Description:AS ATTACHED , Claims:AS ATTACHED

I/We Claim:
1. A control unit to:
obtain an oscillating signal from one or more sensors of a vehicle,
5 the oscillating signal is indicative of a phase current through a component
of the vehicle when the vehicle is in motion under variable operating
conditions;
apply a frequency transform to the oscillating signal to obtain a
frequency domain signal;
10 extract a first segment and second segment of the frequency domain
signal, wherein the first segment is representative of a first harmonic of the
frequency domain signal and the second segment is representative of one
of a second harmonic and a third harmonic of the frequency domain signal;
compute a ratio of the first harmonic to one of the second and the
15 third harmonic;
compare the ratio with a predefined threshold; and
upon determination that the ratio is less than the predefined
threshold, generate an indication signifying an arc fault in the component of
the vehicle.
20
2. The control unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the frequency transform
is a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) applied on the oscillating signal.
3. The control unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first harmonic
25 corresponds to a fundamental frequency of the oscillating signal.
4. The control unit as claimed in claim 3, wherein to obtain the fundamental
frequency, the control unit is to:
apply a Hamming window factor to the oscillating signal to obtain a
30 conditional signal; and apply a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) on the conditioned signal to
obtain the fundamental frequency.
5. The control unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the component of the
5 vehicle is one of a motor, a battery management system, a braking system,
a battery pack, and combinations thereof, of the vehicle.
6. The control unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first segment and the
second segment of the oscillating signal is obtained at a time interval of at
10 least 10 milliseconds.
7. The control unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the variable operating
conditions corresponds to a change in one of a throttle, load, speed,
environmental conditions, and combinations thereof, of the vehicle.
15
8. A method for detecting arc fault in a vehicle comprising:
obtaining an oscillating signal from one or more sensors of a vehicle,
the oscillating signal is indicative of a phase current through a component
of the vehicle when the vehicle is in motion under variable operating
20 conditions;
applying a frequency transform to the oscillating signal to obtain a
frequency domain signal;
extracting a first segment and second segment of the frequency
domain signal, wherein the first segment is representative of a first harmonic
25 of the frequency domain signal and the second segment is representative
of one of a second harmonic and a third harmonic of the frequency domain
signal;
computing a ratio of the first harmonic to one of the second and the
third harmonic;
30 comparing the ratio with a predefined threshold; and upon determination that the ratio is less than the predefined
threshold, generating an indication signifying an arc fault in the component
of the vehicle.
5 9. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the frequency transform is a
Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) applied on the oscillating signal.
10. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the first harmonic
corresponds to a fundamental frequency of the oscillating signal.