Vehicle with high voltage power source mounted thereon, power source controller, method of starting such vehicle, and method of utilizing high voltage power source
First Claim
1. A vehicle with a high voltage power source mounted thereon, said vehicle comprising:
- a relay having a contact interposed between said high voltage power source and a power line of said vehicle;
a relay actuation requirement unit that outputs a requirement signal to close the contact of said relay;
a cutoff member that is handled in a manual manner to cut off output of said high voltage power source on a side closer to said power source than said relay;
an operation detection unit that detects an operation including a specific operation to handle said cutoff member;
a prohibition unit that prohibits the contact of said relay from being closed in response to detection of the operations;
a driving action detection unit that detects a driver'"'"'s driving action;
an evaluation unit that evaluates a result of the detection of said operation detection unit, based on a result of the detection by said driving action detection unit; and
a cancellation unit that, when said evaluation unit specifies that the evaluated result of the detection of said operation detection unit is an operation other than the specific operation to handle said cutoff member, cancels the function of said prohibition unit, which prohibits the contact of said relay from being closed, but actuates said relay in response to the requirement signal output from said relay actuation requirement signal.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A vehicle with a high voltage power source mounted thereon has a diversity of protection mechanisms to protect the driver and mechanics from potential accidents. Even in the case of a subtle erroneous operation or detection, one of such mechanisms cuts off the supply of the high voltage power source. This undesirably lowers the convenience of use. The arrangement of the present invention carries out evaluation and determines that the driver intends to start the vehicle in a normal manner, when the time on a first timer Toff is greater than a preset minimum off time Tmin, for example, 5 seconds but less than a preset maximum off time Tmax, for example, 1 hour. Based on this evaluation, system main relays SMR are set on to permit a start of the vehicle. In the case where an ignition key of the vehicle is operated normally twice at a time interval of several seconds, even if an interlock reed switch IRL is in the off state, the arrangement tries to start the vehicle since there is a possibility that a grip SG of a service plug SP is mistakenly pulled out. When the service plug SP is actually taken out under such conditions, even the on state of the system main relays SMR does not allow the high voltage of an HV battery to be applied to the high voltage power line of the vehicle.
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Citations
9 Claims
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1. A vehicle with a high voltage power source mounted thereon, said vehicle comprising:
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a relay having a contact interposed between said high voltage power source and a power line of said vehicle;
a relay actuation requirement unit that outputs a requirement signal to close the contact of said relay;
a cutoff member that is handled in a manual manner to cut off output of said high voltage power source on a side closer to said power source than said relay;
an operation detection unit that detects an operation including a specific operation to handle said cutoff member;
a prohibition unit that prohibits the contact of said relay from being closed in response to detection of the operations;
a driving action detection unit that detects a driver'"'"'s driving action;
an evaluation unit that evaluates a result of the detection of said operation detection unit, based on a result of the detection by said driving action detection unit; and
a cancellation unit that, when said evaluation unit specifies that the evaluated result of the detection of said operation detection unit is an operation other than the specific operation to handle said cutoff member, cancels the function of said prohibition unit, which prohibits the contact of said relay from being closed, but actuates said relay in response to the requirement signal output from said relay actuation requirement signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A power source controller disposed in an apparatus with a high voltage power source mounted thereon, said power source controller comprising:
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a relay having a contact interposed between said high voltage power source and a power line of said apparatus;
a cutoff member that is handled in a manual manner to cut off output of said high voltage power source on a side closer to said power source than said relay;
an operation detection unit that detects an operation including a specific operation to handle said cutoff member;
a prohibition unit that prohibits the contact of said relay from being closed in response to detection of the specific operation to handle said cutoff member;
an operational action detection unit that detects an operator'"'"'s operational action of said apparatus;
an evaluation unit that evaluates a result of the detection of said operation detection unit, based on a result of the detection by said operational action detection unit; and
a cancellation unit that, when said evaluation unit specifies that the evaluated result of the detection of said operation detection unit is an operation other than the specific operation to handle said cutoff member, cancels the function of said prohibition unit, which prohibits the contact of said relay from being closed, in response to input of a requirement signal to close the contact of said relay.
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8. A method of starting a vehicle with a high voltage power source mounted thereon, said method comprising the steps of:
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interposing a contact of a relay between said high voltage power source and a power line of said vehicle;
detecting a preliminary operation to handle a cutoff member that cuts off output of said high voltage power source in a manual manner on a side closer to said power source than said relay;
prohibiting the contact of said relay from being closed in response to detection of the preliminary operation to handle said cutoff member;
detecting a driver'"'"'s driving action;
evaluating the detected preliminary operation, based on a result of the detection of the driving action; and
when the evaluation specifies that the detected preliminary operation is other than a specific operation to handle said cutoff member, canceling the prohibition on the function of closing the contact of said relay in response to input of a requirement signal to close the contact of said relay, so as to allow a start of said vehicle.
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9. A method of utilizing a high voltage power source mounted on an apparatus, said method comprising the steps of:
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interposing a contact of a relay between said high voltage power source and a power line of said apparatus;
detecting a preliminary operation to handle a cutoff member that cuts off output of said high voltage power source in a manual manner on a side closer to said power source than said relay;
prohibiting the contact of said relay from being closed in response to detection of the preliminary operation to handle said cutoff member;
detecting an operator'"'"'s operational action of said apparatus;
evaluating the detected preliminary operation, based on a result of the detection of the operational action; and
when the evaluation specifies that the detected preliminary operation is other than a specific operation to handle said cutoff member, canceling the prohibition on the function of closing the contact of said relay in response to input of a requirement signal to close the contact of said relay, so as to allow a start of said apparatus.
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Specification