Abstract:
There is disclosed an electric mower, preferably of the riding type, in which microcontrollers are interposed between quadrature controllers and motors operating each of the drive wheels. The microcontrollers are programmed to provide pulse width modulated current drive control and braking. Other functions are controlled electronically to assure operations that are not harmful to the operator, the motors, the battery or the lawn being mowed.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates to the field of self-propelled electric vehicles, particularly to relatively small electric vehicles and even more particularly to self-propelled, riding electric lawn mowers. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Electric lawn mowers are desirable for environmental reasons in that they greatly reduce, if not entirely eliminate, the noise pollution and the atmospheric pollution inherent in the more commonly used mowers driven by small internal combustion engines. However, it is more common to find electrical drives in walk-behind mowers that are tethered to an electrical outlet by a power cord than it is to find them in larger and heavier riding mowers. 
     Self-propelled electric mowers and especially self-propelled riding electric mowers, are not common. This is largely due to higher cost and lower efficiencies of the electrical motors previously available, and the high cost, relative inefficiency and low reliability of electrical controls previously available. Recently when efficient large permanent magnet motors and low cost, reliable electronic power control devices became commercially available such machines became feasible. The art, therefor has not provided the other advantages that on-board electrical power provides. These include control by flexible wire, or optical fiber, of remote functions such as drives permitting articulation without complicated connections and control by programmed controllers interposed between the operator and the functioning parts to provide optimal, smooth operation and safety for both the operator and the lawn being mowed. 
     It is an object of the instant invention to provide intelligent control of an electric mower, or any related small, self-propelled, wheeled-device, particularly self-propelled riding electric mowers, and to provide control by wire of the driving wheels thereof and a contour-following mower deck. 
     STATEMENT OF INVENTION 
     The invention is an electric lawn mower comprising: 
     a frame supporting at least two opposed wheels driven by individual associated reversible electric motors through gear reduction boxes or the like, a source of electrical power for said motors, operating controls for directing electrical power selectively to each of said motors for mower-operator actuation, an electrical system interconnecting said source of power, said operator controls and said motors, the mower preferably having at least one swiveling tail wheel and an articulated sub-frame from which a ground following mower deck is suspended to carry at least one motor driven cutter blade; the improvement comprising: 
     an intelligent control system programmed to avoid conditions harmful to said electrical system and its components and to avoid conditions harmful to safe operation of said mower or harmful to its operator or damaging to the lawn being cut, and to optimize in real time mower operation; 
     said control system interposed electrically between said operating controls and said motors: 
     said control system further receiving informational input from said operating controls indicating both existing status and any actuation indicating operator&#39;s control directives; 
     said control system still further receiving input from said motors indicating the current status thereof in terms of one or more of the conditions of speed, direction of turning, back EMF, drive current, temperature and load. 
     The invention provides an intelligent control system for controlling the speed of an electrically powered lawn maintenance vehicle or the like, the vehicle having a known weight and comprising: a source of electrical power; a drive subsystem comprising at least one motor drive unit and at least one electric motor for propulsion, a motor speed and direction sensor, and at least one temperature sensor; a power distribution subsystem; and an operator control unit; the control system comprising: a microcontroller, programmed to sense motor speed and direction, operator commands from the operator control unit, and temperature of the drive subsystem components, and to generate pulse width modulated speed control signals; whereby the microcoontroller, being programmed with tables of speed control values for generating corresponding pulse width speed control signals, and the motor drive unit being capable of supplying current to the at least one motor in accordance with the speed control signals, and the operator control unit, having a control handle operatively connected to a handle position sensor, the position sensor having a home position to indicate a desired STOP condition and at least two forward and two reverse speed positions, being capable of generating operator commands, the liable of speed control values being selected in accordance with the dynamic operating characteristic of the electric motor and the weight of the vehicle, whereby safe and effective operation of said vehicle is achieved, conditions harmful to the drive subsystem are avoided, and forces harmful to the lawn and to the operator are avoided. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective drawing of the mower of the invention. 
     FIGS. 2a and 2b serve together as a mower control program flow chart. 
     FIG. 3 is an electrical diagram showing the controller used with the invention, 
     FIG. 4 is a schematic of the overall mower. 
     FIG. 5 is an electrical diagram showing the motor driver of the invention. 
     FIG. 6A is a schematic functional diagram showing the operation of the quadrature encoder used with the invention. 
     FIGS. 6B and 6C are timing graphs associated with the functional diagram of FIG. 6 showing the response of optointerupters &#34;B&#34; and &#34;A&#34; respectively as labeled. 
     FIG. 7 is an energy monitor schematic. 
     FIG. 8 is a flow chart of the microcontroller in the energy monitor. 
     FIG. 9 is a table of the PWM values used to control the drive motors. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     The mower 10 of the invention is shown in FIG. 1. Visible are the drive wheels 12, 14 which propel and support the main frame 16 of mower 10. These are driven by motors 8, 8&#39;, one of which is seen in the figure, which drive through a gear reduction boxes not shown. The drive motors 8, 8&#39; are electronically controlled, as will be seen, from signals generated in electronic enclosure 44 by controllers 11, 11&#39; (see FIG. 3 where one such, 11, is shown) and transmitted to motor drive boards 13, 13&#39; which are mounted in housings either next to or near the motors 8, 8&#39;. Mounted on frame 16 is seat 18 and carry container 20 behind seat 18. Pivoted to frame 16 at its forward end by pivot pins 22 is articulating frame 24 which is supported at the end away from the main frame 16 by swivel wheels 26. Note that a single, centrally located, swivel wheel might be used but the two wheel arrangement shown is preferred for stability. Mower deck 28 is pivotally supported, by hanging brackets 33, from the forward end of articulating frame 24. The rearward end of deck 28 is supported from the ground by wheels 32. One centrally placed wheel can be used. Mower blade drive motors 34 are fastened to the top of deck 28. Conveniently placed for handling by an operator sitting on seat 18 are left wheel control stick 36 and fight wheel control stick 38. As will be seen later, control sticks 36, 38 pivot forward and backward to regulate direction of rotation and speed of the respective drive wheels 12, 14 and, as is known, any difference in speed and or direction of rotation determines the degree and direction of turning. Control sticks 36, 38 also can be pivoted, when in the central (stop) position, outward to provide room for the operator to get into or out of the seat 18. The necessary storage batteries are located under seat 18 within enclosure 42. A trailing pivot wheel 40 supports the back end of mower 10. 
     Now consider FIGS. 2, 2a which show a flow chart of the program employed by controllers 11, 11&#39; to control the drive motors 8, 8&#39; according to the operator&#39;s control inputs to control arms 36, 38. The full program listing of the controller program is given in Appendix A. 
     Functionally, the control arms 36, 38 must be in the central or home position for the program to begin execution. This is shown in the flow chart of FIG. 2a at 204. If the control arms are not in the home position, the program waits until they are. Once home position is detected, the controller checks for current in the motor drive board 13, 13&#39; by reading the current sensor 407 (FIG. 4). Relays 401, 402 short circuit (disable) the drive motor when the control arms are in the home position. If current is flowing, the drive motor is turning indicating mower motion and the current flag 1 is set, 210. At startup, current will not be applied to the drive motors until no short circuit current is detected in the drive motors, indicating the mower is stopped. It is well known in the art that applying current to a permanent magnet DC motor in the direction of the motor generated back EMF can generate sufficiently high armature magnetic fields to permanently damage the motor magnets and sufficiently high currents to damage drive electrical components and this condition is avoided. When no short circuit current is detected, the current flag is set to 0. As long as the control arms are in the home position, the position register controlling the setting of the drive motor current will be set to home position value 205. Each loop checking the control arm position will check for errors in the reading of position and set a position error flag if an error has been made in position determination. 
     As the operator moves the control arm from the home position to operate the machine, the control loop beginning in 206 determines the fraction of time the current will be turned on in the drive motor associated with that control arm position by looking up the drive number in the lookup table shown in FIG. 9. This drive number indicates how many of the 54 loops in each current control cycle the current should be on. This control strategy, called pulse width modulation (PWM) turns the drive motor current on for integral numbers of the 54 loops in the PWM control cycle. Similarly the number of loops the motor will be electrically shorted when not turned on will be derived from the control arm position value for braking in the same table. The first few position values for the control arm are mostly for braking to facilitate operation down steep slopes. This permits steering when descending a steep hill when no driving force is: needed. The next few positions have both drive and braking times so the drive motors behave in a damped fashion permitting slow controlled motion on smooth surfaces or speed control and steering down modest soft surfaced slopes. The remainder of the position values cause increasing current-on times for the drive motor current, full on coming toward the end of travel of the control arm. The same control strategy holds for forward and reverse. 
     Now return to FIGS. 2a and 2b. Which represent schematically the functions of the program residing in the microcontrollers 11 (a preferred computer program is seen in Appendix A0. At powerup, the tables residing in the ROM memory space of microcontrollers 11, 11&#39; for controlling the current and brake pulse width modulation (PWM) timing are loaded into the microcontroller register section 202. An example of one such table is shown in FIG. 9. Each PWM cycle is composed of 54 loops. The number of loops for which drive current and braking are to be applied to the motor are specified as described above for each position of the 32 positions into which the control motion is divided (32 positions for forward and 32 steps for reverse drive). In some implementations the reverse drive is made more coarse by double stepping through the table. Since no more than 16 of the steps employ braking, this part of the table is shorter. The control routine will use the stored values for both drive current and/or braking from the position in each of the tables corresponding to the position of the control handle. Note that the values for current are not linear in response to movement of the quadrature (that is there is not a direct proportional relationship between step number and current value in the table) but are tailored to practical operating requirements. Current increases rapidly at first to overcome motor losses at low speed, and then increases less rapidly at higher drive levels. 
     Once the tables are loaded, the timer is set up to control the overall routine loop timing and control function begins. First the status of the control handle is checked 204. Power will not be applied to either drive until its control handle is in the home position. The current sensor on the motor power control board is checked 206, and power will not be applied until the drive short circuit current is below detection threshold, i.e. the machine is not moving at speed above the sense threshold. Once power control has started, if current is detected, a bit (current flag) is set from 0 to 1 in the flag register 210. This flag will be used by other control sections to prevent the drive from applying forward or reverse drive current if the machine is moving in reverse or forward respectively. Thus the machine must be moving at a speed below the current-sense threshold for the control to shift from forward to reverse or vice versa. 
     Next the control routine checks the position error flag 208 to determilne if the quadrature plate position has been lost 212. If the position has been lost, it will be reestablished 216, the flag reset, and the level of drive current held at the value in effect at the time of last valid position until home is reached on the control handle. 
     Next the temperature debounce counters are checked 214. If a high or over temperature condition is detected, four counts are added to the appropriate register. Each time the registers are checked, they are decremented one (but are never decremented below zero or incremented above 255) and they must indicate a count of 128 or more for the high or over temperature condition to be valid. This serves to &#34;debounce&#34; the process and minimize the possibility of a &#34;temperature&#34; response to electrical noise. 
     Next the PWM loop is checked 220 and appropriate counters are incremented or decremented to control the level of drive current to the motors. Exit from this loop is via one of several paths 224, all leading to the reading of the quadrature plate, position 222. 
     Exit from the quadrature plate routine is either a home or not home response. If the control is home, the pattern of the quadrature plate will be updated, and the overall loop returned to its beginning 240. If the control is not in its home position, exit will take the control routine to the section where it is determined if a change has taken place in the quadrature plate position or not 226. If no change has been made, control will transfer to the temperature checking routine. If a change has been made, the appropriate decisions for whether to increase or decrease the current in either the forward or reverse directions will be made 228 and control will transfer to the temperature checking routine 242. 
     The last section of the control routine checks to see if the temperature of the drive motors or the drive electronics is high or over temperature 242 and multiply increments the appropriate register and sets the appropriate flag if the counters are above their threshold level. The routine also shuts down the drive if the temperature is over the acceptable limit. From here the routine returns to its start. 
     Now consider FIG. 3 which shows one of the two drive motor controllers. A control stick 36 or 38 engages with slot 317 in the end of a quadrature plate 309 there being one plate 309 and associated elements in the control for each drive motor and wheel. One of skill in the art will recognize that a single joy stick or even a steering wheel could be substituted with appropriate circuitry in place of the preferred two control sticks 36, 38. For illustrative purposes the drive will be described for left wheel drive control stick 36. Forward and backward motion of the stick causes quadrature plate 309 to rotate about its axis as indicated by the curved double arrow 319. Holes 321 along the edge of plate 309 alternately interrupt or pass light from the light emitting diode (LED) 323 of the optointerrupreter 300 (p/n OTS271 made by Opto Technology, Inc. of Wheeling, Ill.), designated B, whose signal from photo IC sensor 324, also a part of optointerrupter 300, is accessed by a microcontroller 11. Similarly the signals from optointerrupter 301, designated A, whose signals are out of phase with those of 300 are accessed by microcontroller 11. We use a model Z86 microcontroller from the Zilog Corporation of Campbell, Calif. This permits microcontroller 11 to determine the extent of motion of control stick 36 as is explained below. One hole 325, placed out of line from the others, can only pass the light from LED 327 of optointerpreter 340, designated home, and serves as a reference point in the rotation of quadrature plate 309 and, therefor, as a reference point in the position of control stick 36. 
     Reference should be made to FIG. 6 for an explanation of the quadrature encoder. Such systems give signals indicating direction and magnitude of motion. A more complete explanation of quadrature controllers can be found on pages 238 and 239 of Incremental Motion Control. Volume II. Step Motors and Control Systems, Edited by Benjamin C. Kuo, SRL Publishing Company, Champaign, Ill., 1979; Optical: Encoder Design Guide, pages 6 and 7 from the Industrial Encoder Division of BEI electronics; or 28 mm Diameter Two Channel Incremental Optical Encoder Kit data sheet from Hewlett Packard, page 2. 
     Microcontrollers 11, 11&#39; also accept signals from the motor driver boards 13, 13&#39; (see FIG. 4) from the current sensors 407 and from thermistors 403 which are mounted in the drive motors 8, 8&#39;. The thermistor 403 in motor 8, when indicting the motor temperature is too high, will cause microcontroller 11 to disable the drive for drive motor 8 and communicate through line 315 to the microcontroller 11&#39;, not shown, to also shut down the drive control to drive motor 8&#39; so that mower drive operation ceases completely and safely. Similarly, an over-temperature condition in motor 8&#39; will cause that drive to be shut down and communication through line 315 will cause the drive for motor 8 to be shut down. The current sensor 407, see FIG. 4, is comprised of a magnetically sensitive reed switch coaxially mounted in a coil of wire, carrying the motor drive and short circuit current. This lets microcontroller 11 know if sufficient current is flowing in the short circuited motor to cause drive motor, or drive motor controller damage or loss of machine control if control direction were reversed with the machine moving. Thus a reversal in the drive at speeds capable of damaging the drive motor or its controller or causing loss of control is avoided. Moreover, sharp reversals of drive wheels 12 can damage the turf and/or pitch the operators out of seat 18 and these dangers, too, are avoided. 
     Now consider FIG. 4 showing the schematic of the motor driver board 13. Power to the drive motor 8 is controlled by alternately switching on and off, pulse width modulating, the drive FET (p/n IRFP044 from International Rectifier of El Segundo, Calif.) 406 with the ratio of the on and off times dictating the fraction of full drive needed. The drive relays 401 and 402 (p/n VF4-15F13 from Potter and Bruinfield of Princeton, Ind.) control the direction of the current to the motor 8 thus controlling drive direction and, when both are either on or off, the motor is shorted providing strong dynamic braking. Transient suppressor (p/n 1.5KE33C from Fagor Electronic Components, Inc. of Elk Grove Village, Ill.) 429 on motor driver board 13 provides a short to the inductive flyback transient from motor 8 when it is switched off by drive FET 406. Resistors 404 provide flyback suppression for the drive relays 401 and 402. FETs 405 and 406 are driven from the microcontroller 11 through the driver 314, see FIG. 3, which is a MIC5022BN from the MICREL Corporation of San Jose, Calif. Brake FET 405 (also an IRFP044) is controlled to provide dynamic braking to the mower by shorting motor 8 for variable fractions of the pulse width modulation (PWM) cycle when drive FET 406 is off. The driver 314 prevents both FETs, 405 and 406, from being turned on at the same time. 
     Now consider FIG. 5 showing the interconnection of all of the electrical components on the mower. Power from the batteries 512 is connected to the main control circuit board 500 through key switch 508. Power to the drive motors 8, 8&#39; and the mowing deck motors 34 passes through power contactor 510. Control power to this contactor is additionally controlled through seat interlock switch 506. Power to the drive control electronics 502, shown in FIG. 3, is interlocked through switches 504 which detect the position of control arms 36 and 38 and disable the drive when the control arms are moved out to let the operator on or off the machine. Energy monitor 503 shown schematically in FIG. 7 and deck motor kill switch 522 can either shut the deck motors 34 down through the auxiliary coil on circuit breaker 524 (BB2-X0-03-180-231-C from Carlingswitch of Plainville, Conn.). Quadrature plates 309 also mount to this circuit board. Relay 516 shorts the deck motors 34 through power resistors 514 when the deck is shut down to stop them more quickly for safer operation. Suppression diodes 520 short the inductive flyback transients on deck motors 34 when they are shut down. Thermostats 526 provide over temperature shutdown for deck motors 34, shutting down power by acting through the auxiliary shutdown coil of circuit breaker 524. Control signals are carried from the control electronics to the motor drivers 13, 13&#39; attached to the motors 8, 8&#39; by means of cables 518. 
     Now consider FIGS. 6A, 6B and 6C. As the two optointerrupters A and B (see 300 and 301 of FIG. 3) are subjected to the motion of holes 321 in the quadrature plate 309 showing motion here from bottom to top the signals shown in the lower portion of the figure are generated. By optointerrupter is meant the pairing of a LED light emitter and a photo IC light sensor as is shown in FIG. 3 as 300, 301, and 340. It can be seen that motion of one pitch (one hole and one space) produces four transitions on the two optointerrupters. Direction of motion can be determined by noting the state of B as A transitions from high to low. For motion from left to right, B is low when A transitions from high to low. For motion from right to left, B is high when A transitions from high to low. Distance can be determined from the sum of A and B transitions (there are two transitions on each for each passing hole) which is in essence a count of the pitches multiplied by 4. 
     The energy monitor is shown schematically in FIG. 7. This system keeps track of battery voltage when the mower is running, displaying the current battery voltage on an LED array, 702. When the voltage drops below 21.0 volts, the 80% discharge point for a 24 VDC lead-acid battery system, the microcontroller, 700, a Zilog Z86, shuts down the mower deck, preserving the remaining power to permit the machine to be driven back to its point of storage. Battery voltage is measured by comparing the voltage of the system battery, 512, with the voltages of a resistor divider chain, 710. The divider chain provides 4 voltages between 0 and 5 VDC which are compared by means of the comparitor internal to the Z86 (microcontroller 700), the voltages being accessed by multiplexer 708 (CD4052BCM-ND made by National Semiconductor) to a voltage derived from the battery voltage. The system battery voltage is dropped through an 18 V Zener diode, 706, and divided by resistor divider 704. The comparison of the voltage from the divider 704 and the voltages from divider 710 gives 4 comparisons that approximately divide the stored energy in the mower batteries into four quarters much like a fuel gauge (i.e. full, 3/4, 1/2, and 1/4 full). The bottom voltage, 21 VDC, represents the mower deck shutdown voltage. Approximately 80 percent of the full energy storage of the mower batteries has been used when the system voltage reaches 21 volts. A flow chart for the operation of this controller is shown in FIG. 8. 
     Now consider FIG. 9, a table of control values for the drive motor current and braking. Each of the control arms 36 and 38 have 32 positions for forward drive and 32 positions for reverse drive. The pulse width modulation of the drive and braking has 54 possible values (e.g. the drive current or braking can be on for 10/54 of the time or 54/54=all of the time). For each position in the table a value for both the drive and braking is specified. For instance, for position 5, the motor is on for 10/54 of the time and the braking is on for 10/54 of the time (drive and braking cannot be on at the same time ). The remainder of the time the drive motor is not connected during drive operation (with the controls disabled or in the home or center position the motor is shorted by relays 401 and 402). Braking is not used for higher drive currents as it reduces the effective power of the drive motors. Thus the table has only 15 values for braking. Braking is only needed at lower speeds to damp the drive motors action since when they are not connected they provide neither drive force nor braking action. The non sequential (non linear) nature of the drive current numbers that provides the smoothness of operation was determined from testing. Turning the motors on for less than 5/54 of the time has little effect and the full resolution of the 32 possible positions was found unnecessary. As can be seen from the table, the motors are turned on 54/54 of the time, or full on, for positions 22 through 32. 
     While this disclosure has been written, largely in terms of lawn mowers, it will be recognized that the invention is applicable to related vehicles such as golf carts, carriers for the handicapped, garden vehicles and the like. ##SPC1##