Operation of an Inductive Power Transfer System

• US 20170203657A1
• Filed: 07/22/2015
• Published: 07/20/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/23/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IPT Group BV
• Original Assignee: Bombardier Primove Gmbh (Bombardier Incorporated)
• Inventors: Steinfort, Adrianus Johannes, Lannoije, Marnix, Ludwig, Christoph, Ludwig, Wolfgang
• Granted Patent: US 10,293,696 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2270/147 electro magnetic [EMI]
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/124 Detection or removal of foreign bodies
• 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 53/30 Constructional details of charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/38 specially adapted for charging by inductive energy transfer
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/60 Monitoring or controlling charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 29/00 Arrangements for measuring or indicating electric quantities not covered by groups G01R19/00 - G01R27/00
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/12 of the resonant type
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/90 involving detection or optimisation of position, e.g. alignment
• 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

The invention relates to method of detecting an arrangement having a primary unit of an inductive power transfer system and/or a secondary unit of the inductive power transfer system. The method including: using a detector device to detect the arrangement, the detector device having at least one electrical conductor, determining at least one electrical property of the detector device and generating determination results consisting of a determination result for each of different regions of the arrangement, and comparing the determination results with existing information about the arrangement to be detected. The existing information includes information about expected values for the different regions of the arrangement, thereby generating a comparison result, and deciding from the comparison result whether the determination results indicate that the detector device has detected the arrangement as expected.

Claims

1. A method of detecting an arrangement comprising a primary unit of an inductive power transfer system and/or a secondary unit of the inductive power transfer system, wherein the primary unit comprises a primary winding structure for generating a magnetic or electromagnetic field to be received by the secondary unit, wherein the secondary unit has a secondary winding structure in which an electric voltage is induced when the magnetic or electromagnetic field is received and wherein the method comprises:

using a detector device to detect the arrangement, the detector device comprising at least one electrical conductor,

determining at least one electrical property of the detector device and generating determination results consisting of a determination result for each of different regions of the arrangement,

comparing the determination results with existing information about a signature, which signature is characteristic for the arrangement to be detected, wherein the existing information includes information about expected values for the different regions of the arrangement, thereby generating a comparison result,

deciding from the comparison result whether the determination results indicate that the detector device has detected the arrangement as expected, thereby identifying the arrangement comprising the primary unit and/or the secondary unit wherein different types of primary units have different signatures and/or different types of secondary units have different signatures and wherein the arrangement comprising a primary unit of a specific type of primary units and/or a secondary unit of a specific type of secondary units, for which specific type of primary units and/or specific type of secondary units information about its signature exists, is identified by deciding from the comparison result whether the determination results indicate that the detector device has detected the arrangement comprising the primary unit of the specific type of primary units and/or the secondary unit of the specific type of secondary units.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a plurality of detection elements of the detector device is used to detect the arrangement, wherein each detection element comprises an electrical conductor, wherein each of the plurality of detection elements is assigned to one or more than one of the different regions of the arrangement and wherein at least one electrical property of each of the detection elements is determined, thereby generating the determination results consisting of a determination result for each of the detection elements.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a plurality of detection field antennae are used to generate an electromagnetic detection field or electromagnetic detection fields and wherein the determination results are obtained in response to the electromagnetic detection field.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one electrical property depends on a frequency of an electromagnetic detection field, which couples the detector device with the arrangement to be detected, wherein the at least one electrical property is determined with respect to a plurality of frequency values, thereby determining information on a frequency dependency of the at least one electrical property, and wherein the information on the frequency dependency is used to identify different materials of the arrangement.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one electrical property depends on a frequency of an electromagnetic detection field, which couples the detector device with the arrangement to be detected, wherein the at least one electrical property is determined with respect to a resonance frequency of a winding or of windings of at least one electrical conductor of the primary unit and/or the secondary unit.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the determination results are ordered according to a geometric order of the different regions of the arrangement so as to prepare comparing the determination results with the existing information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one deviation between the determination results and the existing information is detected and it is decided that the arrangement comprises an additional object, which is part of the detected arrangement in addition to the primary unit and/or secondary unit.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein a location of the additional object is determined by determining a corresponding one or a corresponding plurality of the different regions of the arrangement for which the determination result deviates from the existing information.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the determination results are compared with existing information about a plurality of possible arrangements to be detected and wherein one of the plurality of possible arrangements is identified as an arrangement actually detected by the plurality of detection elements.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein different primary units of a same type of primary units have different individual signatures and/or different secondary units of a same type of secondary units have different individual signatures and wherein the arrangement comprising a specific primary unit of the same type of primary units and/or a specific secondary unit of the same type of secondary units, for which specific primary unit and/or specific secondary unit information about its individual signature exists, is identified by deciding from the comparison result whether the determination results indicate that the detector device has detected the arrangement comprising the specific primary unit of the same type of primary units and/or the specific secondary unit of the same type of secondary units.

12. A method of operating an inductive power transfer system, comprising the method of claim 1, wherein an operation of the inductive power transfer system is not started, is stopped or is modified, if it is decided from the comparison result that the determination results do not indicate that the detector device has detected the arrangement as expected.

10. (canceled)

13. A primary unit arrangement of an inductive power transfer system, comprising:

a primary unit having a primary winding structure for generating a magnetic or electromagnetic field to be received by a secondary unit of the inductive power transfer system in which an electric voltage is induced by magnetic induction,

a detector device for detecting an arrangement comprising the secondary unit, the detector device comprising an electrical conductor,

a determination unit for determining at least one electrical property of the detector device for different regions of the arrangement, thereby generating determination results consisting of a determination result for different regions of the arrangement,

a comparison unit for comparing the determination results with existing information about a signature, which signature is characteristic for the arrangement to be detected, wherein the existing information includes information about expected values for the different regions of the arrangement, thereby generating a comparison result,

a decision unit for deciding from the comparison result whether the determination results indicates that the detector device has detected the arrangement as expected, thereby identifying the arrangement comprising the secondary unit wherein different types of secondary units have different signatures and wherein the decision unit is adapted to identify the arrangement comprising the secondary unit of a specific type of secondary units, for which specific type of secondary units information about its signature exists, by deciding from the comparison result of the comparison unit whether the determination results indicate that the detector device has detected the arrangement comprising the secondary unit of the specific type of secondary units.

15. The primary unit arrangement of claim 13, wherein the detector device has a plurality of detection elements, each detection element comprising an electrical conductor, wherein the determination unit is adapted to determine at least one electrical property of each of the detection elements, thereby generating the determination results consisting of a determination result for each of the detection elements.

16. The primary unit arrangement of claim 13, further comprising at least one detection field generator for generating an electromagnetic detection field, the detection field generator having an alternating voltage source which is electrically coupled or can be coupled to at least one detection field antenna, thereby forming an oscillating circuit in order to generate an electromagnetic detection field or electromagnetic detection fields, wherein the determination results are obtained in response to the detection fields.

17. The primary unit arrangement of claim 13, wherein the determination unit is adapted to determine the at least one electrical property with respect to a plurality of frequency values of an electromagnetic detection field, which couples the detector device with the arrangement to be detected, thereby determining information on a frequency dependency of the at least one electrical property, and is adapted to identify different materials of the arrangement from the information on the frequency dependency.

18. The primary unit arrangement of claim 13, wherein the determination unit is adapted to determine the at least one electrical property with respect to at least one frequency of an electromagnetic detection field, which couples the detector device with the arrangement to be detected, wherein the at least one electrical property is determined with respect to one frequency or more than one frequencies which is a resonance frequency or which are resonance frequencies of a winding or of windings of at least one electrical conductor of the primary unit.

20. The primary unit arrangement of claim 13, wherein different primary units of a same type of primary units have different individual signatures and wherein the decision unit is adapted to identify the arrangement comprising a specific primary unit of the same type of primary units, for which specific primary unit information about its individual signature exists, by deciding from the comparison result of the comparison unit whether the determination results indicate that the detector device has detected an arrangement comprising the specific primary unit of the same type of primary units.

14. A secondary unit arrangement of an inductive power transfer system, comprising:

a secondary unit having a secondary winding structure for receiving a magnetic or electromagnetic field generated by a primary unit of the inductive power transfer system and for producing an electric voltage by magnetic induction,

a plurality of detection elements for detecting an arrangement comprising the primary unit, the detector device comprising an electrical conductor,

a determination unit for determining at least one electrical property of the detector device with respect to different regions of the arrangement, thereby generating determination results consisting of a determination result for different regions of the arrangement,

a comparison unit for comparing the determination results with existing information about the arrangement to be detected, wherein the existing information includes information about expected values for the different regions of the arrangement, thereby generating a comparison result,

a decision unit for deciding from the comparison result whether the determination results indicates that the detector device has detected the arrangement as expected, thereby identifying the arrangement comprising the primary unit wherein different types of primary units have different signatures and wherein the decision unit is adapted to identify the arrangement comprising the primary unit of a specific type of primary units, for which specific type of primary units information about its signature exists, by deciding from the comparison result of the comparison unit whether the determination results indicate that the detector device has detected the arrangement comprising the primary unit of the specific type of primary units.

21. The secondary unit arrangement of claim 14, further comprising at least one detection field generator for generating an electromagnetic detection field, the detection field generator having an alternating voltage source which is electrically coupled or can be coupled to at least one detection field antenna, thereby forming an oscillating circuit in order to generate an electromagnetic detection field or electromagnetic detection fields, wherein the determination results are obtained in response to the detection fields.

22. The secondary unit arrangement of claim 14, wherein the determination unit is adapted to determine the at least one electrical property with respect to a plurality of frequency values of an electromagnetic detection field, which couples the detector device with the arrangement to be detected, thereby determining information on a frequency dependency of the at least one electrical property, and is adapted to identify different materials of the arrangement from the information on the frequency dependency.

23. The secondary unit arrangement of claim 14, wherein the determination unit is adapted to determine the at least one electrical property with respect to at least one frequency of an electromagnetic detection field, which couples the detector device with the arrangement to be detected, wherein the at least one electrical property is determined with respect to one frequency or more than one frequencies which is a resonance frequency or which are resonance frequencies of a winding or of windings of at least one electrical conductor of the secondary unit.

24. The secondary unit arrangement of claim 14, wherein different secondary units of a same type of secondary units have different individual signatures and wherein the decision unit is adapted to identify the arrangement comprising a specific secondary unit of the same type of secondary units, for which specific secondary unit information about its individual signature exists, by deciding from the comparison result of the comparison unit whether the determination results indicate that the detector device has detected an arrangement comprising the specific secondary unit of the same type of secondary units.

19. (canceled)