Patent ID: 7671494

Claim:
A motor/generator comprising: a rotor member having a plurality of permanent magnets; a shorting member configured and arranged to selectively establish a short-circuit in magnetic flux of the permanent magnets of the rotor member to switch between a normal state in which the magnetic flux of the permanent magnets is not shorted and a shorted state in which the magnetic flux of the permanent magnets is shorted; and a stator having a plurality of coils configured and arranged to be energized with a composite electrical current including first and second current components, the stator being further configured and arranged to form a first magnetic circuit between the coils and the permanent magnets of the rotor member with the first current component of the composite electrical current to drive the rotor member and to form a second magnetic circuit between the coils and the shorting member with the second current component of the composite electrical current to selectively switch between the normal state and the shorted state, the coils, the permanent magnets and the shorting member being arranged with respect to each other such that the first magnetic circuit produces a first torque that is exerted on the rotor member and the second magnetic circuit produces a second torque that is exerted on the shorting member with the first and second torques being selectively controlled independently in order to independently control movement of the shorting member with respect to the rotor member.