This invention is an electronically commutated brushless motor controller that incorporates Hall-array sensing in a small, 42-gram package that provides 4096 absolute counts per motor revolution position sensing. The unit is the size of a miniature hockey puck, and is a 44-pin male connector that provides many I/O channels, including CANbus, RS-232 communications, general-purpose analog and digital I/O (GPIO), analog and digital Hall inputs, DC power input (18–90 VDC, 0–l0 A), three-phase motor outputs, and a strain gauge amplifier.

This controller replaces air cooling with conduction cooling via a high-thermal- conductivity epoxy casting. A secondary advantage of the relatively good heat conductivity that comes with ultrasmall size is that temperature differences within the controller become smaller, so that it is easier to measure the hottest temperature in the controller with fewer temperature sensors, or even one temperature sensor.

Another size-sensitive design feature is in the approach to electrical noise immunity. At a very small size, where conduction paths are much shorter than in conventional designs, the ground becomes essentially isopotential, and so certain (space-consuming) electrical noise control components become unnecessary, which helps make small size possible. One winding-current sensor, applied to all of the windings in fast sequence, is smaller and wastes less power than the two or more sensors conventionally used to sense and control winding currents. An unexpected benefit of using only one current sensor is that it actually improves the precision of current control by using the “same” sensors to read each of the three phases. Folding the encoder directly into the controller electronics eliminates a great deal of redundant electronics, packaging, connectors, and hook-up wiring. The reduction of wires and connectors subtracts substantial bulk and eliminates their role in behaving as EMI (electromagnetic interference) antennas.

A shared knowledge by each motor controller of the state of all the motors in the system at 500 Hz also allows parallel processing of higher-level kinematic matrix calculations.

This work was done by William T. Townsend, Adam Crowell, and Traveler Hauptman of Barrett Technology, Inc., and Gill Andrews Pratt of Olin College for Johnson Space Center. For further information, contact the JSC Innovation Partnerships Office at (281) 483-3809.

In accordance with Public Law 96-517, the contractor has elected to retain title to this invention. Inquiries concerning rights for its commercial use should be addressed to:

Barrett Technology, Inc.

625 Mount Auburn Street

Cambridge, MA 02138-4555

Phone No.: (617) 252-9000

Web site: www.barrett.com 

MSC-23930-1