LAUNCHPOINT TECHNOLOGIES, INC. — National Aeronautics and Space Administration SBIR Phase I: A1

Description

<p>This SBIR Phase I develops hardware and software for energy management in&nbsp;electric VTOL aircraft. It focuses on techniques to ensure short-time-scale stability in power micro-grids, and optimization-based control at somewhat longer (~10-100 ms) time-scales for propulsion system and vehicle control, which is managed by a&nbsp;vehicle Energy Management System&nbsp;(vEMS). Fast optimization and model-based decision making are key to the approach. Experiments will be conducted with a hybrid power plant consisting of an internal combustion engine, an iron-less dual-halbach-array starter motor/generator, and a new 6-phase regenerative motor drive. The project is organized into three Technical Objectives:</p><p>TO #1: Reconfigurable Component, Subsystem, and System Topology Models&nbsp;</p><p>Reconfigurability is enabled at three levels in the vEMS-controlled system. At the component level, parametric models are used so that components in a new vehicle system or a faulted system can be configured with a parameter list. Subsystems are similarly configured.&nbsp;At the system level, the topology is reconfigurable because of technical conditions (incremental passivity) placed on each component to ensure that the assembled micro-grid is stable regardless of the interconnection. With stable short-time-scale&nbsp;dynamics, the vEMS uses component models to optimally manage interactions on the micro-grid.</p><p>TO #2: Incremental Passivity with Application to a 1.5kW Regenerative Drive</p><p>LaunchPoint proposes &nbsp;to design a 1.5kW regenerative drive for&nbsp;the 6-phase starter motor/generator such that it is incrementally passive as seen from the bus.</p><p>TO #3: Real-Time Optimal Control for Energy Management</p><p>The project&nbsp;will make use of a recently developed tool, named <em>TensCalc</em>, that generates specialized C-code for&nbsp;real-time decision and control with up to a few thousand optimization variables/constraints. This fast optimization tool will be at the heart of the vEMS system and enable millisecond time-scale decision making.</p>