Continental Automotive Gmbh

Continental Automotive France

Michel Parette

Christian Gunselmann

Mathias Fernengel

Lionel Guichard

Nicolas Bruyant

A method for estimating the current flowing through a winding of an electric motor of the type having one winding controllable by a switching device, including the following steps: measuring a voltage at the input of the winding, correcting the measured voltage to produce a corrected voltage determining a resistance of the switching device, estimating the current flowing through the winding by dividing the difference between a control voltage used to control the switching device and the corrected voltage by the resistance. The use of such an estimating method for providing a diagnosis for a current sensor, and an estimating method for controlling an electric motor in fail-soft mode are also disclosed.

Current estimation

Disclosed is a method for detecting a fault in an electric motor of a power-assisted steering system of an automobile vehicle. The method notably includes a step for: determination of a residual direct sinusoidal voltage and of a residual quadrature sinusoidal voltage based on the measured direct sinusoidal current, on the estimated direct sinusoidal current, on the measured quadrature sinusoidal current and on the estimated quadrature sinusoidal current; and detection of a fault when the difference between the value of the residual direct sinusoidal voltage and its moving average is greater than a first threshold and/or when the difference between the value of the quadrature sinusoidal voltage and its moving average is greater than a second threshold.

Method for detecting a torque control defect of an electric motor of a power-steering system of a motor vehicle

A method for diagnosing a fault in the control of a three-phase electric motor current-mode controlled by a control signal. The method makes it possible to calculate the actual dead time present in each of the three control signals at a given time on the basis of compensated temporal offsets for each phase of the motor, of a predetermined measurement error common to the three phases of the motor and of a value of a amplitude of the current flowing through the transistors of the three pairs of transistors at the given time so as to detect a fault in the control of the motor when the absolute value of the calculated difference is higher than a predetermined detection threshold.

Method for diagnosing a fault in current-mode control of an electric motor in a motor vehicle

A method for operating a brushless electric motor, the windings being energized by an inverter with the aid of six switches. A detection unit for detecting defective switches, a unit for measuring voltage at the outputs of the inverter, and a microcontroller for controlling the switch and for generating a pulse width modulated voltage supply for the windings are provided. A short-circuited switch causes a torque in the electric motor opposite the actuating direction of the electric motor. The method proposes that after detecting a short-circuited switch, the windings (U. V. W) are energized to generate a motor torque that is, on the whole, positive. An actuating period of the electric motor is divided into a plurality of sectors, wherein, in accordance with the defective switch, individual sectors are deactivated for the actuation of the windings (U, V, W), while other sectors are used to actuate the windings (V, W).

Growing community of inventors

Fonsorbes, France

Michel Parette