Systems and methods of multi-motor regenerative drive
AssigneeRockwell Automation Technologies, Inc.
InventorsNavid R. Zargari, Zhongyuan Cheng, Mehdi Narimani, Ahmed Hisham Abuelnaga
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system is provided for driving multiple motors. The system includes multiple cascaded H-bridge (CHB) power inverters, a DC bus, and multiple neutral point converter/inverters. Each of the multiple CHB power inverters is connected to a respective motor at one or more AC terminals of the CHB power inverter. Each of the multiple CHB power inverters includes one or more DC terminals configured to receive DC power. Each of the multiple neutral point converter/inverters is connected to a respective CHB power inverter at one or more neutral terminals of the respective CHB power inverter and connected to the DC bus.
Claims20
A system for driving multiple motors, comprising:
- multiple cascaded H-bridge (CHB) power inverters, wherein each of the multiple CHB power inverters is connected to a respective motor at one or more alternating current (AC) terminals of the CHB power inverter, wherein each of the multiple CHB power inverters comprises one or more direct current (DC) terminals configured to receive DC power;
- a DC bus;
- and
- multiple neutral point converter/inverters, wherein each of the multiple neutral point converter/inverters is connected to a respective CHB power inverter at one or more neutral terminals of the respective CHB power inverter and connected to the DC bus.
A system for driving multiple motors, comprising:
- a first cascaded H-bridge (CHB) power inverter connected between a first motor and a first neutral point converter/inverter, wherein the first motor is configured to operate in a driving mode;
- a second CHB power inverter connected between a second motor and a second neutral point converter/inverter, wherein the second motor is configured to operate in a regenerative mode;
- and
- a direct current (DC) bus, wherein the DC bus is connected to the first and the second neutral point converter/inverters,
- wherein the first CHB power inverter is configured to:
- receive DC power from a power supply and/or alternating current (AC) power from the first neutral point converter/inverter,
- convert the DC power to AC power, and
- provide AC power to the first motor,
- wherein the second CHB power inverter is configured to:
- receive regenerative power from the second motor, and
- direct the regenerative power to the second neutral point converter/inverter, and
- wherein the second neutral point converter/inverter is configured to convert the regenerative power to DC power and provide the DC power to the DC bus.
A method of controlling a multi-motor drive system, comprising:
- determining an operating mode for each of multiple motors;
- in response to determining that one or more first motors of the multiple motors operate in a regenerative mode, providing regenerative power from the one or more first motors to a direct current (DC) bus through one or more respective first cascaded H-bridge (CHB) power inverters and one or more respective first neutral point converter/inverters connected between the one or more first motors and the DC bus;
- and
- in response to determining that one or more second motors of the multiple motors operate in a driving mode, providing power to the one or more second motors from a power supply and from the DC bus.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.