System for Automatically Connecting a Parked Vehicle to a Power Source, Using Intersecting Lines of Contacts
First Claim
1. A system for automatically connecting a parked vehicle to a power source, consisting of two subsystems, a ‘
- vehicle subsystem’
in a vehicle, and a ‘
power source subsystem’
in a designated parking spot,wherein the system requires the driver to take no action that is different from parking an unequipped vehicle in an ordinary parking spot, that is, the driver needs only to stop the vehicle arbitrarily within the confines of the spot and turn the vehicle'"'"'s main power switch off,in order to cause the system to automatically accomplish the task of connecting a pair of battery-charging contacts from the vehicle to a pair of power-providing contacts from the power source subsystem.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Owning an electrically-powered vehicle or plug-in hybrid requires the owner to plug the vehicle into an electrical outlet every so often in order to re-charge the battery. Present methods to eliminate this chore have shortcomings. A typical robotic arm used has multiple servo motors for manipulation in 3 dimensions and rely on a camera and image processing for sensory inputs, making the system costly and error-prone. Or, the driver is required to dock the vehicle. The invention herein greatly simplifies the system by relying on a power source supplying an in-ground line of contacts and a pantograph, which is at right angles to this line, being lowered from the vehicle onto it. The two lines intersect at some point. Electronic signals sent through the contacts enable the power source subsystem to provide a charging voltage to the appropriate contact, thus completing a vehicle battery-charging circuit.
30 Citations
9 Claims
-
1. A system for automatically connecting a parked vehicle to a power source, consisting of two subsystems, a ‘
- vehicle subsystem’
in a vehicle, and a ‘
power source subsystem’
in a designated parking spot,wherein the system requires the driver to take no action that is different from parking an unequipped vehicle in an ordinary parking spot, that is, the driver needs only to stop the vehicle arbitrarily within the confines of the spot and turn the vehicle'"'"'s main power switch off, in order to cause the system to automatically accomplish the task of connecting a pair of battery-charging contacts from the vehicle to a pair of power-providing contacts from the power source subsystem. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
- vehicle subsystem’
Specification