R&D Contract Engineering Services in Fault Resilient Control

Control System R&D - Electro Standards Laboratories offers turnkey R&D Contract Engineering Services in the development of fault resilient control. Proper operation of high performance motor drives over the entire speed range critically depends upon reliable operation of the feedback sensors. In the event of sensor failures, it is desirable that the motor system continues to operate, even if under a diminished perfomance capacity. ESL has developed a fault tolerant motor control system with automatic controller reconfiguration. The system adaptively reorganizes itself in the event of sensor losses to sustain the best control performance given the complement of remaining sensors.

Below is a block diagram of a fault tolerant control strategy. All available sensor information to conduct motor control is used, and an order of controller preference is defined.Transition between control strategies may depend upon a number of factors and, in fact, may not be in sequential order as shown in the block diagram. The most basic is availability of needed sensors. However, the transition strategy includes an assessment of performance as well as operating stability. This innovative system has application to hybrid electric vehicles as well as any critical path electric motor application. Benefits include increased fault tolerance and improved mean time between failures without additional hardware. ESL's Engineering Services Group can design a system to meet your exact requirements.

Fault Tolerant Controller Reconfiguration Precedence.