Motor with rotor-mounted control circuitry
View Patent ↗A rotating electromechanical machine has a rotor having at least one current-carrying winding and at least one rotor-mounted sensor configured to sense a machine property or parameter during machine operation. Rotor-mounted circuitry dynamically modifies at least one property of the current-carrying winding during machine operation in response to the sensed machine property or parameter.
1. An electrical rotating machine, comprising:
a rotor having at least one current-carrying circuit;
at least one rotor-mounted sensor configured to sense an electrical machine property during machine operation; and
rotor-mounted electrical circuitry responsive to the rotor-mounted sensor, wherein the electrical circuitry is configured to dynamically modify a property of the current-carrying circuit during machine operation in response to the sensed electrical machine property, the property modification being a modification of a property value, to an approximate target value, in a range that may be any value from a minimum property value to a maximum property value and the effective value of the property of the current-carrying circuit is determined by a switching pulse rate, pulse width, and/or amplitude of a switched variable.
2. The electrical machine of claim 1 , wherein the at least one rotor-mounted sensor is configured to sense at least one of a circuit voltage, a circuit current, a magnetic field, a magnetic permeability, a temperature, a speed, a rotation rate, a rotation angle and/or an angular acceleration.
3. The electrical machine of claim 1 , wherein the rotor-mounted circuitry configured to modify a property of the current-carrying circuit comprises one or more electronic switching devices.
4. The electrical machine of claim 3 , wherein the electronic switching device comprise one or more of a triac, a silicon-controlled rectifier, solid state relay, and/or a thyristor.
5. The electrical machine of claim 1 , wherein the rotor-mounted circuitry configured to modify a property of the current-carrying circuit comprises a linear electronic device and/or circuit.
6. The electrical machine of claim 5 , wherein the linear electronic device and/or circuit comprises at least one of a MOSFET, an IGBT, and/or a bipolar transistor.
7. The electrical machine of claim 1 , wherein the rotor-mounted circuitry configured to modify a property of the current-carrying circuit comprises one or more active or passive electronic devices placed in series and/or parallel with all or part of the current-carrying circuit.
8. The electrical machine of claim 1 , wherein the rotor-mounted circuitry configured to modify a property of the current-carrying circuit comprises a voltage source, and/or a current source, a source of electrical reactance, and/or energy storage/supply device.
9. The electrical machine of claim 8 , wherein the energy storage/supply device comprises one or more of an inductor, a capacitor, a primary and/or secondary battery.
10. The electrical machine of claim 9 , wherein the energy storage/supply device comprises a device that is rechargeable during machine operation.
11. The electrical machine of claim 1 , wherein the rotor-mounted circuitry is configured to modify one or more of real and/or reactive impedance, capacitance, reluctance , magnetic saturation, inductance and/or mutual inductance of the current-carrying circuit.
12. The electrical machine of claim 1 , wherein the rotor-mounted circuitry is configured to vary the property of the current-carrying circuit as a function of rotor angle or position, rotation rate, and/or angular acceleration.
13. The electrical machine of claim 1 , wherein the rotor-mounted circuitry is configured to vary the property of the current-carrying circuit as a continuous function.
14. The electrical machine of claim 1 , wherein the rotor-mounted circuitry is configured to vary the property of the current-carrying circuit between a set of discrete property values.
15. The electrical machine of claim 1 , wherein the rotor-mounted circuitry is configured to vary the property of the current-carrying circuit in response to a time history of sensor values.
16. The electrical machine of claim 1 , wherein the rotor-mounted circuitry configured to vary the property of the current-carrying circuit comprises a switch-mode regulator.
17. The electrical machine of claim 16 , wherein the switch-mode regulator switches the property of the current-carrying circuit at a rate higher than a nominal frequency.
18. The electrical machine of claim 17 , wherein the nominal frequency of the electrical machine is the rotor's angular frequency or a pole frequency of the electrical machine.
19. The electrical machine of claim 17 , wherein the nominal frequency is about 10 KHz.
20. The electrical machine of claim 17 , wherein the nominal frequency is about 100 KHz.
21. The electrical machine of claim 17 , wherein the nominal frequency is about 1 MHz.
22. The electrical machine of claim 1 , further comprising, a controller configured to supervise operation of the at least one rotor-mounted sensor and the rotor-mounted circuitry.
23. The electrical machine of claim 22 , wherein the controller is configured or programmed to regulate a machine operating parameter.
24. The electrical machine of claim 22 , wherein the machine operating parameter is one of a starting current, a running current, a rotor speed and/or acceleration, a temperature at a rotor location, a power consumption, and/or a torque.
25. The electrical machine of claim 22 , wherein the controller comprises one or more rotor-mounted controller components and/or off-rotor controller components.
26. The electrical machine of claim 25 , wherein off-rotor components are configured to communicate with the rotor-mounted circuitry, the at least one rotor-mounted sensor and/or the one or more rotor-mounted controller components via optical, RF, acoustic, ultrasound, inductive, capacitive, and/or conducting means.
27. The electrical machine of claim 22 , wherein the controller is configured to receive data inputs, settings, and commands from off-rotor sensors and/or external sources.
28. A method comprising:
during operation of an electrical rotating machine having a rotor with at least one current-carrying circuit,
sensing a machine property using at least one rotor-mounted sensor; and
dynamically modifying a property of the current-carrying circuit in response to the sensed machine property, the property modification being a modification of a property value, to an approximate target value, in a range that may be any value from a minimum property value to a maximum property value and the effective value of the property of the current-carrying circuit is determined by a switching pulse rate, pulse width, and/or amplitude of a switched variable.
29. The method of claim 28 , wherein sensing a machine property using at least one rotor-mounted sensor comprises sensing at least one of a circuit current, a circuit voltage, a magnetic field, a magnetic permeability, a temperature, a rotation rate, a rotation angle, and/or an angular acceleration.
30. The method of claim 28 , wherein dynamically modifying a property of the current-carrying circuit comprises deploying rotor-mounted circuitry to modify a property of the current-carrying circuit.
31. The method of claim 28 , wherein the rotor-mounted circuitry comprises one or more active electronic devices.
32. The method of claim 28 , wherein the rotor-mounted circuitry comprises one or more electronic switching devices.
33. The method of claim 28 , wherein the rotor-mounted circuitry comprises one or more of a triac, a silicon-controlled rectifier, solid state relay, and/or a thyristor.
34. The method of claim 28 , wherein the rotor-mounted circuitry comprises one or more linear electronic devices and/or circuits.
35. The method of claim 28 , wherein the rotor-mounted circuitry comprises one or more active or passive electronic devices placed in series and/or parallel with all or part of the current-carrying circuit.
36. The method of claim 28 , wherein the rotor-mounted circuitry comprises a voltage source, a current source, a source of electrical reactance, and/or an energy storage/supply device.
37. The method of claim 36 , wherein the energy storage/supply device comprises one or more of an inductor, a capacitor, a primary battery, a secondary battery, an inductively sourced circuit and/or an electromechanically sourced circuit.
38. The method of claim 36 , wherein the energy storage/supply device comprises a device that is rechargeable during machine operation.
39. The method of claim 28 , wherein the rotor-mounted circuitry is configured to modify a current or an impedance of the current-carrying circuit.
40. The method of claim 28 , wherein the rotor-mounted circuitry is configured to vary the property of the current-carrying circuit in time as a function of rotor angle or position, rotation rate, and/or angular acceleration.
41. The method of claim 28 , wherein the rotor-mounted circuitry is configured to vary the property of the current-carrying circuit as a continuous function.
42. The method of claim 28 , wherein the rotor-mounted circuitry is configured to vary the property of the current-carrying circuit between a set of discrete property values.
43. The method of claim 28 , wherein the rotor-mounted circuitry is configured to vary the property of the current-carrying circuit in response to a time history of sensor values.
44. The method of claim 28 , wherein the rotor-mounted circuitry configured to vary the property of the current-carrying circuit comprises a switch-mode regulator.
45. The method of claim 28 , wherein the switch-mode regulator switches the property of the current-carrying circuit at a rate higher than a nominal frequency.
46. The method of claim 45 , wherein the nominal frequency of the electrical machine is the rotor's angular frequency or a pole frequency of the electrical machine.
47. The method of claim 45 , wherein the nominal frequency is about 10 KHz.
48. The method of claim 45 , wherein the nominal frequency is about 100 KHz.
49. The method of claim 45 , wherein the nominal frequency is about 1MHz.
50. The method of claim 28 , further comprising, a controller configured to supervise operation of the at least one rotor-mounted sensor and the rotor-mounted circuitry.
51. The method of claim 28 , wherein the controller is configured or programmed to regulate a machine operating parameter.
52. The method of claim 28 , wherein the machine operating parameter is one of a starting current, a running current, a rotor speed and/or acceleration, a temperature at a rotor location, a power consumption, and/or a torque.
53. The method of claim 28 , wherein the controller comprises one or more rotor-mounted controller components and/or off-rotor controller components.
54. The method of claim 28 , wherein off-rotor components are configured to communicate with the rotor-mounted circuitry, the at least one rotor-mounted sensor and/or the one or more rotor-mounted controller components via optical, RF, acoustic, ultrasound, inductive, capacitive, and/or conducting means.
55. The method of claim 28 , wherein the controller is configured to receive data inputs, settings, and commands from off-rotor sensors and/or external sources.