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US 12,194,858 B2Granted
Systems and methods for providing power to an electric motor from an inverter
AssigneesToyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc., Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsPatrick Francis Lawless, Luke A. Rippelmeyer
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed are systems, methods, and devices for configuring the output provided by an inverter to an electric motor based on the position of the electric motor with respect to another electric motor.
Claims20
A vehicle comprising:
- a first electric motor connected to an output shaft and configured to rotate the output shaft;
- a second electric motor connected to the output shaft and configured to rotate the output shaft;
- a first configurable inverter connected to the first electric motor and configured to output a first three-phase alternating current (AC) to the first electric motor, the first configurable inverter having a first configurable inverter controller and a first configurable inverter memory with instructions that, when executed by the first configurable inverter controller causes the first configurable inverter controller to determine a position of the first electric motor and adjust the first three-phase AC output based on the position of the first electric motor, the position of the first electric motor and including at least one of facing toward the second electric motor, facing away from the second electric motor, and facing in a same direction as the second electric motor;
- and
- a second configurable inverter connected to the second electric motor and configured to output a second three-phase AC to the second electric motor, the second configurable inverter having a second configurable inverter controller and a second configurable inverter memory with instructions that, when executed by the second configurable inverter controller causes the second configurable inverter controller to determine a position of the second electric motor and adjust the second three-phase AC output based on the position of the second electric motor, the position of the second electric motor including at least one of facing toward the first electric motor, facing away from the first electric motor, and facing in the same direction as the first electric motor.
2 more elements
A configurable inverter comprising:
- a controller;
- a power circuit in communication with the controller and configured to output a three-phase alternating current (AC) to a first electric motor;
- and
- a memory in communication with the controller, the memory having instructions that, when executed by the controller, causes the controller to determine a position of the first electric motor with respect to a second electric motor and adjust the three-phase AC output by the power circuit based on the position of the first electric motor with respect to the second electric motor including at least one of facing toward the second electric motor, facing away from the second electric motor, and facing in a same direction as the second electric motor.
1 more element
A method comprising steps of:
- determining, using a controller, a position of a first electric motor with respect to a second electric motor based on information provided to the controller from at least one of the first electric motor and second electric motor;
- and
- adjusting a three-phase AC output by a power circuit to the first electric motor based on the position of the first electric motor with respect to the second electric motor, the position including at least one of facing toward the second electric motor, facing away from the second electric motor, and facing in a same direction as the second electric motor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.