Patent ID: 8342271

Claim:
A robotic vehicle comprising: a chassis having front and rear ends; an electric power source supported by the chassis; and a drive control module comprising: a drive control housing; a drive motor carried by the drive control housing; and a drive motor controller in communication with the drive motor and comprising: a drive motor controller logic circuit; and an amplifier commutator comprising a commutator in communication with the drive motor and a DC/DC converter capable of delivering both amplified and reduced voltage relative to an input voltage from the power source to the commutator; wherein the amplifier commutator further comprises a programmable logic circuit in communication with the drive motor controller logic circuit, DC/DC converter, and commutator; wherein the drive control module further comprises: multiple magnetic field sensors mounted radially about to the motor, the magnetic field sensors detecting magnetic pulses; a velocity sensor connected to the motor; and a rotary position sensor connected to the motor; wherein the drive motor controller logic circuit comprises logic for three cascading control loops comprising motor current, motor voltage, and motor rotor rotation; and wherein the motor rotor rotation control loop of the drive motor controller logic circuit comprises: reading a rotational position feedback from the rotary position sensor; computing a commanded velocity based on current and velocity limits; and writing the commanded velocity to a shared structure accessible by the other control loops.