Power management in electric vehicles

• US 10,227,010 B2
• Filed: 02/23/2017
• Issued: 03/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thunder Power New Energy Vehicle Development Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Thunder Power New Energy Vehicle Development Company Limited
• Inventors: Dai, Yu-Ting
• Primary Examiner(s): Troost, Aaron L
• Application Number:
  US15/440,229
• Publication Number:
  US 20170158059A1
• Time in Patent Office: 747 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 65/002 Joining methods not otherwise provided for
• CPC Class Codes: B32B 3/266 characterised by an apertured layer, the apertures going through the whole thickness of the layer, e.g. expanded metal, perforated layer, slit layer regular cells B32B3/12
• CPC Class Codes: B32B 7/04 Interconnection of layers
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 1/00021 Air flow details of HVAC devices
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 1/00278 for the battery arrangement of batteries B60R16/04
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 1/00321 Heat exchangers for air-conditioning devices B60H1/3227 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 1/00328 of the liquid-air type
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 1/00392 for electric vehicles having only electric drive means
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 1/00564 of air ducts
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 1/00571 of liquid ducts, e.g. for coolant liquids or refrigerants
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 1/143 the heat being derived from cooling an electric component, e.g. electric motors, electric circuits, fuel cells or batteries
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 2001/00092 of air deflecting or air directing means inside the device
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 2001/003 Component temperature regulation using an air flow
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 11/04 Arrangement or mounting of radiators, radiator shutters, or radiator blinds B60K11/085 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 11/085 with adjustable shutters or blinds
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 1/02 to electric heating circuits
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/0046 relating to electric energy storage systems, e.g. batteries or capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/12 Recording operating variables ; Monitoring of operating variables
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/00 Methods of charging batteries, specially adapted for electric vehicles; Charging stations or on-board charging equipment therefor; Exchange of energy storage elements in electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/10 characterised by the energy transfer between the charging station and the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/12 : Inductive energy transfer
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/60 : Monitoring or controlling charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/66 : Data transfer between charging stations and vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/665 : Methods related to measuring, billing or payment
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/12 : responding to state of charge [SoC]
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/13 : Maintaining the SoC within a determined range
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/21 : having the same nominal voltage
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/26 : by cooling
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/8006 : for monitoring and displaying scenes of vehicle interior, e.g. for monitoring passengers or cargo
• CPC Class Codes: C09J 5/00 : Adhesive processes in general; Adhesive processes not provided for elsewhere, e.g. relating to primers
• CPC Class Codes: F16B 11/00 : Connecting constructional elements or machine parts by sticking or pressing them together, e.g. cold pressure welding non-electric welding in general B23K; methods of using adhesives independently of the form of the surfaces joined C09J5/00
• CPC Class Codes: F25B 29/00 : Combined heating and refrigeration systems, e.g. operating alternately or simultaneously
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/005 : Input arrangements through a video camera
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 : Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/59 : inside of a vehicle, e.g. relating to seat occupancy, driver state or inner lighting conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/23 : Recognition of whole body movements, e.g. for sport training
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/425 : Structural combination with electronic components, e.g. electronic circuits integrated to the outside of the casing printed circuits H05K1/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/482 : for several batteries or cells simultaneously or sequentially
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/486 : for measuring temperature
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/613 : Cooling or keeping cold
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/625 : Vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/6557 : arranged between the cells
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/6563 : with forced flow, e.g. by blowers
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/663 : the system being an air-conditioner or an engine
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 2010/4271 : Battery management systems including electronic circuits, e.g. control of current or voltage to keep battery in healthy state, cell balancing
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 2010/4278 : Systems for data transfer from batteries, e.g. transfer of battery parameters to a controller, data transferred between battery controller and main controller
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 2220/20 : Batteries in motive systems, e.g. vehicle, ship, plane
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0019 : using switched or multiplexed charge circuits
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 : Energy storage using batteries
• 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

Various techniques described herein relate to electric vehicle power management system for managing a plurality of battery modules in a battery pack. Such electric vehicle power management system may include a plurality of battery management systems corresponding to a plurality of battery modules, and an energy management system for managing the plurality of battery management systems. The energy management system and the plurality of battery management systems may adopt master-slave wireless communication, and may use a single wireless frequency channel or a plurality of assigned wireless frequency channels.

Claims

1. An electric vehicle power management system used for managing a plurality of battery modules, the electric vehicle power management system comprising:

a plurality of battery management systems, each said battery management system comprising a battery management processor, a battery management communication module, and a unique battery management system address, wherein each of the plurality of battery management systems has a battery management system address and is configured to manage one or more battery cells of its corresponding battery module; and

an energy management system comprising an energy management processor and an energy management communication module, wherein the energy management system is operatively connected to the battery management systems via a set of wireless frequency channels such that the battery management system is connected to each of the plurality of the battery management systems via a wireless frequency channel that is in the set and that uniquely corresponds to the battery management system, and the energy management system is configured to;

set a communication interval time;

select a first battery management system from the plurality of battery management systems;

transmit a first command to the first battery management systems using the wireless frequency channel corresponding to the first battery management system, the first command carrying an address identifying the first battery management system and requesting data from the first battery management system;

after the requested data from the first battery management system having been received or the communication time interval has expired, determine whether a data request has been sent to a second battery management system; and

when it is determined that a data request has not been sent to the second battery management system, transmit a second command to the second battery management systems using the wireless frequency channel corresponding to the second battery management system, the second command carrying an address identifying the second battery management system and requesting data from the second battery management system.

2. The electric vehicle power management system of claim 1, wherein the address identifying the second battery management system is not sequential to the address identifying the first battery management system.

3. The electric vehicle power management system of claim 2, the energy management system is further configured to determine whether each of the plurality of the battery management systems has been sent a data request, and when it is determined that each of the plurality of the battery management systems has been sent a data request, the energy management system is further configured to set the communication interval time again.

4. The electric vehicle power management system of claim 1, wherein the energy management system is configured to continuously and sequentially update the address identifying one of the plurality of battery management systems to be selected.

5. The electric vehicle power management system of claim 1, wherein the energy management system is further configured to:

before transmitting the first command, transmit a verification signal to the first selected battery management system;

receive a response to the verification signal from the first selected battery management system; and

determine whether there is an abnormality associated with the first selected battery management system based on the response received to the verification signal.

6. The electric vehicle power management system of claim 5, wherein the energy management system is further configured to:

upon determining that there is an abnormality associated with the first selected battery management system, perform a fault diagnosis process.

7. The electric vehicle power management system of claim 1, wherein the energy management system is further configured to:

identify a first time corresponding to the termination of communications between the energy management system and the first selected battery management system; and

determine a time for the transmission of the second command, based on the identified first time and the communication interval time.

8. The electric vehicle power management system of claim 1, further comprising:

an external data bus connected to the energy management system, the external data bus configured to transmit communication data from the energy management system and to receive communication data for the energy management system,

wherein the external data bus is configured for bidirectional communication with at least one of a vehicle control unit, a charging unit, or a user interface.

9. A method for managing a plurality of battery modules, the method being implemented by an electric vehicle power management system comprising:

a plurality of battery management systems, each said battery management system comprising a battery management processor, a battery management communication module, and a unique battery management system address, wherein each of the plurality of battery management systems has a battery management system address and is configured to manage one or more battery cells of its corresponding battery module; and

an energy management system comprising an energy management processor and an energy management communication module, wherein the energy management system is operatively connected to the battery management systems via a set of wireless frequency channels such that the battery management system is connected to each of the plurality of the battery management systems via a wireless frequency channel that is in the set and that uniquely corresponds to the battery management system; and

wherein the method comprises;

setting a communication interval time;

selecting a first battery management system from the plurality of battery management systems;

transmitting a first command to the first battery management systems using the wireless frequency channel corresponding to the first battery management system, the first command carrying an address identifying the first battery management system and requesting data from the first battery management system;

after the requested data from the first battery management system having been received or the communication time interval has expired, determining whether a data request has been sent to a second battery management system; and

when it is determined that a data request has not been sent to the second battery management system, transmitting a second command to the second battery management systems using the wireless frequency channel corresponding to the second battery management system, the second command carrying an address identifying the second battery management system and requesting data from the second battery management system.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the address identifying the second battery management system is not sequential to the address identifying the first battery management system.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising determining whether each of the plurality of the battery management systems has been sent a data request, and when it is determined that each of the plurality of the battery management systems has been sent a data request, the energy management system is further configured to set the communication interval time again.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising continuously and sequentially updating the address identifying one of the plurality of battery management systems to be selected.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising

before transmitting the first command, transmitting a verification signal to the first selected battery management system;

receiving a response to the verification signal from the first selected battery management system; and

determining whether there is an abnormality associated with the first selected battery management system based on the response received to the verification signal.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

upon determining that there is an abnormality associated with the first selected battery management system, performing a fault diagnosis process.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

identifying a first time corresponding to the termination of communications between the energy management system and the first selected battery management system; and

determining a time for the transmission of the second command, based on the identified first time and the communication interval time.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the electric vehicle power management system further comprises an external data bus connected to the energy management system, wherein the method further comprises:

transmitting communication data from the energy management system and to receive communication data for the energy management system through the external data bus,

wherein the external data bus is configured for bidirectional communication with at least one of a vehicle control unit, a charging unit, or a user interface.