Fault Diagnosis and Tolerance on Reliability of Automotive Motor Control System: A Review

This paper reviews fault diagnosis and tolerant techniques for improving reliability of automotive motor control systems which consist of an inverter, permanent magnet synchronous motor and sensors. In order to improve reliability of system, the fault diagnosis is the first step once a fault occurs. An accurate and timely detection and protection can prevent fault propagations and catastrophic consequences. The fault tolerant operation is the next counter measure, which is based on redundancy design. In this paper, statistical survey results on occurrence and failure rate of common fault modes are summarized for inverter, electric motor and sensors, respectively. And then, fault diagnosis and tolerant methods for the main fault modes are discussed based on the researches and literatures which are adequate for automotive applications. Finally, a reliability assessment methodology according to fault mitigation and tolerant concepts is introduced and discussed.