Power management systems and designs

• US 8,972,162 B1
• Filed: 03/12/2014
• Issued: 03/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: iQar Inc.
• Original Assignee: Invent.ly LLC
• Inventors: Koebler, Martin, Harper, Jason H., Brown, Stephen J., Goldstein, Nicole G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tarcza, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): PIPALA, EDWARD J
• Application Number:
  US14/206,138
• Time in Patent Office: 356 Days
• Field of Search: 701/1, 701/2, 701/23, 701/36, 701/48, 701/51, 701/53, 701/54, 701/55, 701/58, 701/60, 701/65, 701/70, 701/93, 701/94, 701/99, 701/101, 701/102, 701/103, 701/110, 701/123, 701/29.1, 701/32.1, 701/32.3, 701/32.4, 701/32.5, 701/32.9, 701/33.4, 701/400, 701/408, 701/409, 701/410, 701/411, 701/412, 701/414, 701/415, 701/418, 701/420, 701/423, 701/424, 701/431, 701/439, 701/445, 701/446, 701/467, 701/468, 701/487, 701/516, 701/521, 701/532, 701/533, 701/538, 340/988, 340/989, 340/990, 340/995.1, 340/995.13, 340/995.19, 340/995.23, 340/995.27, 340/438, 340/439, 180/65.1, 180/65.21, 180/65.22, 180/65.27, 180/65.28, 180/65.285, 180/65.29
• US Class Current: 701/123
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/174 Economic driving
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2370/15 Output devices or features thereof
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2370/174 Economic driving
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/00 Instruments specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement of instruments in or on vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/20 Output arrangements, i.e. from vehicle to user, associated with vehicle functions or specially adapted therefor
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/28 characterised by the type of the output information, e.g. video entertainment or vehicle dynamics information; characterised by the purpose of the output information, e.g. for attracting the attention of the driver
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 15/2045 for optimising the use of energy
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2220/44 Wheel Hub motors, i.e. integrated in the wheel hub
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/12 Speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/421 Speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/423 Torque
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/441 Speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/443 Torque
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/445 Temperature
• 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 2240/622 by satellite navigation
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/642 Slope of road
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/645 Type of road
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/647 : Surface situation of road, e.g. type of paving
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/662 : Temperature
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/665 : Light intensity
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/667 : Precipitation
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/68 : Traffic data
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/10 : by alarm
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/16 : by display
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2260/28 : Four wheel or all wheel drive
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2260/50 : by future state prediction
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/12 : Recording operating variables ; Monitoring of operating variables
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 50/62 : charged by low-power generators primarily intended to support the batteries, e.g. range extenders
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/12 : responding to state of charge [SoC]
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/16 : responding to battery ageing, e.g. to the number of charging cycles or the state of health [SoH]
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 7/12 : for vehicles propelled by dc motors
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 8/003 : Converting light into electric energy, e.g. by using photo-voltaic systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 1/10 : by utilising wheel movement for accumulating energy, e.g. driving air compressors
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 13/586 : the retarders being of the electric type
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2201/04 : Hill descent control
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2210/36 : Global Positioning System [GPS]
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 7/18 : operated by wayside apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 7/22 : initiated by contact of vehicle, e.g. bumper, with an external object, e.g. another vehicle , or by means of contactless obstacle detectors mounted on the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/06 : including control of combustion engines
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/11 : Stepped gearings
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 20/12 : using control strategies taking into account route information estimation or calculation of non-directly measurable driving parameters B60W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/20 : Road profile, i.e. the change in elevation or curvature of a plurality of continuous road segments
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/10 : Historical data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 : of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2720/103 : Speed profile
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/143 : Speed control B60W30/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/0097 : Predicting future conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3469 : Fuel consumption; Energy use; Emission aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3617 : using user history, behaviour, conditions or preferences, e.g. predicted or inferred from previous use or current movement
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/00 : Methods or arrangements for processing data by operating upon the order or content of the data handled logic circuits H03K19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 : communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 : using electronic data carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 : where the origin of the information is a central station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096844 : where the complete route is dynamically recomputed based on new data
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/40 : Engine management systems
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/62 : Hybrid vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/64 : Electric machine technologies in electromobility
• 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 10/72 : Electric energy management in electromobility
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/16 : Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles

Abstract

Described herein are devices, systems, and methods for managing the power consumption of an automotive vehicle, and thereby for optimizing the power consumption of the vehicle. The devices and systems for managing the power consumption of the vehicle typically include power management logic that can calculate an applied power for the vehicle engine based on information provided from the external environment of the vehicle, the operational status of the vehicle, one or more command inputs from a driver, and one or more operational parameters of the vehicle.

Claims

1. A method of managing a power consumption of a vehicle, comprising the steps of:

(a) a computer device receiving a current location and a current one of a plurality of directions of said vehicle;

(b) calculating a probability of taking each of said directions from said current location based on said current direction and information in a database;

(c) generating a plurality of routes by joining a plurality of segment destinations along said directions;

(d) calculating one or more optimized speeds by minimizing power consumption over said routes based on said probabilities;

(e) calculating an efficient speed to travel from said current location to a current one of said segment destinations along a selected one of said directions based on said optimized speeds; and

(f) notifying an operator of said vehicle about said efficient speed to travel toward said current segment destination.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising continuously calculating said efficient speed until a final destination is reached.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining said efficient speed of said vehicle further comprises determining a historical speed from said current location to said current segment destination.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

notifying the operator of the vehicle of a power applied to an engine of the vehicle.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said power consumption minimizing comprises at least one of (i) calculating an optimal acceleration to accelerate to said efficient speed and (ii) an optimal deceleration to decelerate to said efficient speed.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said selected direction is based on GPS information, said efficient speed, or a combination thereof.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said probabilities are based on past history information of said vehicle.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said information comprises stored information of vehicles travelling overlapping route segments.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising an automatic transmission in said vehicle using said efficient speed to shift gears.

10. A method of managing a power consumption of a vehicle, comprising the steps of:

(a) a computer device receiving a current location and a current one of a plurality of directions of said vehicle;

(b) calculating a probability of taking each of said directions from said current location based on said current direction and information in a database;

(c) generating a plurality of routes by joining a plurality of segment destinations along said directions;

(d) calculating one or more optimized speeds by minimizing power consumption over said routes based on said probabilities;

(e) calculating an efficient speed to travel from said current location to a current one of said segment destinations along a selected one of said directions based on said optimized speeds; and

(f) applying a power corresponding to said efficient speed to an engine of said vehicle to travel toward said current segment destination.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising continuously calculating said efficient speed until a final destination is reached.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of determining said efficient speed of said vehicle further comprises determining a historical speed from said current location to said current segment destination.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of:

notifying an operator of the vehicle of said efficient speed.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein said power consumption minimizing comprises calculating at least one of (i) an optimal acceleration to accelerate to said efficient speed and (ii) an optimal deceleration to decelerate to said efficient speed.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein said selected direction is based on GPS information, said efficient speed to travel said segment destination, or a combination thereof.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein said probabilities are based on past history information of said vehicle.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein said information comprises stored information of vehicles travelling overlapping route segments.

18. The method of claim 10, further comprising an automatic transmission of said vehicle using said efficient speed to shift gears.