Patents Examined by Zemenay T Truneh
  • Patent number: 11329541
    Abstract: Provided is a linear motor control apparatus capable of improving estimation accuracy of a resonance frequency immediately after start, and a compressor equipped with the linear motor control apparatus. A linear motor control apparatus includes a winding to which an AC voltage is applied and a mover which is connected to an elastic body, in which the linear motor control apparatus includes an operation mode (1) which monotonously increases amplitude of the AC voltage while keeping a frequency of the AC voltage substantially constant, and an operation mode (2) which changes the frequency of the AC voltage while keeping the amplitude of the AC voltage substantially constant, and executes the operation mode (1) and the operation mode (2) in this order.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 5, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2022
    Assignee: HITACHI ASTEMO, LTD.
    Inventors: Takahiro Suzuki, Shuhei Nagata, Wataru Hatsuse, Masaki Koyama
  • Patent number: 11312242
    Abstract: An electric rolling stock control device includes a voltage controlling unit for controlling an output voltage of an inverter and a speed estimating unit for calculating a rotation speed estimation value of an electric motor. The speed estimating unit includes an initial speed estimating unit for outputting an initial speed estimation value, a steady speed estimating unit for outputting a steady speed estimation value, a correction coefficient calculating unit for calculating a correction coefficient based on the steady speed estimation value and a backup speed, and a correction speed calculating unit for storing the correction coefficient in a storage unit and calculating a correction speed by multiplying the correction coefficient by the backup speed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2022
    Assignee: MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kota Teramoto, Shinsuke Kadoi, Sho Kato
  • Patent number: 11314222
    Abstract: An object is to realize a technology in which a more appropriate power failure operation can be performed when the configuration of a servo system is selected. A selection device 20 includes: a servo system selection unit 21b which selects a servo amplifier corresponding to the specification of a motor and a drive condition of the motor in a servo system; a UI display control unit 21a which receives the setting of a condition on a power failure operation in the servo amplifier selected by the servo amplifier selection unit; and a power failure operation determination unit 21d which determines, based on the condition on the power failure operation received in the power failure operation condition setting unit, a method for the power failure operation in the selected servo amplifier, and the UI display control unit 21a outputs the method for the power failure operation which is determined by the power failure operation determination unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2022
    Assignee: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hironao Tanouchi
  • Patent number: 11309823
    Abstract: The three phase motor control with variable RPM and variable synchronized PWM is a new concept or method to drive a DC/AC invertor is a triggering pulse revolving circuit having a variable speed of revolving output triggering pulses to rotate commutating and duty cycling circuits to enable/disable power mosfets and to rotate current directions in three phase induction motor stator coils. The RPM control and PWM control are simplified using this method. All interconnections between circuits are conventional, not traditional.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 2, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2022
    Inventor: Yefim Tservil
  • Patent number: 11251735
    Abstract: A control device for an inverter has a first inverter terminal, a second inverter terminal and a plurality of bridge branches, which bridge branches each comprise a first semiconductor, a winding terminal and a second semiconductor switch. The winding terminals are connected to a winding arrangement. The control device is configured to output a control signal which enables a first bridge branch state and a second bridge branch state in the case of at least two of the bridge branches in a first operating state, wherein, in the first bridge branch state, the second semiconductor switch assigned to the bridge branch is switched on, and wherein, in the second bridge branch state, the second semiconductor switch assigned to the bridge branch is switched off. At least two of the bridge branches are occasionally simultaneously in the first bridge branch state, and a change of said at least two bridge branches into the second bridge branch state is subsequently carried out at different points in time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 10, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2022
    Inventors: Stefan Götz, Till Lütje
  • Patent number: 11239785
    Abstract: A vehicle includes an electric machine with two sets of galvanically isolated windings, first and second inverters, a switching arrangement, and a controller. During charge, the controller operates the switching arrangement to isolate the first inverter from the electric machine to permit charge current to flow through one of the sets and induce a voltage in the other of the sets. During propulsion, the controller operates the switching arrangement to couple the first inverter with the one of the sets such that the first and second inverters are configured to only power one of the sets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2022
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Ali Najmabadi, Hadi Malek
  • Patent number: 11218106
    Abstract: An electric motor driving system controls driving of an electric motor having windings of two or more phases each having open ends by using a pair of inverters. A control unit includes a first inverter control circuit that generates a first voltage instruction output to the first inverter based on a torque instruction and a second inverter control circuit that generates a second voltage instruction output to the second inverter based on the torque instruction. At least one of the inverter control circuits includes an electric power controller that controls allocation of electrical power supplied from a pair of power supplies to the pair of inverters, respectively, by either advancing or delaying an angle of a phase of each of vectors of voltage instructions in accordance with the target electric power instruction during execution of torque feedback control.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2022
    Assignees: DENSO CORPORATION, TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Haruka Oka, Ryuji Omata, Kiyotaka Matsubara, Makoto Nakamura, Daigo Nobe
  • Patent number: 11190121
    Abstract: The present invention provides control of a synchronous machine with non-sinusoidal current-voltage profiles. The synchronous machine is controlled in a field-oriented coordinate system. In this case, the transformation between field-oriented coordinate system and stator-oriented coordinate system is effected by specific, adapted transformations which take account of the non-sinusoidal signal profiles during the driving of the synchronous machine, such that the latter correspond to current-voltage profiles progressing in a constant fashion in the field-oriented coordinate system. What is achieved thereby is that the non-sinusoidal current-voltage profiles need not be taken into account in any way in the design of the control system in the field-oriented coordinate system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 1, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2021
    Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
    Inventors: Martin Braun, Holger Rapp, Stefan Kurz
  • Patent number: 11171580
    Abstract: The invention relates to fluid drive systems used in fluid wells and brake systems for permanent magnet wellhead direct drives. The braking controller connects or disconnects a brake resistor from a back EMF. A variable frequency drive (VFD) drives the motor and communicates with the control circuitry of the brake controller. The control circuitry monitors the brake resistor and depending on the rotational speed and direction of the motor and operating state of the VFD, disconnects or connects the brake resistor. If the direction of the motor is in reverse and above a threshold speed, it connects the brake resistor. If the direction of the motor is in reverse and below the threshold speed, the control circuitry dissipates stored back EMF through the brake controller. The amount of stored back EMF corresponds to the time to empty a pump.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2021
    Assignee: General Magnetic International Inc.
    Inventors: Al Duerr, Aaron Brassard, John Doyle, Wray Sparling
  • Patent number: 11147950
    Abstract: Disclosed is a module including: a base; a first drive member; and a second drive member. The second drive member is also mounted so as to be movable relative to the first drive member, in a degree of freedom other than rotational about the second axis, between a first and a second configuration. A motion transmission system transmits the driving movement generated by the drive motor to the second drive member in order to rotate the second drive member about the second axis between the first and second configurations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 19, 2021
    Assignee: ROBOCATH
    Inventors: Fabien Destrebecq, Julien Maurel, Sébastien Deboeuf, Philippe Bencteux
  • Patent number: 11146190
    Abstract: A method for controlling a multiphase synchronous motor, for a motor flux vector includes setting a first winding of the motor to a floating state in which the first winding is electrically floating; setting a voltage across a second winding of the motor for a first period; receiving first voltage samples associated with the first winding in the first period; setting the voltage across the second winding to a second period, in which the first period and the second period are periods of one or more pulse width modulation cycles, in which a polarity of the voltage across the second winding in the second period is opposite to a polarity of the voltage across the second winding in the first period; receiving second voltage samples associated with the first winding in the second period; and determining a position of the rotor based on the first and second voltage samples.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 12, 2021
    Assignee: NXP USA, Inc.
    Inventor: Libor Prokop
  • Patent number: 11135715
    Abstract: A robot arm permitting a more sensitive and precise operation in the offline programming of a robot having a robot arm with a number of arm components, which can be connected to a robot body via a number of actuator-drivable joint connections.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 5, 2021
    Inventor: Sami Haddadin
  • Patent number: 11133765
    Abstract: 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.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 10, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 28, 2021
    Assignees: Hyundai Motor Company, Kia Motors Corporation
    Inventors: Ji Wan Cha, Han Hee Park, Jae Hyeon Lee, Seong Min Kim, Hyun Woo Noh, Tae Il Yoo
  • Patent number: 11056992
    Abstract: A motor controller includes: a rotation speed estimating unit that estimates a rotation speed of a motor based on current information and primary frequency information of the motor; a proximity switch that outputs an ON signal when a portion of a rotating body of the motor is in proximity and that outputs an OFF signal when a portion of the rotating body of the motor is not in proximity; a rotation speed calculating unit that calculates a rotation speed of the motor based on the ON signal and the OFF signal output from the proximity switch; a speed command compensating unit that compensates a speed command value such that an error between the speed command value and a rotation speed calculation value becomes smaller; and a speed control system that perform the speed control on the motor based on the compensated speed command value and the rotation speed estimation value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2021
    Assignee: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Shoutarou Hashimoto, Yuuki Morita
  • Patent number: 11045273
    Abstract: A sterile barrier assembly includes a linear drive section and a rotation drive section. The linear drive section includes a corrugated portion interfacing with an axial output of an instrument driving unit on a non-sterile side and an engaging portion interfacing with a tool assembly of a surgical instrument on a sterile side. The rotational drive section includes a first engaging portion interfacing with a rotational output of the instrument driving unit on the non-sterile side and a second engaging portion interfacing with the tool assembly of the surgical instrument on the sterile side.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 29, 2021
    Assignee: Covidien LP
    Inventors: Chi Min Seow, Michael Zemlok, Robert Allen
  • Patent number: 11018614
    Abstract: In a dual-inverter type of motor control apparatus which controls a synchronous motor having two or more open-end armature windings corresponding to respective phases, first and second inverter control circuits control the motor by supplying voltage commands to corresponding ones of the two inverters, with a combination of respective control methods executed by the inverter control circuits for generating the voltage commands being determined such as to provide a high speed of control response, while preventing control interference caused by effects of component characteristic disparities, such as deviations between timings of updating the voltage commands by the two inverter control circuits.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2021
    Assignees: DENSO CORPORATION, TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Ryuji Omata, Kiyotaka Matsubara, Makoto Nakamura, Daigo Nobe
  • Patent number: 11011974
    Abstract: The invention relates to the discharging of a DC link capacitor in an inverter arrangement, thereby allowing, for example, a DC link capacitor to be discharged while an electric machine that is connected to the inverters can operate in an idling mode as a safe mode. The DC link capacitor is discharged by very briefly triggering a semiconductor switch within the inverter. According to the invention, the inverter bridge arm with the smallest phase voltage is selected for the very brief triggering process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2021
    Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
    Inventors: Edwin Eberlein, Martin Trunk, Timo Bartsch
  • Patent number: 11005410
    Abstract: An over-current protection circuit for a motor capable of selecting one of a plurality of connection states has a plurality of decision circuits, a combining circuit, and a nullifying circuit. The combining circuit combines results of the comparisons in the plurality of decision circuits. The nullifying circuit nullifies part of the comparisons in the plurality of decision circuits. The number of outputs of the over-current protection circuit is one, so that for controlling the driving and stopping of the inverter needs just one terminal is required for receiving the output of the combining circuit. Moreover, because the over-current protection circuit is formed of hardware, the protection can be performed at a high speed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2021
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventors: Kenji Iwazaki, Koichi Arisawa, Takashi Yamakawa, Keisuke Uemura, Shinya Toyodome
  • Patent number: 10978940
    Abstract: An example apparatus includes a controller operatively coupled to an electric actuator via a network. The controller is configured to obtain torque curve data over the network from the electric actuator, the torque curve data being associated with actuation of an electric motor of the electric actuator, the actuation to cause a flow control member of a motor-operated valve to move, the flow control member being mechanically coupled to the electric motor and being movable between an open position and a closed position. The controller is configured to determine an area under a torque curve based on the torque curve data, determine a variance between the area under the torque curve and an area under a reference curve, and generate a first control signal indicating that the electric actuator is healthy when it is determined that the variance does not exceed the variance threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 3, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2021
    Assignee: BIFFI ITALIA S.R.L.
    Inventor: Carlo Doglio
  • Patent number: 10972031
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides a system and method that provides active damping at the input of a motor drive system without the need for the hardware used in conventional and RC damping circuits. According to the disclosure a virtual damping network is realised at the input of the motor drive system based on modification of field-oriented control, FOC. More specifically, a control algorithm creates a virtual damping impedance at the motor drive input by applying a damping algorithm to both q and d components of the motor current.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 10, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 6, 2021
    Assignee: HAMILTON SUNSTRAND CORPORATION
    Inventors: Virgilio Valdivia Guerrero, Joshua Parkin, Thomas Gietzold, Grzegorz Popek, Daniel Diaz-Lopez