Switched reluctance motor and method therefore

Method of operating a switched reluctance motor, the motor comprising a stator and a rotor, the rotor being rotatable relative to the stator, wherein the stator comprises a plurality of coils and stator poles arranged circumferentially around the rotor, the stator poles forming the cores of the coils, and wherein the rotor comprises a plurality of counter poles for interacting with the stator poles of the stator for applying a reluctance torque on the rotor, wherein the motor comprises one or more phase inputs and one or more phase stages, each phase input connected to a respective phase stage, wherein each coil of the plurality of coils of the stator is associated with one said phase stage of the motor such that each phase stage comprises at least two of the coils, the method including:

• receiving through at least one of said phase inputs an actuation signal for actuating said respective phase stage, and applying the actuation signal to the phase stage such as to actuate the rotor via the stator poles of said phase stage for powering of the one or more phase stages in accordance with a repetition pattern of a powering sequence;
• operating, during said actuating of the rotor, a switching arrangement of each phase stage comprising a plurality of switches, such as to selectively switch the coils associated with said phase stage in either one of a parallel, a serial, or a parallel-serial electrical configuration, the switches including mechanical switches or electro-mechanical switches;
• obtaining, by a controller, data indicative of an operational condition of the motor;
• and operating, by the controller, the switches of each phase stage dependent on the operational condition of the motor, wherein the switching of each phase stage is performed by inactivating during an interruption the powering of the respective phase stage for a plurality of cycles of the repetition pattern of the powering sequence.