NON-CONTACT CHARGING SYSTEM

• US 20160126778A1
• Filed: 11/04/2015
• Published: 05/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Kanahara, Hirokazu, Hiruta, Shigenori, Kojima, Toshihiro, Yamazaki, Masayuki
• Granted Patent: US 10,148,119 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/90 involving detection or optimisation of position, e.g. alignment
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/007 Regulation of charging or discharging current or voltage
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/04 Regulation of charging current or voltage

Abstract

A non-contact charging system includes a power receiving device including a secondary coil, and a non-contact charger including a primary coil and a controller. The primary coil performs charging of the power receiving device through the secondary coil in a non-contact manner. Upon receiving a signal representing an abnormality of the power receiving device or detecting an abnormality of the charging in the non-contact charger, the controller stops the charging temporarily and executes procedures for restarting the charging when a first predetermined time has lapsed from the reception of the signal representing the abnormality or the detection of the abnormality of the charging.

Claims

1. A non-contact charging system comprising:

a power receiving device comprising a secondary coil; and

a non-contact charger which comprises,

a primary coil that applies a magnetic flux to the secondary coil of power receiving device for charging of the power receiving device in a non-contact manner, and

a controller configured to control the charging of the power receiving device in accordance with predetermined procedures including receiving signals transmitted from the power receiving device, starting the charging, stopping the charging and restarting charging in a controlled manner,

wherein the controller is configured to,

(1) stop the charging temporarily upon receiving a signal from the power receiving device representing an abnormality of the power receiving device or upon detecting an abnormality of the charging in the non-contact charger, and

(2) then restart the charging when a first predetermined time has lapsed after said procedure (1).

2. The non-contact charging system according to claim 1, wherein upon receiving a signal from the power receiving device representing full charge thereof, the controller stops the charging temporarily and then restarts the charging when a second predetermined time which is longer than the first predetermined time has lapsed from the reception of the signal representing the full charge.

3. The non-contact charging system according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to repeat the procedures (1) and (2) defined in claim 1 a predetermined number of times and then stop the repeating procedure.

4. The non-contact charging system according to claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to determine whether the power receiving device is continuously placed on the non-contact charger, thereby being in a state capable of the charging, and

the controller executes the procedures (1) and (2) defined in claim 1 even when the controller determines that the power receiving device is in the state capable of the charging.

5. The non-contact charging system according to claim 1, wherein the non-contact charger is provided to a vehicle and configured to detect at least one of:

a shift position for changing a state of driving power transmission in the vehicle; and

an actuated state of a parking brake in the vehicle, and

the controller executes the procedure (1) defined in claim 1, but prohibits the procedure (2) defined in claim 1 under conditions that the shift position is in a position where no driving forces are transmitted to wheels of the vehicle, or that the parking brake is in the actuated state.

6. The non-contact charging system according to claim 1, wherein the non-contact charger comprises a coil position detector that detects a position of the secondary coil of the power receiving device placed on the non-contact charger,

upon receiving the signal representing the abnormality of the power receiving device or detecting the abnormality of the charging in the non-contact charger in the procedure (1) defined in claim 1, the controller compares a present position of the primary coil with the position of the secondary coil detected by the coil position detector, and determines whether the positions of the primary coil and the secondary coil are changed with respect to each other, and

the controller continues to execute the procedures (1) and (2) defined in claim 1 when the controller determines that the positions of the primary coil and the secondary coil are changed, while the controller prohibits the procedure (2) defined in claim 1 when the controller determines that the positions of the primary coil and the secondary coil are not changed.

7. The non-contact charging system according to claim 1, wherein the non-contact charger is provided to a vehicle which comprises a navigation device that stores data of a map containing at least railroad crossing locations and that detects a position of the vehicle on the map, and

the controller executes the procedures (1) and (2) defined in claim 1 under conditions that the navigation device detects the location of the vehicle within a predetermined distance from any of the railroad crossing locations on the map.

8. The non-contact charging system according to claim 1, wherein the signals transmitted from the power receiving device to the controller comprise a signal representing a power received by the secondary coil, and

the controller compares the power output from the primary coil and the power received by the secondary coil and determines that an abnormality of the charging occurs when a differential value resulting from comparing the power output from the primary coil and the power received by the secondary coil is beyond a predetermined range, and the controller executes the procedures (1) and (2) defined in claim 1 when the occurrence of the abnormality of the charging is detected.

9. The non-contact charging system according to claim 1, wherein the non-contact charger is equipped in a vehicle cabin.

10. The non-contact charging system according to claim 1, wherein the non-contact charging system is configured to move the primary coil of the non-contact charger in such a manner that the primary coil follows a position of the secondary coil of the power receiving device placed on the non-contact charger.