Electricity: motive power systems inventions 12/07

20070296356 - Electronic control system for operating groups of a vehicle: Electronic control system for an actuation device of operating groups of a vehicle comprising an electronic gearcase that allows the activation and deactivation of said at least one device to be managed. The gearcase defines a first operating condition of the selective actuations defined as rest, a second condition defined... Agent: Hedman & Costigan P.C.

20070296359 - Hybrid vehicle: A hybrid vehicle includes: first and second rotary electric machines; a matrix converter connecting the first and second rotary electric machines to each other to provide AC to AC power conversion between both the rotary electric machines; a battery connected to an electrical path branched off between the matrix converter... Agent: Nixon Peabody, LLP

20070296357 - Method for controlling voltage of dc link for electric vehicle: Disclosed is a method for controlling a voltage of a DC link for an electric vehicle, which can reduce a capacitance of the DC link interposed between an inverter and a DC/DC converter. The method for controlling the voltage of the DC link in a power system of a vehicle... Agent: Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP (sf)

20070296358 - Power output apparatus and vehicle equipped therewith: An on-off duty ratio of a transistor that increases and decreases a current applied to a field coil of an alternator is monitored. When the duty ratio is 100%, the electric generation capability of the alternator is at a maximum, and the battery current of a battery exceeds a predetermined... Agent: Oliff & Berridge, PLC

20070296360 - Monitoring device of rotor position of an electric motor and corresponding method: A monitoring device for an electric motor has in input a signal representing zero crossings of the back-electromotive force of the motor and comprises a monitor that detects the signal in first periods of time arranged around instants of time in which the zero crossings are expected. The device comprises... Agent: Seed Intellectual Property Law Group PLLC

20070296361 - Speed control device for electric motor: In a speed control device including a speed instruction generating unit, an addition computing unit, a speed control unit, a current controlling unit, an inertia estimating unit, an inertia setting unit, a switching unit and a constant setting unit, when it is possible to perform accelerating or decelerating operation of... Agent: Rossi, Kimms & Mcdowell LLP.

20070296362 - Prevention of concurrent pwm or psm commutations of power signals driving a voice coil motor (vcm) to reduce s/n ratio degradation of low level signal lines of a r/w head: A method of preventing concurrent or quasi-concurrent commutations of a pair of phase shift modulation (PSM) drive signals of an output bridge stage driving an electrical load includes establishing a threshold level of a programmed current level to be transmitted though the electrical load. The method also includes, if the... Agent: Allen, Dyer, Doppelt, Milbrath & Gilchrist P.A.

20070296363 - Rectifier and system for controlling the speed of an electric motor: The invention concerns a reversible current rectifier, for connection to part of a polyphase network and to a continuous bus comprising a plurality of rectifier cells each rectifier cell including a rectifying device and a on-way electronic switch connected in anti-parallel with the rectifier device, the rectifying devices of different... Agent: Oliff & Berridge, PLC

20070296364 - Nonlinear motor control techniques: The present invention provides a torque loop control method for servomotors utilizing discontinuous pulse width modulation that incorporates measuring the power factor in real time. Also included is a sine wave generator for software-based spectrum analysis.... Agent: Patterson, Thuente, Skaar & Christensen, P.A.

20070296365 - Rotation actuator for endoscopic devices: Methods and devices are provided for rotating an end effector on a long, flexible medical device. The methods and devices utilize an actuator mechanism that is effective to rotate an end effector on the distal end of an elongate flexible shaft. The actuator mechanism is movable between a freely rotatable... Agent: Nutter Mcclennen & Fish LLP

20070296366 - Method and apparatus for controlling a haptic device: A method and apparatus for controlling a haptic device. In one embodiment, the haptic device includes an actuator; an actuator sensor, producing an actuator signal indicative of the actuator velocity; a load; a load output sensor producing a load output signal indicative of the load position; and a controller in... Agent: Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis LLP (formerly Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham)

20070296367 - Method and apparatus for controlling a magnetic bearing device: A method and a controller for controlling a magnetic bearing device, in which a rotor is suspended for rotation around a shaft, are disclosed. Sensor signals are transformed to yield tilt displacement signals (Sθx, Sθy) which correspond to tilting displacements of the shaft in predetermined directions (x, y). From the... Agent: Sughrue Mion, PLLC

20070296368 - High speed motor control: The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for generating digital electrical signals which are representative of the angular position and rotational velocity of a rotatable shaft or similar movable mechanical component in a servomechanism. In particular, the present invention utilizes oversampling techniques to create an accurate, flexible and... Agent: Patterson, Thuente, Skaar & Christensen, P.A.

20070296370 - Method and device for detecting initial excitation phase of stepping motor: A method and device for detecting an initial excitation phase of a stepping motor is provided, by which an initial excitation phase of a rotor corresponding to a position of a stopper can be detected with a unit of a stepping angle of a microstep drive which is smaller than... Agent: Kratz, Quintos & Hanson, LLP

20070296369 - Thin linear, rotary, and step motor and electromagnet driver using printed coil board: This invention first presents winding methods to make multiple printed coils on a thin multi-layered PCB. Multiple thin magnets can be laterally installed on a thin magnet board, too. Then, this invention presents variant but similar conceptual models of thin linear, rotary, and step motors and electromagnetic driver using such... Agent: Showway Yeh

20070296371 - Position sensorless control apparatus for synchronous motor: The position sensorless control apparatus is for controlling a synchronous motor having a permanent magnet rotor structure by generating fundamental voltage vectors used to designate on/off states of switching devices included in an inverter circuit thereof. The position sensorless control apparatus includes a current change rate detecting section detecting, as... Agent: Oliff & Berridge, PLC

20070296372 - Controller for ensuring start of operation of synchronous motor: A synchronous motor controller is provided which is designed to diagnose whether a failure is occurring or not in energizing one of phase windings of a synchronous motor which is required to be energized first to start the synchronous motor. When such a failure is found, the controller reverses the... Agent: Nixon & Vanderhye, PC

20070296373 - Conservation of electrical energy and electro-magnetic power in motor, generator, and product components: A capacitor, inductor, and power line are arranged in a series parallel combination tank circuit that operates over four quarters of a complete cycle. During the first quarter cycle: power is applied to the tank circuit, current flows through the inductor to the capacitor, current is stored in the inductor,... Agent: Richard David Katz

20070296374 - Emc filtering device in a variable speed drive: The invention relates to a filtering device connected between a rectifier module of a variable speed drive and an alternating current power supply network, the filtering device comprising an EMC filter comprising a common-mode inductor having a winding on each phase of the power supply network, the windings being magnetically... Agent: Oblon, Spivak, Mcclelland Maier & Neustadt, P.C.

20070296375 - Control method for motor and controller for motor: The control method includes steps of: detecting a failure or an undetectable state of a current detecting system; obtaining a current estimated value of a failure phase or an undetectable state phase by using the current detected value except the failure phase or the undetectable state phase when the failure... Agent: Sughrue-265550

20070290632 - Dual-motor whole body vibration machine with tilt mode: A device for imparting vibration to a body is disclosed, such as may be used for whole body vibration treatment. In one embodiment, a pair of linear motors are disposed on a base. Each linear motor has a stator portion secured to the base and a moveable portion that linearly... Agent: Streets & Steele

20070290633 - Controller for motor and control method for motor: A controller for a motor and a control method for a motor change an operating condition of each motor, considering difference in operating conditions, such as loss and temperature, thus making it possible to reduce a total loss in a plurality of motors. The controller includes a first motor operating... Agent: Arent Fox LLP

20070290635 - Motor controller: A motor controller which controls the driving of a plurality of motors, including for each of the plurality of motors: a motor control block for independently controlling the driving of the respective motors, wherein the respective motor control blocks includes: a storage unit that stores a pulse data value for... Agent: Hogan & Hartson L.L.P.

20070290634 - Electric drive system: An electric drive system comprising several electric drives, each of which comprises an electric motor, and a control system which is arranged to control said several electric drives and comprises a first outer controller and a first speed controller. A signal supplied to the input of the first speed controller... Agent: Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney PC

20070290636 - Photovoltaic system and method for operating a photovoltaic system: A photovoltaic system includes a plurality of photovoltaic modules and a DC motor connected to a three-phase generator driven by a shaft. The three-phase generator is connected to a power mains. The electric power supplied to the DC motor by the plurality of photovoltaic modules is repeatedly measured and adjusted,... Agent: Henry M. Feiereisen Henry M. Feiereisen, LLC

20070290637 - Hot spot sensoring control of linear motors: A system implementing a controller for linear motors is disclosed having a plurality of switches, a reorganization switch control detecting available hot spot sensors, encoder failures, and current sensor failures, and a storage storing a decision matrix having controller reorganization conditions. Upon detecting available hot spot sensors, encoder failures and... Agent: Ip Authority, LLC Ramraj Soundararajan

20070290638 - Wireless encoder: A wireless encoder system facilitates operation and control of a motor, such as linear motor. The system includes an encoder sensor moveable with a first part of the motor. The encoder sensor is operative to sense movement of the first part relative the second part and provide an encoder signal... Agent: Rockwell Automation, Inc./(at)

20070290639 - Motor controller: This invention provides a motor controller that can reduce the influence of noisy sound and a torque ripple due to noise. A current command value calculating unit 3 respectively outputs current command values of n phases of an n-phase brushless motor 7. n current deviation calculating units 22a to 22c... Agent: Sughrue-265550

20070290640 - Motor drive control: A drive system for a multi-phase brushless motor comprises a single current sensor drive circuit, including switch means 16, switchable between a plurality of states. A controller is arranged to provide pulse width modulated drive signals to control the switch means 16 so as to control the time that the... Agent: Macmillan, Sobanski & Todd, LLC

20070290641 - Storage device and motor control device: In a storage device, a BEMF control is not performed on a motor and the motor is stopped if the motor is in a BEMF-control possible state. Once the motor has completely stopped, a start-up control is performed on the motor.... Agent: Patrick G. Burns, Esq. Greer, Burns & Crain, Ltd.

20070290642 - Vehicle switch: A vehicle switch includes a magnet mounted to an operating unit accommodated in an external packaging such that the operating unit can move linearly. A magnetic detector is placed so as to receive different strength of the magnetism from the magnet in the two cases that the operating unit is... Agent: Ratnerprestia

20070290643 - Drive regenerative control system: Provided is a drive regenerative control system of a drivee with a motor superior in torque and weight balance and suitable for miniaturization as the drive source. In a drive regenerative control system having a drive source with an electric motor, a drivee, a control circuit having a drive control... Agent: Harness, Dickey & Pierce, P.L.C

20070290644 - Cold rattle reduction control system: A control system for controlling an electric machine (EM) of a hybrid electric vehicle is provided. The system includes: an enable module that selectively enables a motoring mode of the EM based on ambient air temperature; and an EM control module that commands the EM to provide motoring torque as... Agent: General Motors Corporation Legal Staff

20070290645 - Method, system, and apparatus for controlling an electric motor: The present invention provides systems and methods for power factor control of a motor. A phase detector uses a line voltage of a power supply and a motor terminal voltage of a motor. The output of the phase detector is synchronized to a zero crossing of the motor current of... Agent: Lewis And Roca LLP

20070290646 - Soft start time delay relay: An electrically driven device with a soft start includes an electric motor, a motor driven element operatively connected to the motor, and a power switch. A time delay relay is electrically connected to the motor and the power switch. The time delay relay is configured to provide a mechanically controlled... Agent: Helen Odar Wolstoncroft Tyco Electronics Corporation

20070290647 - Motor controller: A motor controller is provided which can be reduced in the number of the wirings and power semiconductor devices required while maintaining the function equivalent to or higher than that of the motor controller adopting the existing winding changeover scheme, thereby realizing cost and size reduction and life increase. The... Agent: Sughrue Mion, PLLC

20070290648 - Control system: A control system which is capable of avoiding an overloaded state of an actuator without using sensors or the like. An ECU 2 of the control system 1 calculates a lift control input U_Liftin to a variable valve lift mechanism 50 with an algorithm expressed by equations (2) to (5),... Agent: Arent Fox LLP

20070290649 - Robot confinement: The present invention discloses a system and method for confining a robot to a particular space. The system includes a portable barrier signal transmitter that produces a barrier signal primarily along an axis, and a mobile robot capable of avoiding the barrier signal upon detection of the barrier signal. In... Agent: Fish & Richardson PC

20070290650 - Motor control unit and vehicle equipped therewith: A motor unit and a vehicle equipped with the unit according to the invention includes a control unit that selects a switching frequency, that is, a carrier frequency, in accordance with a rotation speed of the motor and a torque required from a motor. When an inverter temperature becomes high,... Agent: Oliff & Berridge, PLC

20070290651 - Solar power control using irradiance: Distribution of solar power in a solar DC source—variable frequency drive (VFD)—AC motor system is controlled by using solar irradiance. In addition, motor speed may be controlled as a function of available power, i.e. maximum power point tracking of motor speed, using solar irradiance.... Agent: Worldwater & Power Corp.

20070290652 - A method for controlling a cycle-skipping control system including computer readable code and controller for performing such method: A method, computer-readable code, and controller are provided for controlling a cycle-skipping control system having two or more cycle skippers connected to a common multi-phase AC (alternating current) power source to drive a variable frequency load. A respective firing sequence is generated to be applied to a plurality of power... Agent: Beusse Wolter Sanks Mora & Maire, P.A.

20070285034 - Motor-driving circuit and recording apparatus including the same: A motor-driving circuit drives a plurality of motors of different types. The motor-driving circuit includes a plurality of H-bridge circuits for outputting driving signals to the motors, a controller for controlling the plurality of H-bridge circuits, a setting section for setting up the controller, and terminals for inputting setting data.... Agent: Canon U.s.a. Inc. Intellectual Property Division

20070285035 - Electromotive linear drive: The invention relates to an electromotive linear drive (10) for adjustable components of furniture. The electromotive linear drive is constructed in such a manner that the full function is guaranteed, for the smallest possible dimensions and for the smallest possible number of components. According to the invention, the output element... Agent: Henry M Feiereisen, LLC

20070285036 - A device and method for reducing disk drive power consumption: Introduced is a device to reduce disk drive power consumption during start-up. In one embodiment the device provides for (1) a speed control module associated with a disk drive motor; and (2) a controller coupled to the speed control module that incrementally increases the spindle rotational speed of the disk... Agent: Hitt Gaines, PC Lsi Corporation

20070285037 - Electric motor brake engagement holdup system: An electric motor system includes a motor brake control circuit that uses current induced in the motor stator from generated back EMF to keep the motor brake energized and in its disengaged position, should electric power be lost to the motor system. When the motor has slowed sufficiently that the... Agent: Honeywell International Inc.

20070285038 - Full bridge circuit and dc motor capable of fixing output voltage and avoiding reverse current: A full bridge circuit includes a first switch, a second switch, a third switch, a fourth switch, a first controller, a second controller, a first operational amplifier, a first multiplexer, a second operational amplifier, and a second multiplexer. The first controller includes a first output coupled to the first switch.... Agent: North America Intellectual Property Corporation

20070285039 - Solar circulation pump and method for controlling a solar circulation pump, for controlling the starting of and for setting the performance of a solar circulation pump: To provide a solar circulation pump for connection to a photovoltaic panel device, comprising an electric motor which is electronically commutated and has a control device for supplying a periodic commutation signal, it is proposed that the control device be so configured that the commutation signal is varied with respect... Agent: Lipsitz & Mcallister, LLC

20070285040 - Synthetic nervous system for robotics: A synthetic nervous system (10) capable of rudimental learning and self-organization for robotic applications having a control circuit (190) and servo actuators (224) using oscillating continuously variable analog voltages to mimic natural bio-neural processes. Simple oscillators (1-8) capable of being modulated in frequency, phase, amplitude, and DC offset act as... Agent: Seed Intellectual Property Law Group PLLC

20070285041 - Method and system for multi-mode coverage for an autonomous robot: A control system for a mobile robot (10) is provided to effectively cover a given area by operating in a plurality of modes, including an obstacle following mode (51) and a random bounce mode (49). In other embodiments, spot coverage, such as spiraling (45), or other modes are also used... Agent: Fish & Richardson PC

20070285042 - Microcontroller methods of improving reliability in dc brushless motors and cooling fans: A method of controlling a motor speed for a fan assembly includes receiving a duty cycle value at a microcontroller. The microcontroller receives a measured fan speed from a speed sensor. An expected fan speed is determined, where the expected fan speed corresponds to the duty cycle value. The measured... Agent: Townsend And Townsend And Crew, LLP

20070285043 - Control and motor arrangement for use in model train: A control and motor arrangement in accordance with the present invention includes a motor configured to generate a locomotive force for propelling the model train. The control and motor arrangement further includes a command control interface configured to receive commands from a command control unit wherein the commands correspond to... Agent: Brian M Berliner, Esq O'melveny & Myers, LLP

20070285044 - Control apparatus, dual chip inverter and single chip inverter of ac motors: A control apparatus and a semiconductor apparatus of AC motors capable of reducing torque ripple with a comparatively simple circuit corresponding to a high withstand voltage and capable of driving a motor at high efficiency even when the rotational speed or load has changed. The control apparatus detects first phase... Agent: Mcdermott Will & Emery LLP

20070285045 - Process for controlling torque in a calendering system: A method for controlling a calendering system having a first roll having a first roll speed controller and a second roll having a second roll speed controller is disclosed. An exemplary method comprises the steps of: (a) setting the first roll at a desired process speed with the first roll... Agent: The Procter & Gamble Company Intellectual Property Division - West Bldg.

20070285046 - Semiconductor element drive device, power conversion device, motor drive device, semiconductor element drive method, power conversion method, and motor drive method: The present invention provides a high-reliability IGBT drive device that is capable of avoiding an accident such as an upper/lower arm short circuit when a malfunction occurs due to a potential change at a connection point between series-connected IGBTs. High- and low-voltage side IGBTs are complementarily ON/OFF controlled before and... Agent: Crowell & Moring LLP Intellectual Property Group

20070285047 - Circuit for using the sign transitions of a motor phase and a motor phase back emf currents to control pwm: A circuit for optimizing power transferred from an inverter circuit to a motor, the circuit using an open loop method to start-up the motor and have it reach a minimum speed, each phase of the motor receiving voltage from the inverter circuit. The circuit including at least one phase detector... Agent: Ostrolenk Faber Gerb & Soffen

20070278976 - Drive apparatus of piezoelectric actuator, electronic apparatus, drive method of electronic apparatus, drive control program of electronic apparatus, and medium: An electronic device comprising a power source, a piezoelectric actuator A, and a drive control apparatus 100 for controlling the driving of the piezoelectric actuator, wherein the drive control apparatus 100 is provided with a drive circuit 111 for supplying a drive signal SDR to the piezoelectric element of the... Agent: GlobalIPCounselors, LLP

20070278977 - Linear motor door actuator: The present invention relates to an alternating current electrical motor having a first element with magnets of alternating polarities, and a second element with electrical conductor coils, the first and the second elements being mounted for relative motion to one another. A controller for the electrical motor comprising: a current... Agent: Ogilvy Renault LLP

20070278978 - Motor having multiple independent armature winding sets: A motor is provided that includes multiple sets of independent stator windings that are not magnetically coupled, which allows the motor to be driven by multiple independent current drivers, and thereby increases the overall torque generated by the motor. In one embodiment, the motor is a brushless DC motor that... Agent: Honeywell International Inc.

20070278979 - Stator position adjustment method and device: A stator position adjustment method and device relating to a motor driving device including a motor case, a rotor and a stator disposed on an outer periphery of the rotor concentrically with the rotor, includes adjusting a position of the stator relative to an axial center of the rotor, wherein:... Agent: Oliff & Berridge, PLC

20070278980 - Motorized system and method of control: A system and method for generating a controlled motion path with a machine-tool system having a controller operating in a servo rate. The method includes a first interpolation step, in which a path segment corresponding to a number of servo update periods is calculated. After the first interpolation step, a... Agent: Langlotz Patent Works, Inc.

20070278981 - Method for using a wearable interactive movable device: The method is for interacting with a wearable interactive device. A pathway extends through an interactive device that is non-slidably attached to the pathway. The pathway has a first end and a second end. At least one end of the pathway is attached to a body of a user. The... Agent: Fasth Law Offices (rolf Fasth)

20070278982 - Control device for stepping motor: A pattern register stores an excitation pattern of stepping motors. A first pattern control unit reads out an excitation pattern for n bits from a predetermined address of a pattern register for supplying the same to an external motor driver. A second pattern control unit reads out an excitation pattern... Agent: Fitzpatrick Cella Harper & Scinto

20070278984 - 2-phase switched reluctance device and associated control topologies: A 2-phase switched reluctance device topology includes a switched reluctance device having first and second phase coils. Each of the first and second phase coils has a first terminal and a second terminal. The first terminal of each of the first and second phase coils is electrically coupled between two... Agent: Caterpillar/finnegan, Henderson, L.L.P.

20070278983 - Control of electrical machines: An electrical machine, such as a switched reluctance motor, has a rotor and a controller arranged to energize at least one electrically energizable phase winding in dependence on the angular position of the rotor. The controller may employ a control law table derived by applying a predetermined DC link voltage... Agent: Morrison & Foerster LLP

20070278985 - System and method for starting a wound rotor motor: A system and method for starting and regulating a wound rotor motor (320) including a phase-controlled SCR converter (350) and a drive circuit (330, 340) having a voltage source inverter (340) and a voltage source converter (330). The SCR converter (350) regulates power transmitted to the drive circuit from the... Agent: Woods, Rogers, P.L.C

20070278986 - Electric motor drive control system and control method thereof: A voltage command value of a converter is set by executing the step of determining a candidate voltage of a system voltage VH as a converter output voltage in a voltage range from the minimum necessary voltage corresponding to induction voltage of a motor generator and a maximum output voltage... Agent: Oliff & Berridge, PLC

20070278987 - Electrical multiphase machine and method for operating same: An electrical multiphase machine is proposed with a stator (3) including a winding (5;6) having at least two strands (51, 52, 53; 61, 62) for generating an electromagnetic field, each strand (51, 52, 53; 61, 62) belonging to a different electrical phase; furthermore with a setting device (4) which supplies... Agent: Townsend And Townsend And Crew, LLP

20070278988 - Common mode filter for motor controllers: A motor drive circuit has a converter for coupling to an AC voltage source and an inverter coupled to the converter for providing a drive current for a motor. A common mode circulation loop is coupled to the converter and to the inverter, and circulates common mode current from both... Agent: Honeywell International Inc.