Functional protection of sensorless controlled electric motors in cooperation with Schaeffler SHARE at KIT

Context

Sensorless control of electric motors is a highly topical field of research that is used in the automotive industry and robotics in particular. By dispensing with physical sensors, costs can be reduced and the reliability of the systems increased. For use in safety-critical environments, the control system must be safeguarded to ensure functional safety.

Aims

This work aims to enable the use of innovative approaches for sensorless control of electric motors in safety-critical environments. A particular focus is on safeguarding the control at system level by, for example, alternatively calculating the control variables or performing plausibility checks on these control variables. For this purpose, an Operational Design Domain (ODD) can be defined in order to clearly outline the areas of application and limits of the control strategies developed. At the end of the work, a safety concept should be available that can achieve a previously defined ASIL level.

The basis is an electric motor and control system from Schaeffler, with whom the work is being carried out in cooperation.

Prerequisites

• Strong interest in (and ideally basic knowledge of) functional safety
• Work in a team of two possible with ETI