This sbir phase i develops hardware and software for energy management in electric vtol aircraft. IT focuses on techniques to ensure short-time-scale stability in power micro-grids, and…

This is a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I contract awarded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to Launchpoint Technologies, Inc. (doing business as Magnetic Moments), a subchapter S corporation. The $124,970 firm-fixed-price contract is for the development of hardware and software for energy management in electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. The focus is on techniques to ensure short-time-scale stability in power microgrids, and optimization-based control at longer timescales for propulsion system and vehicle control managed by a vehicle energy management system (VEMS). The project aims to develop reconfigurable component, subsystem, and system topology models, an incrementally passive 1.5 kW regenerative drive, and a real-time optimal control system for energy management using a specialized optimization tool.

This sbir phase i develops hardware and software for energy management in 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 vehicle energy management system (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: to #1: reconfi gurable component, subsystem, and system topology models 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. 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 dynamics, the vems uses component models to optimally manage interactions on the micro-grid. To #2: incremental passivity with application to a 1.5KW regenerative drive launchpoint proposes to design a 1.5KW regenerative drive for the 6-phase starter motor/generator such that IT is incrementally passive as seen from the bus. To #3: real-time optimal control for energy management the project will make use of a recently developed tool, named tenscalc, that generates specialized c-code for 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.