CHARGING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

• US 20150151642A1
• Filed: 02/13/2015
• Published: 06/04/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation), Toshiba Solutions Corporation (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation), Toshiba Solutions Corporation (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: SUZUKI, Hiroyuki, HOSAKA, Norikazu, SHIMADA, Tsuyoshi, YAMAGUCHI, Naoki, TAKEUCHI, Motohiro, KOJIMA, Kenji
• Granted Patent: US 11,104,235 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 53/305 Communication interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/53 Batteries
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0645 Rental transactions; Leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 15/005 dispensed for the electrical charging of vehicles electrical charging as such, B60L50/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/00 Traffic control systems for road vehicles arrangement of road signs or traffic signals E01F9/00 ; automatic vehicle control B62D
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/48 for electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00 Circuit arrangements for charging or depolarising batteries or for supplying loads from batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0048 Detection of remaining charge capacity or state of charge [SOC]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/02 for charging batteries from ac mains by converters
• 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 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

Abstract

According to one embodiment, there is provided a charging management system including a display controller configured to cause a display device to display a time slot which is settable as a new desired rental time slot of an electric vehicle, based on a charging time slot on an assumption that charging to the vehicle by a second charging device is performed, and a scheduling module configured to set the desired rental time slot as a time slot in which rental is possible, if the charging to the electric vehicle for enabling the rental is possible in the input desired rental time slot and the rental time slot in which the rental reservation has been made.

Claims

1. A charging management system for applying a first charging device which charges an electric vehicle for rental, and a second charging device which charges the electric vehicle in a shorter necessary time than the first charging device, comprising:

a management module configured to manage

(a) a rental time slot as a time slot in which a rental reservation of the electric vehicle has been made,

(b) a charging time slot in which the second charging device is usable and charging to the electric vehicle by the second charging device is performed for enabling rental of the electric vehicle in the rental time slot,

(c) a charging time slot in which the second charging device is not usable and charging to the electric vehicle by the first charging device for enabling the rental of the electric vehicle is performed in the rental time slot, and

(d) information indicating a transition of a stored power amount of the electric vehicle, due to the rental of the electric vehicle and the charging to the electric vehicle;

a display module configured to cause a display device to display

(e) a charging time slot on an assumption that the charging to the electric vehicle is performed by the second charging device in a time slot in which the second charging device is usable,

(f) a charging time slot of charging to the electric vehicle by the first charging device in a time slot in which the second charging device is not usable, and

(g) a time slot which is settable as a new desired rental time slot of the electric vehicle, based on the rental time slots managed by the management module;

an input module configured to accept an input of a desired rental time slot of the electric vehicle, in the time slots displayed by the display module;

a first estimation module configured to estimate a power amount which is necessary for renting the electric vehicle with respect to the desired rental time slot input by the input module;

a second estimation module configured to estimate, based on the power amount estimated by the first estimation module, a time slot in which charging by the first and second charging devices is necessary as charging for enabling the rental of the electric vehicle in the input desired rental time slot; and

a scheduling module configured to set, based on the information managed by the management module, the input desired rental time slot as a time slot in which the electric vehicle is rentable, if the charging for enabling the rental of the electric vehicle in the input desired rental time slot and the rental time slot in which the rental reservation has been made is possible in the time slot estimated by the second estimation module.

2. The charging management system of claim 1, wherein the scheduling module is configured

(a) to set, if the charging to the electric vehicle by the first charging device can be finished before a start of the desired rental time slot input by the input module, the desired rental time slot to be the time slot in which the electric vehicle is rentable, and then to set a predetermined time before the start of the desired rental time slot to be a charging time by the first charging device to the electric vehicle, and

(b) to set, if the charging to the electric vehicle by the second charging device can be finished before the start of the desired rental time slot but the charging to the electric vehicle by the first charging device cannot be finished before the start of the desired rental time slot, the desired rental time slot to be the time slot in which the electric vehicle is rentable, and then to set a predetermined time before the start of the desired rental time slot to be a charging time by the second charging device to the electric vehicle.

3. The charging management system of claim 1, wherein the input module is configured to accept an input of rental application information including a purpose of use of the electric vehicle, and

the first estimation module is configured to estimate, based on the information input by the input module, an actual use time of the electric vehicle in the desired rental time slot, and to estimate the power amount, taking the estimated time into account.