Caterpillar Inc.

Sean Cameron Landers

Sangameshwar Sonth

Brian Dean Kuras

Ankit Sharma

A method for testing power of an electric drive system includes setting the electric motor of the electric drive system to a desired speed and applying a brake load to the system. The method also includes increasing the brake load until an engine of the electric drive system is fully loaded. After the engine is fully loaded, the method includes maintaining the brake load until the acceleration remains between the upper predetermined threshold and the lower predetermined threshold for the predetermined period of time, which indicates that the engine has stabilized at full power. Once the engine is at full power, the commanded power of the electric drive system required for stabilizing the engine at full power is averaged, and the average power is compared to a predetermined pass/fail threshold to determine if the electric drive system has sufficient power.

Mobile machines, electric drive systems, and methods for testing electric drive systems

A propulsion control system provides different levels of jerk as a function of operator inputs and actual measured operational parameters in a machine. The system includes a power source, a continuously variable transmission (CVT) coupled to an output of the power source, a plurality of input/output devices, a plurality of sensors configured to generate signals indicative of operational parameters of the machine, and a controller communicatively coupled with the power source, the CVT, the input/output devices, and the sensors. The controller includes a database stored in a memory with a plurality of jerk values mapped to different operations of the machine selected from at least one of activation of a brake by an operator for an aggressive stop, a directional shift request from an operator to select one of forward, reverse, or neutral, and a set of operating conditions of the machine indicative of a blade load shedding mode. A jerk selection module is programmed to select at least one of a jerk value, an acceleration limit value, and a deceleration limit value based on a current operation of the machine. A speed command generating device is programmed to integrate a selected jerk value twice to generate a desired speed command. A proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control device is configured to continuously calculate a control error between the desired speed command and an actual speed of the machine. An output command control module is configured to output a control command for implementing a change in an output torque to at least one of the power source and the CVT to reduce the control error.

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Elmwood, IL, United States of America

Sean Cameron Landers