Charging/discharging station, in particular for a battery-operated vehicle

• US 10,336,203 B2
• Filed: 09/28/2015
• Issued: 07/02/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
• Original Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
• Inventors: Kilic, Ahmet, Eppler, Steffen
• Primary Examiner(s): Ngo, Brian
• Application Number:
  US15/528,943
• Publication Number:
  US 20170253131A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,373 Days
• Field of Search: 320108, 320107, 320109, 320110
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/62 Vehicle position
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/72 Charging station selection relying on external data
• 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 53/305 Communication interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/37 using optical position determination, e.g. using cameras
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/39 with position-responsive activation of primary coils
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 55/00 Arrangements for supplying energy stored within a vehicle to a power network, i.e. vehicle-to-grid [V2G] arrangements
• 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

The invention relates to a charging/discharging station (2) for charging or discharging an at least partly battery-operated vehicle (14) via an inductively coupled pair of coils. The charging/discharging station (2) comprises in particular a computer device (12), in which spatial coordinates of parking areas (4) are stored and which has means to navigate a vehicle (14) to the parking area (4) by means of communication units (8, 16) by using image data of the vehicle (14) recorded by means of a camera device (10) and by using physical coordinates of the parking areas (4). The invention further relates to a method for operating such a loading/discharging station (2).

Claims

1. A charging/discharging station (2) for charging or discharging an at least partially battery-operated vehicle (14) via an inductively coupled pair of coils, the charging/discharging station (2) comprising

at least one parking space (4) with a primary coil (6), the primary coil (6) being able to form the inductively coupled pair of coils together with a secondary coil (18) of a vehicle (14) to be discharged and/or charged,

a first communication unit (8) which is set up to communicate with a second communication unit (16) of the vehicle (14),

at least one camera device (10) which is connected to a computer device (12) for processing recorded image data, the computer device (12) storing spatial coordinates of the at least one parking space (4), and the computer device (12) having means for navigating the vehicle (14) to the at least one parking space (4) on the basis of image data relating to the vehicle (14) which are recorded by the camera device (10) and the spatial coordinates of the at least one parking space (4) by means of the first and second communication units (8, 16), wherein the camera device flies autonomously above the parking spaces.

2. The charging/discharging station (2) as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the camera device (10) is positioned with respect to the at least one parking space (4) in such a manner that a plan view of the at least one parking space (4) is possible.

3. The charging/discharging station (2) as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the camera device (10) is formed by stereo cameras.

4. The charging/discharging station (2) as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the charging/discharging station (2) has a plurality of parking spaces (4) and the camera device (10) is centrally arranged.

10. The charging/discharging station (2) as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the camera device (10) is positioned with respect to the parking space (4) in such a manner that a plan view of the parking space (4) is possible and approach routes of the vehicle (14) are visible.

5. A method for operating a charging/discharging station (2) for charging or discharging an at least partially battery-operated vehicle (14) via an inductively coupled pair of coils, the charging/discharging station (2) having at least one parking space (4) with a primary coil (6), the primary coil (6) being able to form the inductively coupled pair of coils together with a secondary coil (18) of a vehicle (14) to be discharged and/or charged, the charging/discharging station (2) having a first communication unit (8) which is set up to communicate with a second communication unit (16) of the vehicle (14), and the charging/discharging station (2) having at least one camera device (10) which is connected to a computer device (12) for the purpose of processing recorded image data, wherein the camera device flies autonomously above the parking spaces, the method comprising the steps of:

a) determining and storing spatial coordinates of the parking space(s) (4) of the charging/discharging station (2) in the computer device (12),

b) identifying the vehicle (14) and detecting a current position of the vehicle (14) with respect to one or more parking spaces (4) of the charging/discharging station (2) by means of image data relating to the vehicle (14) which are recorded by the camera device (10), and

c) navigating the vehicle (14) to a parking space (4) on the basis of the detected current position of the vehicle (14) and the spatial coordinates of the parking space (4) by means of the first and second communication units (8, 16).

6. The method as claimed in claim 5, characterized in that the current position of the vehicle (14) is detected by means of a marking or by means of reference values of the vehicle (14).

7. The method as claimed in claim 5, characterized in that the vehicle (14) is navigated to the parking space (4) in step c)

d) by transmitting coordinates of the parking space (4) relative to the vehicle (14) by means of the first and second communication units (8, 16), a trajectory from the current position of the vehicle (14) to the parking space (4) being calculated in the vehicle.

8. The method as claimed in claim 5, characterized in that the charging/discharging station (2) has a plurality of parking spaces (4), the computer device (12) providing a driver of the vehicle (14) with a selection of the parking spaces (4) after detecting the current position of the vehicle (14) with respect to the plurality of parking spaces (4), and the driver being able to select a parking space (4) to which the vehicle (14) is navigated according to step c).

9. The method as claimed in claim 8, characterized in that the computer device (12) detects an occupancy state of the plurality of parking spaces (4) and provides only free parking spaces (4) for selection.

11. The method as claimed in claim 5, characterized in that the vehicle (14) is navigated to the parking space (4) in step c)

e) by calculating a trajectory from the current position of the vehicle (14) to the parking space (4) in the charging/discharging station (2) and by transmitting the calculated trajectory by means of the first and second communication units (8, 16).