Patent ID: 8659260
Filing Date: 2014-02-25
Classification: B62D

Abstract:
1. A motor drive apparatus for a motor driven by electric power supplied from a DC power source, the motor drive apparatus comprising: a plurality of motor drive parts formed of a plurality of inverters and a plurality of winding sets, respectively, each inverter being for converting the electric power of the DC power source into AC power, and each winding set being for driving the motor with the AC power supplied from the inverter; a control unit configured to perform a plurality of (“m”: integer equal to 2 or more) failure detection processing with respect to each of the plurality of motor drive parts in an order from first to “m”-th failure detection processing before starting to drive the motor, the control unit configured to control power supply to the motor drive part by determining failure or no-failure in the motor drive part by the plurality of failure detection processing; and a power interruption section provided to supply or interrupt the electric power from the DC power source to the plurality of motor drive parts, wherein the power interruption section is configured to interrupt, when the control unit determines that a specific one of the motor drive parts has failure, the electric power from being supplied from the DC power source to the specific one of the motor drive parts, and wherein the control unit is configured to inhibit execution of next one of the plurality of failure detection processing for the specified one of the motor drive parts after determination of the failure.