Hybrid vehicle control apparatus

• US 10,124,678 B2
• Filed: 07/20/2016
• Issued: 11/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/22/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Ogawa, Yuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Shaawat, Mussa A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kim, Kyung J
• Application Number:
  US15/215,141
• Publication Number:
  US 20170021823A1
• Time in Patent Office: 846 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 15/20 for control of the vehicle or its driving motor to achieve a desired performance, e.g. speed, torque, programmed variation of speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/423 Torque
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/443 Torque
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/622 by satellite navigation
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/64 Road conditions
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/16 by display
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/26 by pedal actuation
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 50/15 with additional electric power supply with capacitors charged by engine-driven generators B60L50/40; with batteries charged by engine-driven generators B60L50/61
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/13 Maintaining the SoC within a determined range
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/15 Preventing overcharging
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 7/18 Controlling the braking effect B60L7/12, B60L7/14, B60L7/16 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/06 including control of combustion engines
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/08 including control of electric propulsion units, e.g. motors or generators
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 20/12 using control strategies taking into account route information estimation or calculation of non-directly measurable driving parameters B60W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2510/244 Charge state
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/20 Road profile, i.e. the change in elevation or curvature of a plurality of continuous road segments
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/00 Input parameters relating to objects
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/18127 Regenerative braking
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/0097 Predicting future conditions
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/62 : Hybrid vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/64 : Electric machine technologies in electromobility
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 : Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/7072 : Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/72 : Electric energy management in electromobility
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/16 : Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 903/93 : Conjoint control of different elements
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 903/947 : Characterized by control of braking, e.g. blending of regeneration, friction braking

Abstract

A control apparatus for a hybrid vehicle including an internal combustion engine, a motor, and a storage battery and configured to charge the storage battery with electric power generated as a result of regenerative braking and electric power generated by using output of the engine. The control apparatus executes a downhill control which decreases the remaining capacity of the storage battery before the vehicle enters a downhill section and executes a congestion control which increases the remaining capacity before it enters a congestion section. In addition the control apparatus determine which control is to be executed according to the positional relation between the start point of the downhill section and the start point of the congestion section when both a downhill section and a congestion section are contained in a planned travel route of the vehicle.

Claims

1. A hybrid vehicle control apparatus applied to a hybrid vehicle which includes an internal combustion engine and a motor as drive sources of said vehicle, and a storage battery for supplying electric power to said motor, and is configured to perform regenerative braking by using said motor, and charge said storage battery with electric power generated as a result of said regenerative braking and electric power generated by using output of said internal combustion engine,

said hybrid vehicle apparatus comprising a control portion which controls said internal combustion engine and said motor in such a manner that a demanded drive force for

said vehicle is satisfied and the remaining capacity of said storage battery approaches a target remaining capacity set to a standard remaining capacity,

wherein:

said control portion obtains information relevant to a planned travel route of said vehicle;

said control portion executes downhill control which changes said target remaining capacity to a low-side remaining capacity which is less than said standard remaining capacity, in the case where it is judged that a downhill section is contained in said planned travel route on the basis of said information relevant to said planned travel route, when said vehicle travels in a first section which extends to the end point of said downhill section from a downhill control start point which is shifted back from the start point of said downhill section by a predetermined first distance contained in said planed travel route, and said first section containing at least a section extending to the start point of said downhill section from said downhill control start point;

said control portion executes congestion control which changes said target remaining capacity to a higher-side remaining capacity which is greater than said standard remaining capacity, in the case where it is judged that a congestion section is contained in said planned travel route on the basis of said information relevant to said planned travel route, when said vehicle travels in a second section which extends to the start point of said congestion section from a congestion control start point which is shifted back from the start point of said congestion section by a predetermined second distance contained in said planed travel route; and

said control portion is configured to prohibit executing said downhill control according to said downhill section, when said downhill section contained in said planned travel route and said congestion section contained in said planed travel route overlap with each other, and a congestion priority condition is satisfied,

said congestion priority condition is satisfied in the case where a first condition and a second condition are satisfied,

said first condition is satisfied when the start point of said congestion section coincides with the start point of said downhill section or the start point of said congestion section is farther from said vehicle than the start point of said downhill section, and

said second condition is satisfied when the start point of said congestion section coincides with a reference point, which is shifted forward from the start point of said downhill section by a third distance, or the start point of said congestion section is nearer to said vehicle than said reference point, and

said third distance is set such that when said vehicle travels through said downhill section with said third distance, the remaining capacity is increased by the difference between said higher-side remaining capacity and said standard remaining capacity.

2. The hybrid vehicle control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said control portion executes the congestion control during a travel in a section where said downhill section and said congestion section overlap each other when said congestion priority condition is satisfied.