disconnected from the supply network in a resting position, a change of position of the door performed in the state of being disconnected from the grid is detected by a position encoder unit that is independently supplied with power by an energy store, and the change of position is used for position-dependently actuating the electric motor after the supply voltage has been reapplied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2017
    Assignee: SIEMENS AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT
    Inventors: Heinz Ludwig, Uwe Nolte, Guido Sonntag
  • Patent number: 9522601
    Abstract: An ECU determines whether or not first operation for limiting an upper limit value of discharge power of a power storage device for supplying electric power to a rotating electric machine for generating a driving force of a vehicle has been received, by setting a first threshold value of an operation duration of an operation device required to determine the reception of the first operation to be greater than a second threshold value of operation duration of the operation device required to determine the reception of second operation for canceling the limitation of the upper limit value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2016
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Hiroki Endo, Masaya Yamamoto
  • Patent number: 9515589
    Abstract: A motor driving device comprises: an inverter having a plurality of switching elements for driving a motor; an arithmetic section for calculating a rotational speed and a magnetic pole electric angle of a motor rotor based on information about a motor phase voltage and information about a motor phase current; a delay correcting section for correcting a phase delay of the magnetic pole electric angle calculated by the arithmetic section so as to generate corrected magnetic pole electric angle; a driving command generating section for generating a sinusoidal wave driving command based on a difference between the rotational speed and a target rotational speed and the corrected magnetic pole electric angle; and a PWM signal generating section for generating a PWM control signal for controlling on/off of the plurality of switching elements based on the sinusoidal wave driving command.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2016
    Assignee: Shimadzu Corporation
    Inventor: Junichiro Kozaki
  • Patent number: 9490741
    Abstract: A motor control device according to the invention includes: a mode setting section that sets one of a first mode in which a charge/discharge current of a secondary battery varies according to load fluctuation of a motor and a second mode in which the charge/discharge current of the secondary battery becomes constant for a predetermined time regardless of the load fluctuation of the motor; and a drive signal generating section that generates a drive signal for driving the motor on the basis of the mode that is set by the mode setting section, a torque command value, and a motor rotation speed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2016
    Assignee: Hitachi Automotive Systems, Ltd.
    Inventors: Hirokazu Matsui, Hiroyuki Yamada
  • Patent number: 9478972
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, an over-voltage prevention device is provided between a secondary-winding side of a wound-rotor induction machine and a frequency converter configured to excite the secondary-winding side of the wound-rotor induction machine through a three-phase excitation power supply line. The over-voltage prevention device includes a first short-circuit device having a function of short-circuiting between phases of the excitation power supply line, and a second short-circuit device having a function of short-circuiting between phases of the excitation power supply line with a short-circuit impedance greater than a short-circuit impedance of the first short-circuit device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2016
    Assignee: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventors: Yutaro Kitamori, Takahisa Kageyama, Teruyuki Ishizuki, Takashi Fujita
  • Patent number: 9479107
    Abstract: An over temperature protection device for electric motors applicable to a railway vehicle driving system that operates a plurality of electric motors in parallel using one or a plurality of inverter devices includes a control device configured to control the operation of an inverter device and a protecting device configured to detect, on the basis of a frequency fs including frequency information at the time when the inverter device is applying control for fixing a ratio of a voltage and a frequency to electric motors and electric currents of at least one phase flowing to the electronic motors, an over temperature that could occur in the electric motors, to generate an over temperature protection signal Tf for protecting the electric motors from the over temperature, and to output the over temperature protection signal Tf to the control device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2016
    Assignee: MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tomohiro Kojiya, Yuruki Okada
  • Patent number: 9473062
    Abstract: A method for controlling a controlled switch operates a power supply of an electric motor from an AC voltage source. The method includes actuating closure of the controlled switch, an instant of actuation of which is dependent on a value characteristic of a value of an electric voltage across terminals of the controlled switch. A control device for such a controlled switch includes elements for implementing the method.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2016
    Assignee: SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC INDUSTRIES SAS
    Inventors: Delcho Penkov, Alain Cote
  • Patent number: 9461568
    Abstract: In a state in which the energization in the first direction is possible between the motor and the drive circuit and the motor is not rotating at high speed, when the phase induced voltage value of the specific phase that is the target of determination is continuously equal to or smaller than the abnormality determination threshold, the abnormality detecting unit determines that an open malfunction has occurred in the relay FET of the specific phase.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 2, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2016
    Assignee: JTEKT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Akihiro Tomita, Satoru Mikamo, Hiroshi Kawamura, Toshihiro Takahashi, Jun Hasegawa, Akira Nambu, Kenichiro Aoki, Eiji Kasai
  • Patent number: 9438137
    Abstract: A method for operating a piezoelectric actuator which may be activated with the aid of an activation signal. The piezoelectric actuator is operable in a passive and in an active operating mode. The piezoelectric actuator is activated without a functional operating request if the piezoelectric actuator is in a passive operating mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2016
    Assignee: ROBERT BOSCH GMBH
    Inventors: Guido Porten, Jan-Mathias Meng
  • Patent number: 9419552
    Abstract: A motor assembly broadly includes a motor, a motor controller, and an interface controller having an integrated power supply. The integrated power supply includes an AC to DC power conversion and voltage reduction component. The motor controller and the interface controller receive line voltage electrical power without the need for an external transformer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2016
    Assignee: Nidec Motor Corporation
    Inventors: Christopher D. Schock, Randy L. Bomkamp
  • Patent number: 9413278
    Abstract: A control device for a rotating electrical machine is provided that is capable of suppressing reduction in controllability of torque attributed to harmonic currents. According to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a designated torque value Trq* designated by a hybrid vehicle electronic control unit (HVECU) is corrected by a compensation amount ?Trq calculated using a harmonic voltage Vh, the designated torque value Trq*, and an electric angular velocity ? as inputs. An operating signal generating section generates an operating signal g¥# using a designated norm value Vn set based on the corrected torque designated value Trq* and a phase ? serving as a manipulated variable for performing feedback control of an estimated torque to the designated torque value Trq*, and outputs the generated operating signal g¥# to a power supply circuit of a motor generator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2016
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Koichi Nishibata, Hiroya Tsuji, Hajime Uematsu
  • Patent number: 9413281
    Abstract: In an apparatus, a controller performs, as a calculation of d- and q-axis values of a current vector, a first task and a second task. The first task expands one of a measured first phase current and another phase current into Fourier series of the corresponding phase current as a function of an electric rotational angle of an AC motor. The first task extracts a first-order component from the Fourier series to obtain first and second Fourier coefficients of the first-order component. The second task calculates the d-axis value as a first sum of the first and second Fourier coefficients to which temporally-invariant constants of a first pair have been multiplied, and the q-axis value as a second sum of the first and second Fourier coefficients to which temporally-invariant constants of a second pair have been multiplied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2016
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yasuhiro Nakai, Takahumi Oowada
  • Patent number: 9413163
    Abstract: A motor control circuit includes a processor configured to calculate a plurality of motor impedances from measurements of an excitation voltage on a power bus to a motor and measurements of a plurality of currents through the motor resulting from the excitation voltage, and the processor configured to calculate individual winding inductances in the motor, based on the measured motor impedances, and configured to determine whether there is an inter-turn winding fault based on the calculated individual winding inductances.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2016
    Assignee: TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Stephen John Fedigan, Sandun Shivantha Kuruppu, Paul LeRoy Brohlin
  • Patent number: 9407179
    Abstract: Controller for a three-phase brushless D.C. motor has a full bridge circuit and an electronic control unit (ECU). The full bridge circuit has three branches each with switches connected to the motor windings. The switches are driven by signals from the ECU. The drive signals are arranged in two sets of three signals. The two sets are offset by 180 electrical degrees. The drive signals of each set are offset by 120 electrical degrees and each have an active portion, alternating with an inactive portion. The active portion includes an initial interval of pulsed activation, an intermediate interval of continuous activation, and a final interval of pulsed activation. The active portion of the drive signals is greater than 120 electrical degrees, with each initial interval of pulsed activation of a switch overlapping the final interval of the previously activated switch.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 8, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2016
    Assignee: JOHNSON ELECTRIC S.A.
    Inventors: Luciano Marchitto, Gianfranco Perna, Pierfranco Pangella, Gianluca Gobbetti