A vehicle electric drive system includes an internal combustion engine, an electric motor/generator driven by the engine, a first inverter/rectifier coupled to motor/generator, a bus coupled to the first inverter/rectifier, a second inverter/rectifier coupled to the bus, and a traction motor/generator coupled to an output of the second inverter/rectifier, an operator speed control member, and a controller coupled to the second inverter/rectifier for controlling a current output of the second inverter/rectifier as a function of a position of the speed control member Also included is an operator controlled foot pedal and a transducer coupled to the foot pedal and generating a signal representing foot pedal position which is supplied to the controller The controller limits current supplied by the second inverter/rectifier to the traction motor/generator to a limit current as a function of the transducer signal The controller, foot pedal and transducer cooperate to vary the limit current in response to movement of the foot pedal A spring biases the foot pedal to an upper limit position The controller causes the second inverter/rectifier to supply to the traction motor/generator a maximum amount of current, (such maximum current being a function of the foot pedal position), but not more than that required to achieve the speed commanded by the speed control

Variable current limit control for vehicle electric drive system

Control apparatus and method including a first control device, located at the vehicle or premises, for monitoring or detecting an event, which generates and/or transmits a first notification signal containing event information to a second control device located remote from the vehicle or premises. The second control device generates and/or transmits a second notification signal to a remote communication device for providing notification of the event occurrence. Control apparatus and method including a first control device, located at a vehicle or premises, which generates and/or transmits a first signal for activating, deactivating, enabling, or disabling, a vehicle or a premises system, equipment system, subsystem, device, component, appliance, a vehicle, or a premises, in response to a signal generated and/or transmitted from a remote second control device. The second control device is responsive to a third signal generated and/or transmitted by a remote third control device.

Control, monitoring and/or security apparatus and method

A power output apparatus of the invention includes a clutch motor (30) and an assist motor (40) that allow energy output from an engine (50) driven at a driving point of high efficiency to be converted to energy expressed as the product of a revolving speed and a torque of a drive shaft (22) and to be output to the drive shaft (22). In case that a large torque is required, for example, when the vehicle starts on a rising slope or runs at a low speed, the engine (50) is driven at a high-energy driving point having a large torque and a high efficiency. This structure causes large electric power to be generated by excess energy greater than the energy generally consumed and enables a battery (94) to be charged with the large electric power. The power output apparatus of the invention further has functions of predicting the process of charging the battery (94) with the large electric power based on a driving state of the vehicle and topographical information and lowering the remaining charge of the battery (94) in advance according to the requirements. This process effectively prevents the battery (94) from being damaged with excess charging.

Power output apparatus and method of controlling the same

A system automatically stores accident information from a video camera (12), which is mounted on a vehicle (10). The accident information received from the video camera (12) is automatically transmitted via wireless link (16), and a network (18) to the central database (19) and its network data base server (20).

Mobile vehicle accident data system

An electric traction vehicle is described herein which may be used to provide power to off-board electric power-consuming systems or devices. The electric traction vehicle may provide 250 kilowatts or more of three phase AC power to an off-board electric power consuming system. The electric traction vehicle may also include an electrical power storage device which can be selectively discharged to allow the vehicle to be serviced.

Control system and method for electric vehicle

A vehicle control unit comprises an interface software memory for storing an interface software program for connecting an application software program with an operating system in an internal ROM, a central processing unit for performing computation of the application software program and the interface software program, an erasable memory for storing data such as the result of computation, an I/O unit for extending the control unit, and extending means for communicating memory data through a bus or a LAN. A single-chip micro-computer is used in vehicle control.

Control unit for vehicle and total control system therefor

An axial-gap permanent-magnet motor that utilized tape wound amorphous cores was designed, manufactured and tested. The motor employs two 8-pole rotors and one 12-slot amorphous cores stator. In order to reduce iron loss, the magnetic and iron loss properties of ring-shaped amorphous cores with different lamination direction are investigated determine a suitable core structure for motor application. Tape wound core was chosen because of its simple manufacture process. In the motor design, lamination direction of AMM core was designed perpendicular to field produced by rotors to decrease eddy current loss. Three-dimensional finite element analysis (3D FEA) was used to model and analyze the motor performance. No-load tests and load tests of the trial motor were conducted to demonstrate the feasibility of the motor design and verify the 3-D FEA calculation. This paper presents the details of amorphous cores' properties, motor design and test results.

Development of a Permanent Magnet Motor Utilizing Amorphous Wound Cores

This paper presents a novel motor design concept that utilizes amorphous cut cores in the stator and ferrite magnets in the rotor to obtain a high-efficiency motor. This motor employs a six-pole nine-slot axial gap construction and aims to provide 90% efficiency with decreased size and low cogging torque for fan motor applications. Amorphous cut cores are applied to the stator to decrease iron loss and save motor space. Skewed magnets are employed to decrease cogging torque. Three-dimensional finite element analysis was used to analyze motor performance. In order to verify the accuracy of the design, a trial motor was constructed, and a large range of experiments was conducted to measure the motor characteristics. The results of the trial motor meet the design goals.

Development of an Axial Gap Motor With Amorphous Metal Cores

An electronic engine control apparatus in which the timing of the ignition and the fuel injection are calculated from a negative pressure in the intake manifold of the engine or the flow rate of suction air and the rotational speed of the engine. A reference register group is constituted of registers for storing the result of the calculation while an instantaneous register group is made up of registers for storing the instantaneous states of actuators. One of the registers of the reference register group and one of the registers of the instantaneous register group are selected according to a stage timing signal so that the contents of the two registers selected are compared with each other.

Electronic engine control apparatus

A method and apparatus for controlling the angular position of a motor by controlling the revolution of the motor in response to a given positioning command value commanding a predetermined angular position of the motor shaft so as to stop the motor shaft at the predetermined angular position, wherein the acceleration of the motor being accelerated in the initial acceleration stage of the motor position control operation is calculated, and on the basis of the calculated acceleration and a commanded maximum velocity, the remainder angular distance between the deceleration starting angular position and the desired angular position of the motor and the deceleration command value in the deceleration stage are calculated so as to control the deceleration of the motor on the basis of the calculated values.

Shigeki Morinaga

Papers

Control unit for vehicle and total control system therefor

Development of a Permanent Magnet Motor Utilizing Amorphous Wound Cores

Development of an Axial Gap Motor With Amorphous Metal Cores

Electronic engine control apparatus

Method for controlling angular position and apparatus therefor