US Patent Issued to Caterpillar on Feb. 17 for "Synchronous electric machines self-sensing fault detection" (Illinois Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,556,126, issued on Feb. 17, was assigned to Caterpillar Inc. (Peoria, Ill.).

"Synchronous electric machines self-sensing fault detection" was invented by Ahmed Khalil (Dunlap, Ill.), Jackson Wai (Dunlap, Ill.) and Sajan Abdul (Dunlap, Ill.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Techniques are described to continuously calculate an inverter DC power of a synchronous machine, e.g., motor or generator, based on the individual phase currents, DC link voltage, and gate signals, which can be compared against the commanded mechanical power based of the estimated rotor speed and commanded torque. A controller can determine whether to shut down the inver...