Hybrid Electric Vehicle Energy Management System
First Claim
1. A method of controlling a hybrid electric vehicle, wherein said hybrid vehicle incorporates a recuperated turbine engine, said method comprising controlling a fuel flow to said recuperated turbine engine so as to convert heat energy to useful work, wherein said heat energy is stored in a recuperator of said recuperated turbine engine as a result of operating said recuperated turbine engine, and the operation of controlling said fuel flow is in anticipation of shutting down said recuperated turbine engine.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A vehicle location sensor such as a GPS, an inertial navigation or dead reckoning system determines location data for a vehicle that travels from a known first destination to a second destination. This location data is processed by a route computer system, and associated vehicle driving patterns are stored in memory. Measured vehicle locations, possibly in combination with stored driving pattern information, are used to anticipate a likely second destination and a likely associated driving pattern from a current location of the vehicle to the likely second destination. The anticipation of a destination or a driving pattern can be responsive to associated likelihoods based upon previous vehicle behavior, which likelihoods can be also dependent upon the time of day, day of week or date. A power generator and an energy storage device of a hybrid electric vehicle are controlled responsive to the anticipated likely driving pattern, and possibly responsive to information from environment sensors. In one embodiment, a recuperated turbine engine power generator is shut off in advance of reaching an anticipated destination so as to recover latent heat energy from a regenerator, wherein the recovered energy can be either stored in the energy storage unit or used to drive a traction motor of the hybrid electric vehicle.
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Citations
54 Claims
- 1. A method of controlling a hybrid electric vehicle, wherein said hybrid vehicle incorporates a recuperated turbine engine, said method comprising controlling a fuel flow to said recuperated turbine engine so as to convert heat energy to useful work, wherein said heat energy is stored in a recuperator of said recuperated turbine engine as a result of operating said recuperated turbine engine, and the operation of controlling said fuel flow is in anticipation of shutting down said recuperated turbine engine.
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7. A method of controlling a hybrid electric vehicle, wherein said hybrid vehicle incorporates a recuperated turbine engine, said method comprising:
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a. monitoring a condition of said recuperated turbine engine;
b. shutting off a fuel flow to said recuperated turbine engine; and
c. resuming said fuel flow to said recuperated turbine engine so as to resume operating said turbine engine, wherein the operation of resuming said fuel flow is initiated prior to a time when said condition would indicate that said recuperated turbine engine would not likely start without requiring a source of energy external to said recuperated turbine engine to rotate a compressor of said recuperated turbine engine. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method of controlling a hybrid electric vehicle, wherein said hybrid vehicle incorporates a power generator, an energy storage device and a traction motor, said method comprising:
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a. determining at least one location of the vehicle;
b. determining a measure responsive or related to an amount of energy required for said vehicle to reach a destination, wherein said measure is responsive to said at least one location of said vehicle in relation to said destination;
c. at least reducing the power generated by said power generator responsive to said measure in advance of said vehicle reaching said destination; and
d. continuing travel of said vehicle to said destination using said traction motor powered at least by said energy storage device - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A method of determining a likely destination of a vehicle, comprising:
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a. determining at least one location of the vehicle; and
b. determining a likely second destination of said vehicle responsive to said at least one location of said vehicle, wherein said vehicle is possibly traveling from a known first destination to said likely second destination. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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29. A method of determining a likely destination of a vehicle as recited in claim wherein said likelihood is calculated from at least one previous driving pattern of said vehicle.
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35. A method of controlling a hybrid electric vehicle, comprising:
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a. determining at least one location of the vehicle in advance of or during a first driving pattern of said vehicle, wherein said first driving pattern of said vehicle is associated with said vehicle traveling from a first destination to a likely second destination;
b. anticipating a likely second driving pattern of said vehicle, wherein the operation of anticipating said second driving pattern is responsive to said at least one location or to said first driving pattern of said vehicle, and said second driving pattern of said vehicle is associated with said vehicle traveling from said likely second destination to a likely third destination; and
c. controlling said hybrid electric vehicle during said first driving pattern responsive to the anticipation of said second driving pattern. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46)
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47. A hybrid electric vehicle, comprising:
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a. a power generator;
b. an energy storage device, wherein the hybrid electric vehicle is adapted to provide for selectively using power generated by said power generator to charge said energy storage device with stored energy;
c. a traction motor, wherein said hybrid electric vehicle is adapted to provide for selectively operating said traction motor from power generated by said power generator and/or power from a discharge of said stored energy from said energy storage device;
d. a vehicle location sensor, wherein said vehicle location sensor generates at least one measure of location of said hybrid electric vehicle;
e. a computer adapted to execute a stored program;
f. a memory operatively associated with said computer, wherein said stored program is adapted to record in said memory information related to at least one previous driving pattern of said vehicle based upon corresponding previously generated information from said vehicle location sensor, and said stored program is adapted to evaluate said at least one measure of location in view of said information related to a previous driving pattern of said vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54)
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Specification