Filing Information

Inventor(s)	John B. Morrell ·
Assignee(s)	DEKA Products Limited Partnership ·  View assignee updates
Attorney/Agent(s)	Wolf, Greenfield and Sacks, P.C. ·
Primary Examiner	Leo Picard ·
Assistant Examiner	Steven R. Garland ·
Application Number	US9322431
Filing date	05/28/1999
Issue date	04/22/2003
Predicted expiration date	05/28/2019
U.S. Classifications	700/75  · 700/71  · 700/37  · 700/40  ·
International Classifications	--
Kind Code	B1
International Classifications	700 40- 43 · 700 28 · 700 37 · 700 46 · 700 52 · 700 54 · 700 55 · 700 75 · 700 76 · 700 77 · 60 39 · 60281 · 60449 · 123357 · 180178 · 415 15 ·

Patent Family

Abstract

A system and method for controlling a device such that device operates in a smooth manner. The system may switch between control architectures or vary gain coefficients used in a control loop to control the device. As the architecture or gains are switched, the control signal may be smoothed so that the device does not experience an abrupt change in the control signal it receives. In one embodiment, the control signal may be smoothed by adding a decaying offset value to the control signal to create a smoothed control signal that is applied to the device.

Independent Claims | See all claims (4)

1. 1. A system for converting between a first operating mode and a second operating mode in a device, system comprising: a control loop which utilizes gain coefficients associated with the first operating mode to control the system in the first operating mode and utilizes gain coefficients associated with the second operating mode when operating in the second operating mode; a gain selector which causes the control loop to operate using the coefficients associated with the second operational mode at substantially the same instant that the device transitions from the first operational mode to the second operational mode, wherein the gain selector determines whether the control loop utilizes the coefficients associated with the first mode or the coefficients associated with the second mode based upon a current operational mode of the device; a gain table which is accessed by the control loop and contains the coefficients which are associated with a current mode of operation; and a smoother which smoothes the output of the control loop before a control signal created by the control loop is provided to the device, wherein the smoother adds a decaying offset value to the control signal.
2. 2. A system for converting between a first operating mode and a second operating mode in a device, system comprising: a control loop which utilizes gain coefficients associated with the first operating mode to control the system in the first operating mode and utilizes gain coefficients associated with the second operating mode when operating in the second operating mode; a gain selector which causes the control loop to operate using the coefficients associated with the second operational mode at substantially the same instant that the device transitions from the first operational mode to the second operational mode, wherein the gain selector determines whether the control loop utilizes the coefficients associated with the first mode or the coefficients associated with the second mode based upon a current operational mode of the device; a gain table which is accessed by the control loop and contains the coefficients which are associated with a current mode of operation; and a smoother which smoothes the output of the control loop before a control signal created by the control loop is provided to the device, wherein the smoother adds a decaying offset value to the control signal, and wherein the offset value is determined by comparing a smoothed control signal applied to the device before the transition and a control signal created after the transition.
3. 3. A method of smoothly switching between modes in a multi-modular apparatus, the method comprising steps of: determining whether a mode change has occurred; determining an offset value if the mode has changed; and adding a decaying version of the offset value to a control signal before the control signal is applied to the apparatus to create a smoothed control signal; applying the smoothed control signal to the apparatus; and storing the smoothed control signal; wherein a difference between the stored smoothed control signal and a control signal created after the apparatus has changed modes is used to determine the offset value.