Technology

ePropelled’s 67 patents in 17 families reflect the ongoing commitment to pioneering integrated solutions that improve and advance the capabilities of electric propulsion systems. ePropelled continues to build new product designs to meet the demanding requirements of OEM vehicle designers in a wide variety of global industries.

eP Connect

ePropelled’s eP Connect™ onboard service manager capability delivers real-time data for control and broad instrumentation insights for electric vehicles in all environments. As an embedded and integrated feature set, these advanced services are included and therefore become an affordable value-add in the propulsion system, meaning diagnostics apparatus and network technologies don’t need to be added later at significant cost and complexity.

Across the majority of ePropelled’s products and integrated solutions, eP Connect harvests rich sensors-derived data to share insights that enhance performance and adaptability in demanding environments. The resulting ongoing systems parameter analytics address issues of reliability, efficiency, and sustainability for uncrewed aerial, ground, and surface vehicles.

Programmable and accessible via open APIs, ePropelled’s eP Connect enables real-time data for control and broad instrumentation insights for electric vehicles in nearly all use cases. The ePCloud Connect extension capability brings streamed data to ePropelled’s protected cloud for storage, processing, and value-added analytics services. As an embedded and integrated feature set, these advanced services are included and therefore become an affordable value-add in the propulsion system.

ePConnect and ePCloud Connect™ telemetry services in concert promote the development of predictive maintenance algorithms based on empirical operational data, anticipating drone component failures before they occur, and minimizing downtime. Real-time monitoring and historical data mining of such key variables as input voltage, current, power, RPM, temperature, and vibration signature tracking enables control structure adjustments, high limit alters, and proactive failure events.

Using standard network protocols, eP Connect enriches the overall uncrewed vehicle intelligence in any environment by supporting bi-directional data transmission via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, RS485, and CAN 2.0 to the vehicle operator via the cloud. The data and ease in access from ePropelled systems enables configurable alerts for all monitored variables, as well as custom applications development through the open API.

As a result, designers of uncrewed vehicles in the air and on ground and sea can exploit eP Connect to boost vehicle operational efficiency, gain rapid time-to-resolution advantages, receive proactive maintenance support, and achieve comprehensive insights and control through detailed data and configurable alerts.

What’s more, the stored data history provides a trove for further analysis to improve design, operations, and mission variables in a powerful feedback loop for continuous adaptation and AI-ready vehicle autonomy. These benefits extend across most of ePropelled’s product SKUs so that what were once high-order efficiency and operational integrity benefits can now be enjoyed in the designs of light electric vehicles (LEV) as well as in industrial and pool pump motor applications.

Thanks to broad and inclusive ePConnect benefits, ePropelled’s uncrewed vehicle propulsion, LEV, and pump motors all meet demanding performance and environmental requirements in the most demanding uses and for longer product lives, adding reliability and durability to ensure overall mission intelligence and success.

ePCloud Connect

Unique to ePropelled, the patented ePCloud Connect™ real-time data monitoring and sharing of key systems operations parameters enables extensible and configurable alerts and insights across a wide variety of use cases.

Using standard network protocols, ePCloud Connect enriches the overall uncrewed vehicle intelligence in any environment by supporting bi-directional data transmission via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, RS485, and CAN 2.0 to the vehicle operator via the cloud. That same raw data and analytics outputs, of course, can be extended and stored to exploit a rich variety to cloud-based services, including artificial intelligence services and support.

Using the tag-team of eP Connect™ and ePCloud Connect, the extended edge of any uncrewed vehicle propulsion device, or pump motor, gains a role in a rich mesh of connected and increasingly cloud-based intelligence services. When all the systems and components are enabled with sensors and connected, that shared environment – often in real-time – becomes an operationally agile whole greater than the sum of the individual parts.

The bi-directional attributes of ePCloud Connect fosters the machine learning analytics and cloud-based sharing of critical feedback loops and insights so designers and operators deliver ongoing mission improvements and refinements. The stored data history provides a trove for further analysis to improve design, operations, and mission variables in a powerful feedback loop for continuous adaptation and AI-ready vehicle autonomy.

Among the rich and powerful parameters that are monitored at the mission edge, wherever the vehicle finds itself, and are shared to any cloud via ePCloud Connect are real-time monitoring of input voltage, current, power, RPM, and temperature. Vibration signature tracking is also a powerful indicator of mission variables. Specific to the motor are measured parameters such as voltage, current, inductance, resistance, and temperature.

These data-drive insights and resulting bi-directional instructions then foster such benefits as configurable alerts for all monitored parameters, real-time data and control structure adjustments, software updates and adjustments, and adjustments to the motor parameters for better and smoother operations. Of course, as an integrated feature set, these advanced networking services are integrated into the ePropelled systems design and therefore become an affordable value-add in the propulsion solution, reducing cost and complexity.

eDTS

• ePropelled Dynamic Torque Switching™ (eDTS) uniquely introduces a dynamic electric motor output management capability that meets mission objects with less weight, reduced cost, and increases vehicle efficiency by up to 15 percent.
• eDTS allows a single electric machine to dynamically change between several modes, each optimized for different points in the drive cycle, bringing unsurpassed performance agility with fewer parts and lower total cost. The control system is designed to allow the transition between the modes to take place seamlessly to deliver optimum torque/speed/efficiency characteristics in real time.
• Integral to the design of most of ePropelled’s motors and controllers, eDTS allows the electric motor to provide high torque at low speeds without drawing high current from the batteries. It also provides high speeds at low torque levels without using deep field weakening and at much reduced winding losses, thereby increasing the efficiencies throughout.

The eDTS technique utilizes the motor magnets and the motor windings in a way that improves the overall drive cycle efficiency, allowing the range of the vehicle to increase by at least 15 percent.

Thanks to eDTS, the speed and torque can be varied inside the motor alone, which allows a single electric machine to dynamically engage several modes, each optimized for different points in the drive cycle.

Most motors’ highest power efficiency is only available in a very narrow band (a small island we refer to as a “sweet spot”) on the power map. This is because conventional technology must make a compromise between torque and efficiency, which is the main reason for limited range. In generic terms, traditional design has only one mode—one “sweet spot”—which is the operating condition where the motor delivers highest efficiency.

ePropelled’s patented technology provides multiple modes and, therefore, multiple “sweet spots.” eDTS allows vehicles to operate at maximum efficiency at a much wider efficiency band (a very large island) on the power map.

ePropelled Dynamic Torque Switching™ (eDTS) is a patented concept for electric machine design that introduces a dynamic switching capability for the stator windings. Specifically, it allows the stator windings to be dynamically switched between series and parallel configurations

The design also includes an innovative motor design with reconfigurable windings​. A switching matrix enables reconfiguration in real time​ for a truly adaptive power electronics drive thanks to software control that uses machine learning.

Among the advantages delivered by eDTS are:

• Start the vehicle at low current compared to standard machines, increasing the driving range of the vehicle
• Offer higher starting torque and extended constant power when compared to other machines
  
• Take less current compared to standard motor
  
• Increase the maximum torque and maximum speed of the motor
  
• Select the most efficient mode based on vehicle demand, which will save the battery energy and increase driving range
  
• Reduce the battery size and cost, and
  
• Implement the cruise mode in vehicle with less current.

The result is eDTS draws substantially less current for the same starting torque as standard brushless synchronous motors and significantly increase in driving range with reduced strain on battery and so less battery degradation over time. Deep field weakening is not required, providing significant efficiency advantages.