Motor controller with stall detection
AssigneeAllegro MicroSystems, LLC
InventorsKamyar Khosravi, Masahira Kurihara, Andrew Adib
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Abstract
A motor control system for controlling operation of a motor having a plurality of windings includes a gate driver to provide a control signal to one or more switching elements controlling a voltage applied to the plurality of windings and a Field Oriented Control (FOC) controller configured to generate a PWM signal for coupling to the gate driver, wherein the FOC controller comprises a d-axis control loop configured to generate an applied d-axis voltage and a q-axis control loop configured to generate an applied q-axis voltage. A stall detector is configured to calculate an estimate of the q-axis voltage and compare the applied q-axis voltage to a threshold based on the estimate in order to detect a stall condition of the motor.
Claims20
A motor control system for controlling operation of a motor having a plurality of windings, the motor control system comprising:
- a gate driver to provide a control signal to one or more switching elements controlling a voltage applied to the plurality of windings;
- a Field Oriented Control (FOC) controller configured to generate a PWM signal for coupling to the gate driver, wherein the FOC controller comprises a d-axis control loop configured to generate an applied d-axis voltage and a q-axis control loop configured to generate an applied q-axis voltage;
- and
- a stall detector configured to calculate an estimate of the q-axis voltage based at least in part on an observed motor speed and an applied q-axis current and compare the applied q-axis voltage to a threshold that is generated based on the estimate in order to detect a stall condition of the motor.
A method of detecting a stall condition in a motor having a plurality of windings, the method comprising:
- applying a controlled voltage to the plurality of windings;
- measuring a current through the one or more of the plurality of windings;
- generating, with a Field Oriented Control (FOC) controller that comprises a d-axis control loop configured to generate an applied d-axis voltage and a q-axis control loop configured to generate an applied q-axis voltage, a PWM signal for coupling to a gate driver that is configured to apply the controlled voltage to the plurality of windings;
- calculating an estimate of the q-axis voltage based at least in part on an observed motor speed and an applied q-axis current;
- comparing the applied q-axis voltage to a threshold that is generated based on the estimate of the q-axis voltage;
- and
- detecting a stall condition of the motor based on the comparison.
A motor control system for controlling operation of a motor having a plurality of windings, the motor control system comprising:
- a Field Oriented Control (FOC) controller configured to generate a PWM signal for coupling to a gate driver based on a received demand signal, wherein the FOC controller comprises a d-axis control loop configured to generate an applied d-axis voltage and a q-axis control loop configured to generate an applied q-axis voltage;
- and
- means for detecting a stall condition of the motor based on a calculated estimate of the q-axis voltage, wherein the calculated estimate of the q-axis voltage is based at least in part on an observed motor speed and an applied q-axis current.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.