Hamilton Sundstrand Corporation

Hamilton Sundstrand Space Systems International, Inc.

Patrick J Sears

Robert P Wichowski

Kevin G Hawes

Timothy A Roberts

Harold J Hansen

Darren Woodman

Sean K Murray

Diego S Mugurusa

Methods and systems for operating internal systems of a vehicle are provided. Aspects include providing a field programmable gate array (FPGA), the FPGA including a communication channel port, wherein the communication channel port is operable to connect to one or more systems through a communication channel, and wherein the FPGA is configured to operate in one or more control modes, receiving a communication channel input to the communication channel port of the FPGA, based at least in part on the communication channel input, determining a control mode from the one or more control modes, and operating the FPGA in the control mode, wherein the control mode is associated with one system of the one or more systems.

Reconfigurable stand alone distributed system motor controllers

Providing collision avoidance protection to controllers sharing the same sensor. Each of a pair of asynchronous controllers changes the period of a sync pulse transmitted to the other controller to indicate to the other controller it is synchronized. When one of the controllers begins reading data from the shared sensor, the other controller waits to receive another sync pulse for indicating when the controller is finished reading data from the shared sensor. Thus, the asynchronous controllers avoid accessing the same sensor at the same time.

Shared resistive sensor measurement with FPGA based collision avoidance protection

A peripheral component interconnect (PCI) device is provided for use in an environmental control and life support system (ECLSS). The PCI device includes a control card, mounting slots each of which is receptive of the control card and coupled with a piece of ECLSS equipment and a backplane configured to respectively provide, via communication and power signals, communications and power to the control card in any one of the mounting slots. With the control card received in one of the mounting slots, the control card accommodates multiple power levels, executes commutation logic and executes one or more of active current control and active current modulation in accordance with the one of the mounting slots and the piece of the ECLSS equipment coupled therewith.

Embedded environmental control and life support system using compact form factor

A system for detecting sensor failure and/or operating with a failed sensor in an electrical machine includes an electrical machine, three or more sensors configured to connect to the electrical machine, and a sensor module operatively connected to each sensor to receive sensor signals from the sensors. The sensor module includes a failure detection module operatively connected to each sensor and configured to determine if each sensor is a failed sensor or a functioning sensor. The sensor module also includes a virtual sensor module operatively connected to the failure detection module and configured to output simulated sensor signals for the failed sensor, wherein the sensor module is configured to output the sensor signals for each functioning sensor. The system includes a control module operatively connected to the sensor module and the electrical machine to receive sensor signals and simulated sensor signals to control operation of the electrical machine.

Sensor and control systems for electrical machines

A system includes a first control system configured to operate at a first clock speed, a second control system configured to provide an output to the first control system and configured to operate at a second clock speed different from the first clock speed, and a synchronization module operatively connecting the first control module to the second control module and configured to synchronize the first control system and the second control system such that the output of the second control system is timed to synchronize with the first clock speed.

Synchronization module for motor speed control

A sensorless motor controller includes a variable link control, including a radiation-hardened field programmable gate array (FPGA) and a back electromotive force (EMF) decoder circuit. The back EMF decoder infers the position of a rotor of the motor. A filter on the decoder conditions the back EMF signal and has multiple cutoff frequencies which can be dynamically controlled by the FPGA in order to compensate for phase shift in the back EMF signal. The FPGA also controls a variable DC link and its digital speed control loop.

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South Hadley, MA, United States of America

Patrick J Sears