DOCKING BAYS FOR RECHARGING VEHICLE BATTERIES
First Claim
1. A docking bay for supplying battery recharging energy to a vehicle having a rechargeable battery and a pair of vehicle contacts positionable to receive said energy from said docking bay, said docking bay comprising:
- (a) a pair of normally de-energized, docking bay contacts each having a fully exposed, unprotected contact surface for making a non plug-in electrical contact with said vehicle contacts when said vehicle is driven into said docking bay;
(b) a contact energizer having an output operatively connected to said docking bay contacts and an input connectable to an external source of energy, said energizer being switchable in response to an energizer control signal from a first state where battery recharging energy is not provided to said docking bay contacts to a second state where battery recharging energy derived from said external source of energy is provided to said docking bay contacts; and
,(c) a controller operatively connected to said energizer for conditionally providing said energizer control signal to said energizer.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Docking bays for providing energy to vehicles having a rechargeable battery are disclosed. A given docking bay includes a pair of normally de-energized, unprotected, docking bay contacts for making electrical contact with cooperative vehicle contacts when the vehicle is driven into the docking bay. Typically the vehicle will be an electric vehicle, but is not necessarily an electric vehicle. The given docking bay also includes a contact energizer having an output operatively connected to the docking bay contacts and an input connectable to an external source of energy, for example a domestic AC power grid. The energizer is switchable in response to an energizer control signal from a first state where battery recharging energy is not provided to the docking bay contacts to a second state where battery recharching energy derived from the external source is provided to the docking bay contacts. A controller is operatively connected to the energizer.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. A docking bay for supplying battery recharging energy to a vehicle having a rechargeable battery and a pair of vehicle contacts positionable to receive said energy from said docking bay, said docking bay comprising:
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(a) a pair of normally de-energized, docking bay contacts each having a fully exposed, unprotected contact surface for making a non plug-in electrical contact with said vehicle contacts when said vehicle is driven into said docking bay; (b) a contact energizer having an output operatively connected to said docking bay contacts and an input connectable to an external source of energy, said energizer being switchable in response to an energizer control signal from a first state where battery recharging energy is not provided to said docking bay contacts to a second state where battery recharging energy derived from said external source of energy is provided to said docking bay contacts; and
,(c) a controller operatively connected to said energizer for conditionally providing said energizer control signal to said energizer. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification