BATTERY CONTROL SYSTEM AND VEHICLE CONTROL SYSTEM

• US 20160185248A1
• Filed: 07/25/2014
• Published: 06/30/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Astemo Ltd. (Hitachi, Ltd.), Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi Automotive Systems Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.), Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: AOSHIMA, Yoshinori, MORIKAWA, Hiroshi, TAKADA, Masayuki, TSURU, Kenichiro, KIYOTA, Shigeyuki, TANAKA, Yoshiyuki, IGUCHI, Toyoki, HASHIMOTO, Hiroaki, TAKAHASHI, Yasuyuki
• Granted Patent: US 9,931,959 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/00 Electric devices on electrically-propelled vehicles for safety purposes; Monitoring operating variables, e.g. speed, deceleration or energy consumption methods or circuit arrangements for monitoring or controlling batteries or fuel cells B60L58/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 50/60 using power supplied by batteries in combination with fuel cells B60L50/75
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/12 responding to state of charge [SoC]
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/13 Maintaining the SoC within a determined range
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/24 for controlling the temperature of batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/42 Methods or arrangements for servicing or maintenance of secondary cells or secondary half-cells H01M10/60 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/4257 Smart batteries, e.g. electronic circuits inside the housing of the cells or batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/44 Methods for charging or discharging circuits for charging H02J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/48 Accumulators combined with arrangements for measuring, testing or indicating the condition of cells, e.g. the level or density of the electrolyte constructional details of current conducting connections for detecting conditions inside cells or batteries, e.g. details of voltage sensing terminals, H01M50/569
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/486 for measuring temperature
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 2010/4271 Battery management systems including electronic circuits, e.g. control of current or voltage to keep battery in healthy state, cell balancing
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 2010/4278 Systems for data transfer from batteries, e.g. transfer of battery parameters to a controller, data transferred between battery controller and main controller
• 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 7/0016 using shunting, discharge or bypass circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0029 with safety or protection devices or circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0048 Detection of remaining charge capacity or state of charge [SOC]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/005 Detection of state of health [SOH]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0068 Battery or charger load switching, e.g. concurrent charging and load supply H02J7/0013 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 Energy storage using batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 : Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries

Abstract

A battery control system connected to a battery, which controls charge/discharge at the battery, includes: a current detection unit that measures a current value by detecting a charge/discharge current flowing through the battery; a voltage detection unit that detects a voltage at the battery; a temperature detection unit that detects a temperature at the battery; an effective current value calculation unit that calculates, based upon the current value measured by the current detection unit, an effective current value in a predetermined time window; and a charge/discharge restriction unit that imposes a first charge/discharge restriction so as to restrict the charge/discharge current based upon the effective current value calculated by the effective current value calculation unit.

Claims

1. A battery control system connected to a battery, which controls charge/discharge at the battery, comprising:

a current detection unit that measures a current value by detecting a charge/discharge current flowing through the battery;

a voltage detection unit that detects a voltage at the battery;

a temperature detection unit that detects a temperature at the battery;

an effective current value calculation unit that calculates, based upon the current value measured by the current detection unit, an effective current value in a predetermined time window;

a cumulative time length calculation unit that calculates a cumulative time length expressed as a cumulative value for a length of time over which the effective current value has been in excess of a predetermined allowable value; and

a charge/discharge restriction unit that imposes a first charge/discharge restriction so as to restrict an allowable value of the charge/discharge current to a predetermined first current value based upon the effective current value calculated by the effective current value calculation unit and imposes a second charge/discharge restriction to further restrict the allowable value of the charge/discharge current to a predetermined second current value, which is smaller than the first current value and larger than zero based upon the cumulative time length calculated by the cumulative time length calculation unit.

2. The battery control system according to claim 1, wherein:

the effective current value calculation unit individually calculates a plurality of effective current values in a plurality of time windows different from one another; and

the charge/discharge restriction unit imposes the first charge/discharge restriction based upon the plurality of effective current values.

4. The battery control system according to claim 1, wherein:

the charge/discharge restriction unit sets a threshold value for the cumulative time length in correspondence to the effective current value and imposes the second charge/discharge restriction based upon results obtained by comparing the cumulative time length with the threshold value.

5. The battery control system according to claim 1, wherein:

the charge/discharge restriction unit clears the second charge/discharge restriction once a length of elapsed time since the second charge/discharge restriction came into effect or a total length of time over which the second charge/discharge restriction has been in effect exceeds a predetermined restriction clearance time.

6. The battery control system according to claim 5, wherein:

the battery control system is connected to an in-vehicle communication network; and

the charge/discharge restriction unit obtains information pertaining to the length of elapsed time or the total length of time via the communication network.

3. (canceled)

7. A vehicle control system, comprising:

a battery control system connected to a battery, which controls charge/discharge at the battery; and

a vehicle control unit connected with the battery control system, wherein;

the battery control system includes a current detection unit that measures a current value by detecting a charge/discharge current flowing through the battery, a voltage detection unit that detects a voltage at the battery, a temperature detection unit that detects a temperature at the battery and an effective current value calculation unit that calculates, based upon the current value measured by the current detection unit, an effective current value in a predetermined time window; and

the vehicle control unit issues an instruction for the battery control system so as to impose a first charge/discharge restriction to restrict an allowable value of the charge/discharge current to a predetermined first current value based upon the effective current value calculated by the effective current value calculation unit, and

the vehicle control unit calculates a cumulative time length expressed as a cumulative value for a length of time over which the effective current value has been in excess of a predetermined allowable value, and imposes a second charge/discharge restriction to further restrict the allowable value of the charge/discharge current to a predetermined second current value, which is smaller than the first current value and larger than zero, based upon the calculated cumulative time length.