Method for Controlling Large Torque in the Low-Speed Range of Electrically Driven Mining Dump Trucks

Abstract

The trend in drives for dump trucks used in the mining industry is shifting from mechanical drives toward electric drives because of the increasing efficiency of mining operations. Therefore, we developed an AC drive system for 190-ton-payload mining dump trucks. A hill start is one of the important abilities required of mining dump trucks. During a hill start, it is necessary for the trucks to output large torque in a low-speed range. However, vector control was shown to have trouble outputting large torque in this range. Therefore, we developed a method for controlling large torque in the low-speed range of induction motors to improve vector control. We evaluated the efficiency of our method by performing simulations and experiments.