General Electric Company

Amratlal C Lodhia

Charles E Konrad

Ronald E Gareis

The invention disclosed is a control system for controlling a pair of separately excited motors arranged such that each motor of the pair drives a separate wheel on a common axle of an electrically powered vehicle. The control system continuously and individually adjusts the field excitation of the drive motors so that torque and speed of the separate wheels are apportioned to the wheels as a function of the steering angle of the vehicle. Preferably, the control system includes an armature current regulating loop for regulating current to the series connected armatures of the dual motors in accordance with an operator command signal; a field regulator for regulating the two separate motor field windings in proportional to the armature current; a sensor to continuously detect the steering angle of the vehicle; circuitry for providing inside and outside wheel signals, each as a function of the steering angle such that an increase or decrease in the value of one signal produces the opposite response in the other signal and such that the two signals always sum to a constant value; and circuitry for adjusting the two field windings in accordance with the inside and outside wheel signals.

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Charlottesville, VA, United States of America

Amratlal C Lodhia