Patent ID: 8220572

Claim:
A method of controlling a vehicle comprising a plurality of power sources outputting DC electrical power to a common DC bus, and a variable power control having a plurality of power settings, in order to obtain a desired selection of values of operating parameters, said method comprising: (a) determining for each said power setting a number of power sources to be used and at least one of i) power level, ii) engine speed setting, iii) output voltage, and iv) output current for each of said number of power sources in order to obtain a desired set of values of operating parameters for each said power setting; (b) selecting the power setting desired for the vehicle at each operating time and thereby obtaining the desired selection of values of operating parameters associated with that power setting; and (c) setting at said operating time each of the power sources to the corresponding at least one of i) power level, ii) engine speed setting, iii) output voltage, and iv) output current determined under step a) for said selected power setting.