Drive control apparatus for hybrid electric vehicle and method for controlling the same

• US 20100305799A1
• Filed: 05/25/2010
• Published: 12/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Sakuma, Yasushi, Yamada, Kazunao, Mizuno, Yusuke, Sakai, Tadashi
• Granted Patent: US 8,433,466 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/22
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 6/46 Series type
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/06 including control of combustion engines
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/08 including control of electric propulsion units, e.g. motors or generators
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/26 for electrical energy, e.g. batteries or capacitors
• 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 20/40 Controlling the engagement or disengagement of prime movers, e.g. for transition between prime movers power-up or power-down of the driveline B60W30/192
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2510/244 Charge state
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/20 Road profile, i.e. the change in elevation or curvature of a plurality of continuous road segments
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/188 Controlling power parameters of the driveline, e.g. determining the required power
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/0097 Predicting future conditions
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/62 Hybrid vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/72 Electric energy management in electromobility

Abstract

In a drive control apparatus, an information storing unit collects first and second information at predetermined intervals while the vehicle runs and the information storing unit stores the first and second information in a storage device. A schedule effective section extracting unit extracts a schedule effective section from a route from an origin to a destination based on the second information. A control index storage controlling unit defines the schedule of the control index of each of multiple predetermined sections within the schedule effective section based on the first information such that fuel consumption of the engine is reduced in the schedule effective section, wherein the defined schedule of the control index is stored in the storage device. An assist control process unit performs drive control of a motor and an engine based on the schedule of the control index.

Claims

1. A drive control apparatus mounted to a hybrid electric vehicle that employs an engine and a motor as a running power source, wherein the drive control apparatus performs drive control of the engine and the motor based on a control index, the drive control apparatus comprising:

information storing means for collecting first information and second information at predetermined intervals while the vehicle runs and for storing the collected first and second information in a storage device, the first information being used for defining the control index, the second information being used for extracting a schedule effective section from a route from an origin to a destination, in which effective section certain fuel efficiency improvement is obtainable by defining a schedule of the control index and by performing the drive control of the engine and the motor based on the defined schedule;

schedule effective section extracting means for extracting the schedule effective section from the route based on the second information stored in the storage device;

control index storage controlling means for defining the schedule of the control index of each of a plurality of predetermined sections within the schedule effective section based on the first information stored in the storage device such that fuel consumption of the engine is reduced in the schedule effective section, wherein the control index storage controlling means controls the storage device to store the defined schedule of the control index; and

assist control process means for performing the drive control based on the schedule of the control index stored in the storage device.

2. The drive control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the schedule effective section satisfies the following two conditions:

the schedule effective section has a section length equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value; and

the schedule effective section has a downward gradient and an average gradient equal to or less than a predetermined threshold value.

3. The drive control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the schedule effective section satisfies the following three conditions:

the schedule effective section has a running time period, which is required for the vehicle to run therethrough, and which is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value;

the schedule effective section has a vehicle resting rate, which is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value; and

the schedule effective section has an electrical load for driving the motor, which load is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value.

4. The drive control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the schedule effective section satisfies the following two conditions:

the schedule effective section has a running time period that is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value; and

the schedule effective section has an average vehicle speed that is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold value.

5. The drive control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the schedule effective section extracting means extracts the schedule effective section from the route based on the second information when the schedule effective section extracting means determines that variation of the second information is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold value.

6. The drive control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the control index is a charge amount of a battery that drives the motor; and

the plurality of predetermined sections of the schedule effective section includes;

a first section, in which the charge amount of the battery reaches a predetermined upper limit value;

a second section that is located immediately upstream of the first section in a vehicle running direction, the charge amount of the battery increasing in the second section; and

a third section, which is located immediately upstream of the second section, and which extends from the second section by a predetermined distance.

7. The drive control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the control index is a charge amount of a battery that drives the motor; and

the plurality of predetermined sections of the schedule effective section includes;

a first section, in which the charge amount of the battery reaches a predetermined lower limit value;

a second section that is located immediately upstream of the first section in a vehicle running direction, the charge amount of the battery decreasing in the second section; and

a third section, which is located immediately upstream of the second section, and which extends from the second section by a predetermined distance.

8. The drive control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the schedule effective section is a first schedule effective section; and

when a second schedule effective section, in which certain fuel efficiency improvement is obtainable by defining the schedule of the control index, is extracted by the schedule effective section extracting means, the control index storage controlling means defines the schedule of the control index for each of the plurality of predetermined sections of the first and second schedule effective sections such that the fuel consumption of the engine is reduced in the first and second schedule effective sections, the control index storage controlling means causing the storage device to store the schedule of the control index.

9. A method for controlling an engine and a motor of a hybrid electric vehicle based on a state of charge (SOC) of a battery mounted to the vehicle, comprising:

collecting first information and second information of each of a plurality of sections within a route from an origin to a destination while the vehicle runs along the route;

storing the collected first and second information of each of the plurality of sections in a storage device;

extracting a plurality of continuous sections as a schedule effective section from the plurality of sections within the route based on the second information stored in the storage device after the vehicle has reached the destination, the continuous sections being located adjacent to each other in the route;

defining a schedule of the SOC for each of the plurality of continuous sections based on the first information stored in the storage device such that fuel consumption of the engine is reduced in the schedule effective section;

storing the defined schedule of the SOC in the storage device; and

controlling the engine and the motor of the vehicle based on the schedule of the SOC stored in the storage device when the vehicle runs along the route in a next operation.