Determining status of high voltage battery for emergency responders

• US 8,604,919 B2
• Filed: 08/25/2010
• Issued: 12/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Motors LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: General Motors LLC (General Motors Company)
• Inventors: Otterson, Scott W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wu, Daniel
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tang, Son M
• Application Number:
  US12/862,960
• Publication Number:
  US 20120050067A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,203 Days
• Field of Search: 340438-439, 340/428, 340/455, 34042615-42617, 340/902, 701/45, 701/201, 701/204, 455/521
• US Class Current: 340/438
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental

Abstract

The described method and system provide an early notification to emergency responders regarding a non-nominal condition associated with a vehicle involved in a collision. The system provides a short range wireless system controller in communication with a battery controller. The short range wireless system controller is further in communication with a communications device associated with an emergency responder via broadcast over a short range wireless RF network. If battery physical parameters indicate that the battery has suffered damage rendering the vehicle inoperable, this battery damage information is broadcast over the short range wireless RF network to the communications device associated with the emergency responder. In this way, the emergency responder can quickly aid incident victims without time lost in determining whether or not the high voltage vehicle battery is in a nominal state after the crash.

Claims

1. A method for verifying a status of an electric vehicle for approach by emergency personnel after a collision involving the vehicle, the vehicle having a battery power system including one or more batteries configured to supply electrical power to a vehicle drive system, the method comprising:

collecting a value of each of one or more battery parameters of the battery power system via a battery controller mounted to a battery, wherein the battery controller includes a wireless link capability;

transmitting, via the wireless link, the collected values from the battery controller to a system controller;

deriving, by the system controller, a vehicle battery power system status based on the collected values at the system controller;

taking a corrective action to isolate the battery if the vehicle battery power system status is indicative of a non-nominal condition and thereafter;

issuing, from the system controller for receipt by an emergency responder communication device, a successful battery isolation message affirmatively stating that the battery is isolated from the rest of the vehicle only if the corrective action successfully isolated the battery, and

issuing, from the system controller for receipt by an emergency responder communication device, an unsafe battery warning stating the vehicle battery power system status if the corrective action did not successfully isolate the batter from the rest of the vehicle; and

otherwise issuing, from the system controller for receipt by an emergency responder communication device, a message indicating that the vehicle is in nominal condition if the vehicle battery power system status is indicative of a nominal condition.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the emergency responder communication device is a handheld device.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the emergency responder communication device is a vehicle-mounted device.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the wireless link capability includes a short range link.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the wireless link capability includes a Bluetooth link.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the collected values include battery voltage, battery current, battery temperature and cell condition.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the collected values include physical connectivity of the battery controller to the battery.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the collected values include electrical connectivity of the battery controller to the battery.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the battery is associated with one or more high voltage contactors and wherein the collected values indicate a battery condition, the method further comprising activating the one or more high voltage contactors to decouple the battery from vehicle power circuitry.

10. A method for verifying a status of an electric vehicle for approach by emergency personnel after a collision involving the vehicle, the vehicle having a battery power system including one or more batteries configured to supply electrical power to a vehicle drive system and a battery controller mounted to the battery, wherein the battery controller is linked to an in-vehicle system controller, the method comprising:

collecting a value of each of one or more battery parameters of the battery power system from the battery controller via the system controller;

deriving, by the system controller, a vehicle battery power system status based on the collected values at the system controller;

taking a corrective action to isolate the battery if the vehicle battery power system status is indicative of a non-nominal condition and thereafter;

issuing, from the system controller for receipt by an emergency responder communication device, a successful battery isolation message affirmatively stating that the battery is isolated from the rest of the vehicle only if the corrective action successfully isolated the battery, and

issuing, from the system controller for receipt by an emergency responder communication device, an unsafe battery warning stating the vehicle battery power system status if the corrective action did not successfully isolate the battery from the rest of the vehicle; and

otherwise issuing, from the system controller for receipt by an emergency responder communication device, a message indicating that the vehicle is in nominal condition if the vehicle battery power system status is indicative of a nominal condition.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the emergency responder communication device comprises one of a handheld device and a vehicle-mounted device.

12. The method according to claim 10, wherein the battery controller is linked to the system controller via a short range wireless link.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the short range wireless link includes a Bluetooth link.

14. The method according to claim 10, wherein the collected values include one or more of battery voltage, battery current and battery temperature.

15. The method according to claim 10, wherein the collected values include one or more of physical connectivity of the battery controller to the battery and electrical connectivity of the battery controller to the battery.

16. The method according to claim 10, wherein the battery is associated with one or more high voltage contactors, the method further comprising activating the one or more high voltage contactors to decouple the battery from vehicle power circuitry prior to broadcasting the vehicle status from the system controller.

17. A system for apprising one or more emergency responders of a status of an electric vehicle after a collision involving the vehicle, the vehicle having one or more high voltage batteries to supply electrical power to a vehicle drive system, the system comprising:

a battery controller mounted to the battery configured to collect a value of each of one or more battery parameters, and having a short range wireless link capability; and

an in-vehicle system controller configured to collect data from the battery controller via the wireless link capability of the battery controller, to derive a status of the vehicle based on the collected data, to issue a message from the system controller for receipt by an emergency responder communication device indicating that the vehicle battery power system is in nominal condition if the vehicle battery power system status is not indicative of a non-nominal condition, to take a corrective action to address a non-nominal condition, to issue a message for receipt by an emergency responder communication device indicating that the vehicle battery is isolated from the rest of the vehicle if the corrective action was successful in isolating the vehicle battery, and to issue a message indicating a non-nominal vehicle battery power system status for receipt by an emergency responder communication device if a non-nominal condition is not successfully addressed through a corrective action, the in-vehicle system controller further comprising a wireless link for transmitting the status of the vehicle to an emergency responder communication device.

18. The system according to claim 17, wherein the collected values include battery voltage, battery current, battery temperature and cell condition.

19. The system according to claim 17, wherein the collected values include physical and electrical connectivity of the battery controller to the battery.

20. The system according to claim 17, further including one or more high voltage contactors to decouple the battery from vehicle power circuitry, wherein the system controller is further configured to activate the one or more high voltage contactors to decouple the battery from vehicle power circuitry when the collected values indicate a non-nominal electrical condition.