System and method for calculating distance to empty of green vehicle

• US 8,862,375 B2
• Filed: 12/14/2012
• Issued: 10/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2012
• Status: Expired

• Current Assignee: Hyundai Motor Company (Hyundai Motor Group), Kia Motors Corporation (Kia Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Hyundai Motor Company (Hyundai Motor Group), Kia Motors Corporation (Kia Corp.)
• Inventors: Min, Byung Soon, Heo, Sang Jin, Hong, Eui Sun, Byun, Young Chan, Park, Seon Young
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas G
• Assistant Examiner(s): PAIGE, TYLER D
• Application Number:
  US13/715,936
• Publication Number:
  US 20140095060A1
• Time in Patent Office: 669 Days
• Field of Search: 701/123, 702/63, 320/132
• US Class Current: 701/123
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/545 Temperature
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/547 Voltage
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/549 Current
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/16 by display
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2260/52 drive range estimation, e.g. of estimation of available travel distance
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2260/54 Energy consumption estimation
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/12 responding to state of charge [SoC]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries

Abstract

Disclosed is a system and method for computing distance to empty (DTE) based on available energy computed using a battery SOC vs open circuit voltage (OCV) table, battery temperature vs energy efficiency, an energy efficiency vs energy table, etc., to enable a more accurate calculation of the DTE in consideration of the temperature of the battery, which is one of disturbance elements.

Claims

1. A method for distance to empty (DTE) computation of a green vehicle, the method comprising:

computing, by a controller, a current available energy of a battery, based on energy efficiency (η

) of the battery, available energy when the state of charge (SOC) is 100% (E_@SOC=100%) extracted from an energy efficiency vs energy table, and information on real-time SOC (%);

computing, by the controller, DTE based on the computed available energy; and

displaying, on a display, the computed DTE in a cluster,

wherein the energy efficiency is computed by;

estimating an SOC in a load state in which the battery is discharged;

extracting open circuit voltage and current corresponding to the current SOC estimated form a battery SOC versus open circuit voltage (OCV) table; and

computing energy efficiency of the battery by substituting the extracted open circuit voltage and current in;

2. The method of claim 1, wherein, in the estimating of the SOC, the estimated current SOC is stored in an SOC memory so as to be used in the computation of the available energy.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the energy efficiency (η

) is computed by measuring a temperature of a battery in a non-load state in which the battery is discharged; and

extracting energy efficiency corresponding to the measured temperature of the battery by substituting the measured temperature of the battery in a battery temperature vs energy efficiency table.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the available energy is computed by substituting the energy efficiency of the battery in the energy efficiency vs energy table, thereby extracting the available energy when the state of charge (SOC) is 100% (E_@SOC=100%);

and the energy efficiency (η

) of the battery, the available energy when the state of charge (SOC) is 100% (E_@SOC=100%), extracted from the SOC memory, and the information on real-time SOC (%) in;

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the DTE is computed by a multiplication of battery-electric efficiency (km/kwh) and available energy.

6. A non-transitory computer readable medium containing program instructions executed by a processor or controller, the computer readable medium comprising:

program instructions that compute a current available energy of a battery, based on energy efficiency (η

) of the battery, available energy when the state of charge (SOC) is 100% (E_@SOC=100%) extracted from an energy efficiency vs energy table, and information on real-time SOC (%);

program instructions that compute DTE based on the computed available energy; and

program instructions that display the computed DTE in a cluster,

wherein the energy efficiency (η

) is computed by estimating an SOC in a load state in which the battery is discharged;

extracting open circuit voltage and current corresponding to the current SOC estimated from a battery SOC vs open circuit voltage (OCV) table; and

computing energy efficiency of the battery by substituting the extracted open circuit voltage and current in;

7. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6, wherein, in the estimating of the SOC, the estimated current SOC is stored in an SOC memory so as to be used in the computation of the available energy.

8. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6, wherein the energy efficiency (η

) is computed by measuring a temperature of a battery in a non-load state in which the battery is discharged; and

extracting energy efficiency corresponding to the measured temperature of the battery by substituting the measured temperature of the battery in a battery temperature vs energy efficiency table.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6, wherein the available energy is computed by substituting the energy efficiency of the battery in the energy efficiency vs energy table, thereby extracting the available energy when the state of charge (SOC) is 100% (E_@SOC=100%);

and the energy efficiency (η

) of the battery, the available energy when the state of charge (SOC) is 100% (E_@SOC=100%), extracted from the SOC memory, and the information on real-time SOC (%) in;

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6, wherein the DTE is computed by a multiplication of battery-electric efficiency (km/kwh) and available energy.

11. The method for distance to empty (DTE) computation of a green vehicle, wherein the available energy is expressed as a function using temperature, degradation, state of charge (SOC) of the battery as variable factors.