INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS, MOTOR-DRIVEN MOVABLE BODY, AND DISCHARGE CONTROL METHOD

• US 20110202219A1
• Filed: 12/29/2010
• Published: 08/18/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: ISHIBASHI, Yoshihito
• Granted Patent: US 8,774,995 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/22
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2210/20 AC to AC converters
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/70 Interactions with external data bases, e.g. traffic centres
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/72 Charging station selection relying on external data
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/12 by confirmation, e.g. of the input
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/14 by input of vehicle departure time
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/16 by display
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2260/54 Energy consumption estimation
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/00 Methods of charging batteries, specially adapted for electric vehicles; Charging stations or on-board charging equipment therefor; Exchange of energy storage elements in electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/14 Conductive energy transfer
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/65 involving identification of vehicles or their battery types
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/68 Off-site monitoring or control, e.g. remote control
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/12 responding to state of charge [SoC]
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3469 Fuel consumption; Energy use; Emission aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 1/122 Provisions for temporary connection of DC sources of essentially the same voltage, e.g. jumpstart cables
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/48 for electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/342 The other DC source being a battery actively interacting with the first one, i.e. battery to battery charging with circuits for polarity protection H02J7/0034
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/7072 Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/72 Electric energy management in electromobility
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/12 Electric charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/14 : Plug-in electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/16 : Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/167 : Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for supporting the interoperability of electric or hybrid vehicles, i.e. smartgrids as interface for battery charging of electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 30/12 : Remote or cooperative charging
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 30/14 : Details associated with the interoperability, e.g. vehicle recognition, authentication, identification or billing

Abstract

There is provided an information processing apparatus including a travelable information display unit that displays before a discharge, regarding motor-driven movable bodies of a discharge source and a discharge destination driven by using electric power of batteries, information about places to which the motor-driven movable body of the discharge source can move using electric power of the battery left after the discharge by assuming, when information about a discharge amount discharged from the battery of the motor-driven movable body of the discharge source toward the motor-driven movable body of the discharge destination that receives power supply is input, a case in which the discharge amount is discharged from the battery.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus comprising:

a travelable information display unit that displays before a discharge, regarding motor-driven movable bodies of a discharge source and a discharge destination driven by using electric power of batteries, information about places to which the motor-driven movable body of the discharge source can move using electric power of the battery left after the discharge by assuming, when information about a discharge amount discharged from the battery of the motor-driven movable body of the discharge source toward the motor-driven movable body of the discharge destination that receives power supply is input, a case in which the discharge amount is discharged from the battery.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the information about the places to which the motor-driven movable body can move is one or a combination of a plurality of a travelable distance, a travelable time when the travelable distance is traveled at a predetermined speed, travelable areas, and reachable charging places.

3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2,

wherein the charging places are places where feeding facilities are installed or a destination.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3,

wherein the information about the discharge amount is a first charging place reachable by the motor-driven movable body of the discharge source after the discharge, a second charging place reachable by the motor-driven movable body of the discharge destination, or a set of the first charging place and the second charging place.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising:

an operation processing unit that calculates the discharge amount when the first charging place is input as the information about the discharge amount, based on a distance from a current location to the first charging place and the distance which the motor-driven movable body of the discharge source can move per unit electric power,

wherein the operation processing unit calculates the discharge amount so that electric power allowing the motor-driven movable body of the discharge source to reach at least the first charging place is left in the battery.

6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5,

wherein the operation processing unit calculates the discharge amount so that electric power allowing the motor-driven movable body of the discharge source to reach at least the first charging place is left in the battery and the motor-driven movable body of the discharge destination can reach at least the nearest charging place.

7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 6,

wherein the travelable information display unit displays the areas to which the motor-driven movable body of the discharge source can move and the areas to which the motor-driven movable body of the discharge destination can move in a distinguishable form on a map based on the discharge amount calculated by the operation processing unit.

8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 6,

wherein the travelable information display unit displays the charging places contained in the areas to which the motor-driven movable body of the discharge source can move and the charging places contained in the areas to which the motor-driven movable body of the discharge destination can move in a distinguishable form on a map based on the discharge amount calculated by the operation processing unit.

9. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising:

a user input unit to input the information about the discharge amount,

wherein the user input unit restricts user input so that a third charging place not reachable by the motor-driven movable body of the discharge source before the discharge or a fourth charging place not reachable by the motor-driven movable body of the discharge destination before the discharge is not selected.

10. The information processing apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising:

an operation processing unit that calculates the discharge amount when the second charging place is input as the information about the discharge amount, based on a distance from a current location to the second charging place and the distance which the motor-driven movable body of the discharge destination can move per unit electric power,

wherein the operation processing unit calculates the discharge amount so that the motor-driven movable body of the discharge destination can reach at least the second charging place.

11. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a range presentation unit that presents to a user a range of the discharge amount so that at least one charging place is contained in areas to which the motor-driven movable body of the discharge source can move after the discharge and at least one charging place is contained in areas to which the motor-driven movable body of the discharge destination can move after the discharge.

12. The information processing apparatus according to claim 11,

wherein the range presentation unit presents to the user the range of the discharge amount so that the motor-driven movable body of the discharge source can reach the nearest charging place after the discharge and the motor-driven movable body of the discharge destination can reach at least the nearest charging place after the discharge or the range of the discharge amount so that the motor-driven movable body of the discharge source can reach at least the nearest charging place after the discharge and the motor-driven movable body of the discharge destination can reach the nearest charging place after the discharge.

13. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an identity verification unit that verifies a user who has permission of an operation related to discharging,

wherein the identity verification unit verifies the user by one or a combination of a plurality of password authentication, fingerprint authentication, vein authentication, and iris authentication.

14. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an attribute specifying unit to specify which motor-driven movable body of two connected motor-driven movable bodies to become the charge source or the charge destination.

15. The information processing apparatus according to claim 14,

wherein the attribute specifying unit compares electric energy left in the batteries of the two motor-driven movable bodies and specifies the motor-driven movable body with more electric energy as the motor-driven movable body of the charge source and the motor-driven movable body with less electric energy as the motor-driven movable body of the charge destination.

16. A motor-driven movable body comprising:

a battery to store electric power for driving; and

an information processing apparatus having a travelable information display unit that displays, before a discharge, information about places to which the motor-driven movable body can move by using electric power of the battery left after the discharge when information about electric energy discharged from the battery toward the motor-driven movable body of a discharge destination is input, assuming a case in which the electric energy based on the input information about the electric energy is discharged from the battery.

17. A motor-driven movable body, comprising:

a battery to store electric power for driving; and

an information processing apparatus having a travelable information display unit that displays, before a discharge, information about places to which the motor-driven movable body can move by using electric power stored in the battery after a supply and information about places to which the motor-driven movable body of a discharge source can move after the supply when information about electric energy supplied to the battery from the motor-driven movable body of the discharge source is input, assuming a case in which the electric energy based on the input information about the electric energy is supplied from the battery.

18. A discharge control method, comprising the steps of:

inputting information about electric energy discharged from a battery toward a second motor-driven movable body connected to a first motor-driven movable body via a power line by an input means of an information processing apparatus connected to the first motor-driven movable body having the battery; and

displaying information about places to which the first motor-driven movable body can move by using electric power of the battery left after a discharge in a display means of the information processing apparatus based on the information input in the input step.

19. A discharge control method, comprising the steps of:

inputting information about electric energy supplied to a second battery from a first motor-driven movable body connected to a second motor-driven movable body via a power line by an input means of an information processing apparatus connected to the second motor-driven movable body having the second battery; and

displaying information about places to which the first motor-driven movable body can move by using electric power left in a first battery held by the first motor-driven movable body after the electric power is supplied to the second motor-driven movable body in a display means of the information processing apparatus connected to the first motor-driven movable body based on the information input in the input step.

20. The discharge control method according to claim 19,

wherein information about places to which the first motor-driven movable body can move is further displayed in the display means of the information processing apparatus connected to the second motor-driven movable body in the display step.