Method and apparatus for positioning a vehicle

• US 10,343,537 B2
• Filed: 03/03/2017
• Issued: 07/09/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WiTricity Corporation
• Original Assignee: WiTricity Corporation
• Inventors: Widmer, Hans Peter, Daetwyler, Andreas
• Primary Examiner(s): Fantu, Valkew
• Application Number:
  US15/449,718
• Publication Number:
  US 20170259679A1
• Time in Patent Office: 858 Days
• Field of Search: 320108
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/62 Vehicle position
• 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 53/35 Means for automatic or assisted adjustment of the relative position of charging devices and vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/36 by positioning the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/39 with position-responsive activation of primary coils
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/00 Beacons or beacon systems transmitting signals having a characteristic or characteristics capable of being detected by non-directional receivers and defining directions, positions, or position lines fixed relatively to the beacon transmitters; Receivers co-operating therewith position fixing by co-ordinating a plurality of determinations of direction or position lines G01S5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/00 Systems using the reflection or reradiation of radio waves, e.g. radar systems; Analogous systems using reflection or reradiation of waves whose nature or wavelength is irrelevant or unspecified
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/00 Control of position, course, altitude or attitude of land, water, air or space vehicles, e.g. using automatic pilots drive control systems specially adapted for autonomous road vehicles B60W60/00
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00022 using wireless data transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2300/10 The dispersed energy generation being of fossil origin, e.g. diesel generators
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/48 for electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/381 Dispersed generators
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/12 of the resonant type
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/90 involving detection or optimisation of position, e.g. alignment
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00034 Charger exchanging data with an electronic device, i.e. telephone, whose internal battery is under charge
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 90/20 Smart grids as enabling technology in buildings sector smart grids supporting the management or operation of end-user stationary applications in general, or like technologies with no associated climate change mitigation effect Y04S20/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/00 Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
• 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 90/12 : 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
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/167 : Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for supporting the interoperability of electric or hybrid vehicles, i.e. smartgrids as interface for battery charging of electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/126 : the energy generation units being or involving electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV], i.e. power aggregation of EV or HEV, vehicle to grid arrangements [V2G]
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 30/12 : Remote or cooperative charging
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/126 : using wireless data transmission

Abstract

Methods and apparatus are discloses for position a vehicle. In one aspect, an apparatus for positioning a vehicle is provided. The apparatus comprises a plurality of receive, each configured to generate a respective voltage signal from a wireless magnetic field generated by a field generator. The apparatus further comprises a processor configured to determine a first set of data based on the respective voltage signals generated by the plurality of receive coils, and reduce the first set of data to a second set of data that is substantially constant regardless of relative rotation between the plurality of receive coils and the field generator. The apparatus is further configured to determine a plurality of candidate positions based upon the second set of data, which are used to determine a position and an orientation with respect to the field generator based on the first set of data.

Claims

1. An apparatus for positioning a vehicle, the apparatus comprising:

a plurality of receive coils, each of the plurality of receive coils configured to generate a respective voltage signal from a wireless magnetic field generated by a field generator; and

a processor configured to;

reduce a first set of data indicative of the respective voltage signals generated by the plurality receive coils to a second set of data that is substantially constant regardless of relative rotation between the plurality of receive coils and the field generator,

determine a plurality of candidate positions based on comparing the second set of data to a plurality of first sets of stored data mapped to stored positions of the vehicle relative to the field generator,

identify a plurality of second sets of stored data using the determined plurality of candidate positions, wherein the plurality of second sets of stored data are mapped to stored positions and orientations of the vehicle relative to the field generator, and

determine a position and an orientation of the vehicle with respect to the field generator based on comparing the first set of data with the plurality of second sets of stored data.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of receive coils are arranged in different mutually orthogonal geometric planes.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein first set of data is a first multi-dimensional vector having a first number of dimensions and the second set of data is a second multi-dimensional vector having a second number of dimensions and comprising products of components of the first vector.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the first number of dimensions of the first multi-dimensional vector is larger than the second number of dimensions of the second multi-dimensional vector.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of first sets of stored data is generated based upon a mapping function between the stored positions and each of the first sets of stored data.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the processor is further configured to generate the first and second sets of stored data using a preconfigured system calibration process.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of candidate positions comprises a subset of the plurality of first sets of stored data that have a smaller distance to the determined second set of data than all first sets of stored data of the plurality of first sets of stored data not part of the subset.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the distance corresponds to a Euclidean distance.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of second sets of stored data are mapped to stored positions corresponding to the plurality of candidate positions.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein determining the position and orientation is based on a second set of stored data of the plurality of second sets of stored data for which the determined distance to a rotational transform of the first set of data is a minimum.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to:

rotationally transform the first set of data by a predetermined rotation angle,

increment the predetermined rotation angle and rotationally transform the first set of data by the incremented rotation angle a plurality of times until a predetermined rotation angle limit is reached, and

for each of the rotationally transformed first sets of data, determine a distance between the rotationally transformed first set of data and the plurality of the second sets of stored data.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to generate visual or acoustic guidance information for aligning the vehicle with the field generator, based upon the determined position and orientation of the vehicle.

13. A method for determining a location of a vehicle relative to a reference point, the method comprising:

receiving, as an input, a first multi-dimensional vector having a first plurality of values indicative of respective electrical characteristics of a plurality of positioning coils, the electrical characteristics generated in response to a magnetic field generated by a field generator;

generating a second multi-dimensional vector having a second plurality of values by performing a non-linear transformation on the first multi-dimensional vector, the total number of the second plurality of values being less than the total number of the first plurality of values;

determining a plurality of candidate positions based on comparing the second multi-dimensional vector to a plurality of stored multi-dimensional vectors mapped with stored positions of the vehicle relative to the reference point;

identifying a second set of stored multi-dimensional vectors corresponding to the determined plurality of candidate positions, each of the second set of stored multi-dimensional vectors mapped to a stored position and orientation of the vehicle relative to the reference point; and

determining a position and orientation based on comparing the first multi-dimensional vector with the second set of stored multi-dimensional vectors.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the plurality of positioning coils are arranged in mutually orthogonal planes.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the first multi-dimensional vector is a 9-dimensional voltage vector and the second multi-dimensional vector is a 6-dimensional voltage vector comprising products of components of the 9-dimensional voltage vector.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the plurality of stored multi-dimensional vectors comprises a plurality of stored 6-dimensional voltage vectors, each corresponding to one of a plurality of positions with respect to the reference point.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the plurality of candidate positions corresponds to a selected subset of stored multi-dimensional vectors of the plurality of stored multi-dimensional vectors that have a smaller distance to the determined second multi-dimensional vector than all unselected stored multi-dimensional vectors of the plurality of stored multi-dimensional vectors.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the distance corresponds to a Euclidean distance.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

rotationally transforming the first multi-dimensional vector by a predetermined rotation angle,

incrementing the predetermined rotation angle and rotationally transforming the first multi-dimensional vector by the incremented rotation angle a plurality of times until a predetermined rotation angle limit is reached, and

for each of the rotationally transformed first multi-dimensional vector, determine a distance between the rotationally transformed first multi-dimensional vector and each of the second set of stored multi-dimensional vectors.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein determining the position and orientation further comprises determining the position with respect to the reference point based on a stored multi-dimensional vector of the second set of stored multi-dimensional vectors for which the determined distance to any of the rotationally transformed first multi-dimensional vector is a minimum.

21. The method of claim 13, further comprising generating visual or acoustic guidance information for aligning the vehicle with the field generator, based upon the determined position and orientation of the vehicle.

22. The method of claim 13, wherein the second multi-dimensional vector is substantially constant regardless of relative rotation between the plurality of positioning coils and the field generator.

23. An apparatus for determining a location of a vehicle relative to a reference point, comprising:

means for receiving, as an input, a first multi-dimensional vector having a first plurality of values indicative of respective electrical characteristics of a plurality of positioning coils, the electrical characteristics generated in response to a magnetic field generated by a field generator;

means for generating a second multi-dimensional vector having a second plurality of values by performing a non-linear transformation on the first multi-dimensional vector, the total number of the second plurality of values being less than the total number of the first plurality of values;

means for determining a plurality of candidate positions based on comparing the second multi-dimensional vector to a plurality of stored multi-dimensional vectors mapped with stored positions of the vehicle relative to the reference point;

means for identifying a second set of stored multi-dimensional vectors corresponding to the determined plurality of candidate positions, each of the second set of stored multi-dimensional vectors mapped to a stored position and orientation of the vehicle relative to the reference point; and

means for determining a position and orientation based on comparing the first multi-dimensional vector with the second set of stored multi-dimensional vectors.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the first multi-dimensional vector is a 9-dimensional voltage vector and the second multi-dimensional vector is a 6-dimensional voltage vector comprising products of components of the 9-dimensional voltage vector.

25. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the plurality of stored multi-dimensional vectors comprises a plurality of stored 6-dimensional voltage vectors, each corresponding to one of a plurality of positions with respect to the reference point.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein the plurality of candidate positions corresponds to a selected subset of stored multi-dimensional vectors of the plurality of stored multi-dimensional vectors that have a smaller distance to the determined second multi-dimensional vector than all unselected stored multi-dimensional vectors of the plurality of stored multi-dimensional vectors.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein the distance corresponds to a Euclidean distance.

28. A method for positioning a vehicle, the method comprising:

generating, at a plurality of receive coils, respective voltage signals based upon a wireless magnetic field generated by a field generator,

reducing a first set of data indicative of the respective voltage signals generated at the plurality receive coils to a second set of data that is substantially constant regardless of relative rotation between the plurality of receive coils and the field generator,

determining a plurality of candidate positions based on comparing the second set of data to a plurality of first sets of stored data mapped to stored positions of the vehicle relative to the field generator,

identifying a plurality of second sets of stored data using the determined plurality of candidate positions, wherein the plurality of second sets of stored data are mapped to stored positions and orientations of the vehicle relative to the field generator, and

determining a position and an orientation of the vehicle with respect to the field generator based on comparing the first set of data with the plurality of second sets of stored data.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein first set of data is a first multi-dimensional vector having a first number of dimensions and the second set of data is a second multi-dimensional vector having a second number of dimensions and comprising products of components of the first vector.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein the plurality of candidate positions comprises a subset of the plurality of first sets of stored data that have a smaller distance to the determined second set of data than all first sets of stored data of the plurality of first sets of stored data not part of the subset.