Establishing a charging communication between charging station and vehicle

• US 10,177,593 B2
• Filed: 04/21/2017
• Issued: 01/08/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bayerische Motoren Werke AG
• Original Assignee: Bayerische Motoren Werke AG
• Inventors: Turner, Max, Voelker, Lars, Herzog, Torsten, Falfoul, Mohamed
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Duc M
• Application Number:
  US15/493,171
• Publication Number:
  US 20170223750A1
• Time in Patent Office: 627 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/126 Methods for pairing a vehicle and a charging station, e.g. establishing a one-to-one relation between a wireless power transmitter and a wireless power receiver
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/36 by positioning the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/38 specially adapted for charging by inductive energy transfer
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/66 Data transfer between charging stations and vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/67 Controlling two or more charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/10 using inductive coupling
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/80 involving the exchange of data, concerning supply or distribution of electric power, between transmitting devices and receiving devices
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/90 involving detection or optimisation of position, e.g. alignment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• 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 90/12 Electric charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/14 Plug-in electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/16 Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles

Abstract

A method establishes a wireless communication connection between a vehicle communication unit of a vehicle and a charging station communication unit of a charging station. The method includes the transmission of a low-frequency signal via a LF transmission unit of the vehicle, wherein the LF request signal displays an identifier relating to the vehicle. The method also includes the receiving of the LF request signal via an LF receiving unit of the charging station. The method further includes the transmission of information relating to the identifier in a broadcast message via the charging station communication unit, as well as the receiving of the broadcast message via the vehicle communication unit. In addition, the method includes the checking of whether the broadcast message comprises the information relating to the identifier, and the establishing of a wireless communication connection between the vehicle communication unit and the charging station communication unit, if the broadcast message comprises the information relating to the identifier.

Claims

1. A method for establishing a wireless communication connection between a vehicle communication unit of a vehicle and a charging station communication unit of a charging station, the method comprising the acts of:

emitting respective low-frequency (LF) request signals via a plurality of LF transmitting units of the vehicle, wherein the LF request signals indicate an identifier with respect to the vehicle and wherein the LF request signals comprise a request signal of a keyless access function and/or of a keyless engine starting function of the vehicle;

receiving the LF request signals by an LF receiving unit of the charging station, wherein the LF receiving unit is constructed like a receiving unit of a vehicle key with a keyless access function and/or a keyless engine starting function;

emitting items of information with respect to the identifier in a broadcast message by the charging station communication unit, wherein the broadcast message by the charging station communication unit further comprises items of information with respect to respective signal strengths with which the LF request signals were received by the charging station communication unit; and

receiving the broadcast message by the vehicle communication unit;

checking whether the broadcast message comprises the items of information with respect to the identifier; and

establishing a wireless communication connection between the vehicle communication unit and the charging station communication unit if the broadcast message comprises the items of information with respect to the identifier.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, the method further comprising the acts of:

receiving, by the vehicle communication unit, a large number of broadcast messages from a corresponding large number of charging station communication units of a corresponding large number of charging stations;

determining one or more of the large number of broadcast messages that include the items of information with respect to the identifier and the signal strengths;

determining one or more charging station communication units that have emitted the one or more determined broadcast messages from the large number of charging station communication units; and

selecting one of the determined one or more charging station communication units for establishing the wireless communication connection.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein

the charging station communication unit is selected for establishing the wireless communication connection in dependence on the signal strengths of the LF request signals.

4. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein

the method further comprises determining items of information with respect to a trajectory of the vehicle, and

the charging station communication unit is selected for establishing the wireless communication connection in dependence on the items of information with respect to the trajectory of the vehicle.

5. The method as claimed in claim 2, further comprising the act of:

generating a signal to a driver of the vehicle, by which the charging station of the selected charging station communication unit is identified.

6. The method as claimed in claim 2, further comprising the act of:

outputting items of information with respect to the one or more charging stations that correspond to the one or more determined charging station communication units.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein a transmitting frequency of the LF transmitting units lie in an LF frequency range of 20-140 kHz.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein

the wireless communication connection comprises a wireless LAN connection,

the charging station communication unit comprises a wireless LAN access point and

the broadcast message comprises a wireless LAN beacon message.

9. A charging station for charging an electrical energy store of a vehicle, comprising:

a low-frequency (LF) receiving unit, which is configured to receive respective low-frequency request signals from a plurality of LF transmitting units of a vehicle in a vicinity of the charging station, wherein the LF request signals indicate an identifier with respect to the vehicle and wherein the LF request signals comprise a request signal of a keyless access function and/or of a keyless engine starting function of the vehicle, and wherein the LF receiving unit is constructed like a receiving unit of a vehicle key with a keyless access function and/or a keyless engine starting function; and

a charging station communication unit, which is configured to emit items of information with respect to the identifier in a broadcast message, wherein the broadcast message further comprises items of information with respect to respective signal strengths with which the LF request signals were received by the LF receiving unit, and in response to a request by a vehicle communication unit of the vehicle to establish a wireless communication connection between the vehicle communication unit and the charging station communication unit.

10. A vehicle, comprising:

a plurality of low-frequency (LF) transmitting units, which are configured to emit respective LF request signals, wherein the LF request signals indicate an identifier with respect to the vehicle and wherein the LF request signals comprise a request signal of a keyless access function and/or of a keyless engine starting function of the vehicle; and

a vehicle communication unit, which is configured to;

receive a broadcast message from a charging station communication unit of a charging station, wherein the charging station includes an LF receiving unit which is configured to receive the LF request signals and wherein the LF receiving unit is constructed like a receiving unit of a vehicle key with a keyless access function and/or a keyless engine starting function;

check whether the broadcast message comprises items of information with respect to the identifier, wherein the broadcast message further comprises items of information with respect to respective signal strengths with which the LF request signals were received by the charging station communication unit; and

initiate the establishing of a wireless communication connection between the vehicle communication unit and the charging station communication unit if the broadcast message comprises items of information with respect to the identifier.