Patent ID: 8860381

Claim:
A method for balancing the vibration of a coupled pair comprising a linear motor/alternator that is drivingly linked to a prime mover or load, the linear motor/alternator having an armature winding and controlled by a digital processor from a command input for reciprocating at an operating frequency, the method minimizing vibration of the coupled pair at harmonics of the operating frequency and comprising: (a) generating a principal control signal at the operating frequency from the command input and applying the control signal to a power stage that controls the coupled pair by applying an alternating, principal electrical drive voltage to the armature winding; (b) sensing the vibration of the coupled pair to provide a sensed vibration signal representing the sensed vibration; (c) generating a harmonic balancing signal for at least a selected harmonic of the operating frequency by processing the sensed vibration signal with an adaptive filter algorithm of an adaptive filter, the adaptive filter algorithm having a reference input at the frequency of the selected harmonic; and (d) summing with the principal control signal each harmonic balancing signal at each selected harmonic of the operating frequency for modifying the electrical drive voltage and thereby driving the motor/alternator of the coupled pair with a drive voltage component for each selected harmonic in opposition to the vibration at each selected harmonic.