Cloud-based connectivity energy budget manager

• US 10,394,251 B2
• Filed: 04/21/2017
• Issued: 08/27/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Dierker, William, Thornburg, Douglas B.
• Primary Examiner(s): To, Tuan C
• Application Number:
  US15/493,358
• Publication Number:
  US 20180307244A1
• Time in Patent Office: 858 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2260/54 Energy consumption estimation
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/65 involving identification of vehicles or their battery types
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/66 Data transfer between charging stations and vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/68 Off-site monitoring or control, e.g. remote control
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/3647 for determining the ability of a battery to perform a critical function, e.g. cranking
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/387 Determining ampere-hour charge capacity or SoC
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0011 associated with a remote control arrangement
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0276 using signals provided by a source external to the vehicle involving a plurality of vehicles G05D1/0287; automatically controlling vehicle speed responsive to externally generated signals B60K31/0058
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/22 The load being a portable electronic device
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/48 for electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00 Circuit arrangements for charging or depolarising batteries or for supplying loads from batteries
• 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: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• 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 4/60 Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits
• 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: 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 90/16 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 30/12 : Remote or cooperative charging
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 30/14 : Details associated with the interoperability, e.g. vehicle recognition, authentication, identification or billing

Abstract

A storage maintains energy estimates corresponding to function requests for vehicles. A processor of a server is programmed to receive a function request for a vehicle, and direct the vehicle to perform the function request responsive to determining, according to battery information received from the vehicle and an energy estimate corresponding to the function request, that the vehicle has sufficient energy to perform the function request.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a storage maintaining energy estimates corresponding to function requests; and

a processor of a server, programmed to

receive, from a mobile device, a function request for a vehicle at key-off,

send a power up message to the vehicle indicating one or more of (i) an identifier of the function request or (ii) a set of vehicle components required to perform the function request,

receive battery information from the vehicle responsive to the vehicle powering up a set of vehicle components required to perform the function request, and

direct the vehicle to perform the function request at key-off responsive to determining, according to the battery information received from the vehicle and an energy estimate corresponding to the function request, that the vehicle has sufficient energy to perform the function request,

wherein the battery information includes a state of charge of the vehicle and an instant current draw rate for the vehicle.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the battery information received from the vehicle includes a state of charge of the vehicle and an instant current draw rate for the vehicle.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor of the server is further programmed to:

responsive to determining that the vehicle lacks sufficient energy to perform the function request, send a message to the mobile device indicating that the function request cannot be completed.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor of the server is further programmed to reject the function request responsive to determining that no energy estimate is available that corresponds to the function request.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor of the server is further programmed to:

receive further battery information from the vehicle responsive to completion of the function request; and

utilize the further battery information to compute an updated energy estimate corresponding to the function request.

6. A system comprising:

a storage maintaining energy estimates corresponding to function requests; and

a processor of a server, programmed to

receive, from a mobile device, a function request for a vehicle at key-off,

create an energy estimate corresponding to the function request according to a predicted measure of time for execution of the function request, indications of vehicle components that are to be activated to support the function request, and energy draw per unit time measurements for the vehicle components, and

direct the vehicle to perform the function request at key-off responsive to determining, according to battery information received from the vehicle and the energy estimate, that the vehicle has sufficient energy to perform the function request.

7. A method comprising:

sending battery information of a vehicle including state of charge and instant current draw to a remote server;

receiving a function request from the server responsive to the server;

determining, according to the battery information and energy estimate corresponding to the function request, that the vehicle has sufficient energy to perform the function request at vehicle key-off; and

sending further battery information for updating the energy estimate to the server after completing the function request.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving a power up message, from the remote server, indicating an identifier of the function request; and

sending the state of charge and instant current draw, to the remote server, responsive to the vehicle powering up a set of vehicle components required to perform the function request.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising powering off the set of vehicle components responsive to completion of the function request.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving a power up message, from the remote server, indicating a set of vehicle components required to perform the function request; and

sending the state of charge and instant current draw, to the remote server, responsive to the vehicle powering up the set of vehicle components required to perform the function request.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising powering off the set of vehicle components responsive to completion of the function request.