Vehicle Range Finder

• US 20100138142A1
• Filed: 07/17/2009
• Published: 06/03/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Celadon Applications, LLC
• Original Assignee: Celadon Applications, LLC
• Inventors: Pease, Karen
• Application Number:
  US12/504,810
• Publication Number:
  US 20100138142A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/123
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/26 Vehicle weight
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/421 Speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/423 Torque
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/486 Operating parameters
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/62 Vehicle position
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/647 Surface situation of road, e.g. type of paving
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/662 Temperature
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/665 Light intensity
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/68 Traffic data
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/16 by display
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/18 by enquiring driving style
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2260/52 drive range estimation, e.g. of estimation of available travel distance
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2260/54 Energy consumption estimation
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2260/56 Temperature prediction, e.g. for pre-cooling
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/10 for monitoring or controlling batteries
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/24 for controlling the temperature of batteries
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/02 including control of driveline clutches
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/08 including control of electric propulsion units, e.g. motors or generators
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/24 including control of energy storage means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 20/00 Control systems specially adapted for hybrid vehicles hybrid vehicle design, B60K6/00; electric vehicles B60L
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 20/15 : Control strategies specially adapted for achieving a particular effect
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0031 : Mathematical model of the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/143 : Alarm means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/146 : Display means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2510/0604 : Throttle position
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2510/081 : Speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2510/083 : Torque
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2510/1005 : Transmission ratio engaged
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2510/244 : Charge state
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2510/246 : Temperature
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/10 : Longitudinal speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2530/10 : Weight
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/12 : Brake pedal position
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/30 : Driving style
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/35 : Road bumpiness, e.g. potholes
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/00 : Input parameters relating to objects
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2555/20 : Ambient conditions, e.g. wind or rain
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2555/40 : Altitude
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/10 : Historical data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 : of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/0097 : Predicting future conditions
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/40 : Engine management systems
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/64 : Electric machine technologies in electromobility
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 : Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/72 : Electric energy management in electromobility
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/84 : Data processing systems or methods, management, administration
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/16 : Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles

Abstract

The present invention includes, among other embodiments, a system embedded in a vehicle including several inputs. The inputs may include one hard coded data, data from sensors on the vehicle, data from external sensors, user coded data, data received from remote databases, data received from broadcast data steams or data that has been accumulated during use of the vehicle. The inputs provide information regarding vehicle speed, motor rpm, motor torque, battery voltage, battery current, and battery charge level, etc. The embedded system also includes a processor unit that receives information from the plurality of inputs and calculates at least an expected vehicle range. The results of any calculations completed by the processing unit is supplied as an output to a display unit, which then displays the information to the user.

Claims

1. A system embedded in a vehicle, comprising:

a plurality of inputs including one or more of hard coded data, data from sensors on the vehicle, data from external sensors, user coded data, data received from remote databases, data received from broadcast data steams or data that has been accumulated or combinations thereof that provide information regarding one or more of vehicle speed, motor rpm, motor torque, battery voltage, battery current, and battery charge level;

a processor unit connected to the plurality of inputs, wherein the processing unit calculates, from the processor inputs, an expected vehicle range as an output; and

a display unit connected to the processor unit, wherein the display unit displays the output from the processor unit.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the inputs further provide data regarding vehicle route, vehicle destination, charge consumption, fuel consumption, ambient temperature, ambient pressure, wind speed, wind direction, tire pressure, throttle travel, brake travel, brake pressure, GPS position and altitude, battery pack temperature, accessory current, payload weight, road quality, climate control settings, solar illumination, gear ratio, recharging station location or combinations thereof.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the vehicle route includes a starting location of a vehicle, a destination of the vehicle, a plurality of elevation changes between the starting location and the destination, current ambient weather conditions between the starting location and the destination and combinations thereof.

4. The system of claim 2 wherein the processor unit further calculates a first distance from the vehicle to closest recharging station;

calculates a second distance to the next closest recharging station;

compares the first distance and the second distance to expected vehicle range; and

if the expected vehicle range is less than the second distance and greater than the first distance, then creates an output from the processing unit.

5. The system of claim 2 wherein the processor unit compares the compares the expected vehicle range to a distance to the vehicle destination, and if the expected vehicle range is less than the distance to the vehicle destination, then creates an output from the processing unit to be used by one or more vehicle systems.

6. A software application, comprising:

one or more inputs regarding destination, route, vehicle model, driver profile and combinations thereof;

a backend module that receives the inputs and calculates an expected vehicle range; and

a frontend module that displays the expected vehicle range to a user.

7. The software application of claim 6 wherein the backend module also receives inputs from one or more sensors.

8. The software application of claim 6 wherein the frontend module is used to control vehicle subsystems.

9. The software application of claim 6 wherein the frontend module also receives input from one or more remote databases.

10. The software application of claim 6 wherein the frontend module calculates the distance to a plurality of recharging stations.

11. The software application of claim 6 wherein the frontend module generates an alert when the expected vehicle range is greater than the distance to a closest recharging station and less then the distance to a next closest recharging station.

12. The software application of claim 6 wherein the frontend module displays one or more recharging stations.

13. The software application of claim 6 wherein the frontend module enables users to gather information about, comment on, amend information about, or create entries for recharging stations.