Device and Method for Positioning by Means of Triangulation

• US 20150151641A1
• Filed: 02/06/2015
• Published: 06/04/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bayerische Motoren Werke AG
• Original Assignee: Bayerische Motoren Werke AG
• Inventors: BERGER, Jens, KRAMMER, Josef
• Granted Patent: US 10,166,874 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/32 Driving direction
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/62 Vehicle position
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/12 Inductive energy transfer
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/126 Methods for pairing a vehicle and a charging station, e.g. establishing a one-to-one relation between a wireless power transmitter and a wireless power receiver
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/305 Communication interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/36 by positioning the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/38 specially adapted for charging by inductive energy transfer
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/65 involving identification of vehicles or their battery types
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 15/0285 Parking performed automatically
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02 using radio waves using satellite radio beacon systems for determining position G01S19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0225 involving docking at a fixed facility, e.g. base station or loading bay parking aids B62D15/027
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/028 using a RF signal
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/48 for electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/10 using inductive coupling
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/80 involving the exchange of data, concerning supply or distribution of electric power, between transmitting devices and receiving devices
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/90 involving detection or optimisation of position, e.g. alignment
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00034 Charger exchanging data with an electronic device, i.e. telephone, whose internal battery is under charge
• 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 30/14 : Details associated with the interoperability, e.g. vehicle recognition, authentication, identification or billing

Abstract

A system includes a vehicle and an induction charging unit, where the induction charging unit includes a primary coil and the vehicle includes a secondary coil. During a charging operation in a charging position, electric power is inductively transmissible from the primary coil to the secondary coil, in the charging position, the secondary coil being situated in a preferred spatial position area with respect to the primary coil, such that, for setting the charging position, by means of electromagnetic distance and angle measuring, by triangulation, the system detects a location position which describes a time-dependent spatial position of the secondary coil with respect to the primary coil. Moreover, by means of the location position and the charging position, the system detects at least a partial travel trajectory, along which the location position of the charging position can be approximated.

Claims

1. A system comprising a vehicle and an induction charging unit, the induction charging unit comprising a primary coil and the vehicle comprising a secondary coil and wherein, during a charging operation in a charging position, electric power is inductively transmissible from the primary coil to the secondary coil, in the charging position, the secondary coil being situated in a preferred spatial position area with respect to the primary coil, wherein, for setting the charging position,

based on electromagnetic distance and angle measuring, by means of triangulation, the system detects a location position which describes a time-dependent spatial position of the secondary coil with respect to the primary coil, and

based on the location position and the charging position, the system detects at least a partial travel trajectory, along which the location position of the charging position can be approximated.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein, for the electromagnetic distance and angle measuring,

the vehicle has at least two low-frequency receiving antennas, and

the induction charging unit has at least two low-frequency transmitting antennas.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein, for the electromagnetic distance and angle measuring,

the vehicle has at least one low-frequency receiving antenna, and

the induction charging unit has at least two low-frequency transmitting antennas.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein, for the electromagnetic distance and angle measuring,

the vehicle has at least two low-frequency receiving antennas, and

the induction charging unit has at least one low-frequency transmitting antenna.

5. The System according to claim 1, wherein, for the electromagnetic distance and angle measuring,

the vehicle has at least two low-frequency transmitting antennas, and

the induction charging unit has at least two low-frequency receiving antennas.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein, for the electromagnetic distance and angle measuring,

the vehicle has at least one low-frequency transmitting antenna, and

the induction charging unit has at least two low-frequency receiving antennas.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein, for the electromagnetic distance and angle measuring,

the vehicle has at least two low-frequency transmitting antennas, and

the induction charging unit has at least one low-frequency receiving antenna.

8. The system according to claim 3, wherein

the vehicle has a charging control device,

the charging control device comprises a first high-frequency communication unit, and

the charging control device is assigned to the at least one low-frequency receiving antenna as a measuring unit for the electromagnetic distance and angle measuring and measures induction signals of the at least one low-frequency receiving antenna.

9. The system according to claim 4, wherein

the induction charging unit has an induction control device,

the induction control device comprises a second high-frequency communication unit, and

the induction control device drives the at least one low-frequency transmitting antenna.

10. The system according to claim 5, wherein

the vehicle has a charging control device,

the charging control device drives at least one of the low-frequency transmitting antennas, and

the charging control device comprises a first high-frequency communication unit.

11. The system according to claim 5, wherein

the induction charging unit has an induction control device,

the induction control device comprises a second high-frequency communication unit, and

the induction control device is assigned to at least one of the low-frequency receiving antennas as a measuring unit for the electromagnetic distance and angle measuring and measures induction signals of the at least one low-frequency receiving antenna.

12. The system according to claim 8, wherein

the induction signals can be transmitted between the induction control device and the charging control device, and

the charging control device or the induction control device, as the arithmetic unit, by means of the induction signals, detects the location position by triangulation.

13. The system according to claim 11, wherein

the induction signals can be transmitted between the induction control device and the charging control device, and

the charging control device or the induction control device, as the arithmetic unit, by means of the induction signals, detects the location position by triangulation.

14. The system according to claim 12, wherein

by means of the location position, the charging control device or the induction control device or a further control device of the vehicle detects the travel trajectory, and

the vehicle automatically carries out a driving maneuver corresponding to the travel trajectory or the vehicle informs a driver of the vehicle by way of a suitable human-machine interface concerning a driving maneuver corresponding to the travel trajectory.

15. A method carried out by the system according to claim 12, wherein the method comprises the acts of:

a) one of the two high-frequency communication units sends a coded search signal to the other high-frequency communication unit,

b) the other high-frequency communication unit receives the search signal and sends a coded confirmation signal to the charging control device,

c) the charging control device and the induction control device carry out an initialization routine between the at least one transmitting antenna and the at least one receiving antenna,

d) the at least one transmitting antenna emits a coded electromagnetic positioning signal, with respect to the vehicle coordinate system, the magnetic fraction of the positioning signal having a specified field orientation and a specified field intensity,

e) the at least one receiving antenna receives that at least one positioning signal of the at least one receiving antenna, and the charging control device or the induction control device measures a magnetic field vector for the at least one positioning signal, which magnetic field vector is unambiguously assigned to the at least one transmitting antenna by the coding of the position signal,

f) the induction control device transmits the magnetic field vector to the charging control device or the charging control device transmits the magnetic field vector to the induction control device,

g) the charging control device or the induction control device calculates according to the triangulation method the local position of the at least one transmitting antenna with respect to the at least one receiving antenna,

h) the charging control device or the induction control device or a further control device of the vehicle detects a travel trajectory, along which the charging position can be taken up by the secondary coil.

16. The method according to claim 14, wherein

during a driving maneuver of the vehicle, repeating acts d) to h) in real time in order to update the travel trajectory, and

when the charging position has been reached, the updated travel trajectory will describe a stopping maneuver.