|Publication number||US7339334 B2|
|Application number||US 11/406,300|
|Publication date||Mar 4, 2008|
|Filing date||Apr 19, 2006|
|Priority date||Apr 19, 2006|
|Also published as||US20070248337|
|Publication number||11406300, 406300, US 7339334 B2, US 7339334B2, US-B2-7339334, US7339334 B2, US7339334B2|
|Inventors||Chuan-Po Ling, Jung-Lin Chang, Shih-Yu Lin|
|Original Assignee||Padauk Technology Co., Ltd.|
|Export Citation||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Patent Citations (11), Referenced by (3), Classifications (6), Legal Events (4)|
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet|
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a motor control system, particularly to a real-time responsive motor control system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electromechanical control technology plays an important role in daily living; it facilitates rotary and linear motions required for applications ranging from less-sophisticated household appliances to sophisticated electronic systems and computers. With the increase in the scale and the complexity of electromechanical systems, more sophisticated electromechanical control technology is desired to meet the performance, safety and power efficiency requirements. Small-size electromechanical systems are usually employed in applications, which require highly precise electromechanical control. Large-size electromechanical systems, such as a robot, are usually employed in applications, which require very complex electromechanical control in which real-time responsiveness is very critical.
An example of the conventional electromechanical control systems may be understood with reference to
In the abovementioned control system of a brushless DC motor, all the signals, instructions, and interruptions are processed by only a single microcontroller, which may be easily overloaded. As the microcontroller is burdened with a lot of signals, instructions, and interruptions simultaneously, the microcontroller may be unable to timely process phase detection and speed calculation to output accurate motor control signals. Further, to meet different motor control theory requirements, the hardware configuration of such a control system usually needs to be greatly modified for different applications. In this situation, not only the hardware design becomes complicated but the cost is also considerably high. Meanwhile, the adaptability of the motor control systems is pretty limited because each type of motor needs its special control system.
Accordingly, the present invention proposes a real-time responsive motor control system to solve the abovementioned problems, wherein the motor control parameters, such as phase and rotation speed, can be more precisely controlled; a modularized hardware design simplifies the architecture of the motor control system; and the adaptability of the motor control system is greatly enhanced due to flexible software programming. In addition to the simpler hardware and more flexible software, the motor control system of the present invention can focus its core function on the theoretical calculation for motor control. Thus, the present invention reduces cost, simplifies hardware design, and provides more precise motor control to optimize the motor system.
The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a real-time responsive motor control system, wherein an MMCU (Multi-MicroController Unit) system is used to control the motor device. In the MMCU system, dedicated PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) MCU core logics are provided which function under simple software programming so that precise motor control is achieved with a simple hardware design.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a real-time responsive motor control system, which includes an MMCU system having at least one PWM MCU core logic dedicated to the calculation of PWM signals and control signals required for motor control. The PWM MCU core logics may independently detect the motor phase signals from a phase-processing MCU core logic. In response thereto, the PWM MCU core logics may accurately perform the switching of modulated pulses, or stop a program presently executed, or begin executing a new program. The PWM MCU core logics do not accept any interrupt request; all system interrupt requests are processed by a central MCU core logic. Preferably, the central MCU core logic can directly control any of the PWM MCU core logics to promptly stop the program presently being executed, or to directly interpose a program to be executed by the PWM MCU core logic, so that the system may generate accurate motor control signals. The PWM MCU core logics are microcontrollers (also referred to as microprocessors) capable of being programmed to execute a program. e.g., a sequence of coded instructions enabling the PWM MCU core logics to perform a prescribed sequence of processing operations to process PWM signals.
According to one aspect of the present invention, the present invention proposes a real-time responsive motor control system, wherein a central MCU core logic of an MMCU (Multi-MicroController Unit) control system takes charge of all interrupt events and all signal calculations, and at least one PWM MCU core logic is dedicated to work out the PWM signals required for motor operation. Each PWM MCU core logic can perform data calculation independently and provide PWM signals for the corresponding switch set in a motor switch module of a motor device. The central MCU core logic can control the execution or termination of a program in each PWM MCU core logic. The PWM MCU core logics may actively detect the control signals from a phase-processing MCU core logic to determine whether to output PWM signals and the magnitudes thereof. Thereby, the accuracy of the PWM signals output by each PWM MCU core logic can be increased.
According to another aspect of the present invention, in a motor control system having a motor device and an MMCU system with dedicated PWM MCU core logics, a phase-detection unit obtains phase signals corresponding to the phase variation of a motor coil module of the motor device, and the phase signals are sent to a phase-processing MCU core logic to be processed thereby. Then, the phase-processing MCU core logic sends the processed results to a central MCU core logic. An error-processing MCU core logic receives error signals from an error-detection circuit. Besides the phase signals from the phase-processing MCU core logic, the central MCU core logic receives the error signals from the error-processing MCU core logic and timing signals from a timer. Next, the central MCU core logic analyzes those signals with reference to a sinusoidal lookup table to accurately work out the current signals required for the motor device. The current signals are transmitted to PWM MCU core logics and transformed by the PWM MCU core logics into PWM signals. Then, the PWM signals are output to a motor switch module of the motor device to determine the on/off timings of each switch set. According to a simplified hardware architecture of the motor control system of the present invention, the abovementioned timer, sinusoidal lookup table, and error-processing MCU core logic may be integrated into the central MCU core logic.
Thus, the present invention assures the accuracy of PWM signals via dedicated PWM MCU core logics. The modularized hardware design and flexible software programming reduce the cost of the motor system according to this invention, and make it easily applicable to a wide range of applications.
To enable the objectives, technical contents, characteristics, and accomplishments to be more easily understood, the embodiments of the present invention are to be described in details in cooperation with the attached drawings below.
Motors are one of the most important electromechanical devices in industry automation. In order to achieve the optimal performance, the speed and position of a motor should be precisely and efficiently controlled with instant dynamic response. To meet the abovementioned requirements, the present invention proposes a real-time responsive motor control system, which replaces the conventional design wherein only one single MCU is used to control related PWM hardware by an MMCU (Multi-MicroController Unit) system with dedicated PWM MCU core logics, and utilizes a flexible software design to generate PWM signals for motor control. Thus, critical motor parameters can be controlled through software, which creates a new territory for future development.
In the abovementioned motor-control MCU unit 23, all interrupt events are processed exclusively by the central MCU core logic 232 lest the interrupt events interfere with the execution of PWM programs and the calculation/transformation of PWM signals, which are performed by PWM MCU core logics 241, 242, 243, 244, 245, and 246.
It may be readily understood by one skilled in this art that, the abovementioned error-processing MCU core logic 234, timer 235, and sinusoidal lookup table 236 may be integrated into the central MCU core logic 232 (integrated arrangement not shown in the diagrams) so that the motor control system of the present invention can be simplified.
A motor switch module comprises several (typically six) motor switch transistors. According to this invention, there are more than one possible arrangement for the correspondence between the PWM MCU core logics and switch transistors in the motor switch module.
In addition to the above arrangements, it is also possible for the relationship between the PWM MCU core logics and the switch transistors of the motor switch module to be one-to-three correspondence or otherwise. The control operation thereof is similar to what is described above and will not be repeated here.
Moreover, for even better accuracy of the output PWM signals, it is preferable that any of the abovementioned PWM MCU core logics may be directly controlled by another MCU core logic, for example by the central MCU core logic, to promptly stop the program being executed by the PWM MCU core logic, or to directly interpose a program into the PWM MCU core logic and enable the PWM MCU core logic to execute it.
The system may be arranged so that any of the abovementioned PWM MCU core logics may directly detect phase signals from the phase-processing MCU core logic, and in response to the detected phase signals, stops its present program or starts executing a new program.
In the motor control system of the present invention, complicated hardware is not required; while simple software control and modularized motor control hardware are used which simplify system design and reduce associated cost. Further, dedicated PWM MCU core logics are provided to process PWM signals, which enhance the accuracy of the motor control system of the present invention.
Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the details thereof. Various substitutions and modifications will occur to those of ordinary skill in the art. Therefore, all such substitutions and modifications are intended to be embraced within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.
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|U.S. Classification||318/254.2, 388/907.5, 318/722|
|Apr 24, 2006||AS||Assignment|
Owner name: PADAUK TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD., TAIWAN
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:LING, CHUAN-PO;CHANG, JUNG-LIN;LIN, SHIH-YU;REEL/FRAME:017528/0284
Effective date: 20060417
|Sep 9, 2011||SULP||Surcharge for late payment|
|Sep 9, 2011||FPAY||Fee payment|
Year of fee payment: 4
|Sep 1, 2015||FPAY||Fee payment|
Year of fee payment: 8