System and method of managing vehicles deployed in a worksite

• US 8,983,657 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2011
• Issued: 03/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Caterpillar Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Caterpillar Incorporated
• Inventors: Jacobson, Evan E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Khoi
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN, ROBERT T
• Application Number:
  US13/222,091
• Publication Number:
  US 20130054080A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,294 Days
• Field of Search: 320/106, 320/109, 320/115, 701/29.3, 701/32.4, 701/1, 701/2, 701/23, 701/24, 701/25, 701/29.1, 701/32.3, 700/245, 700/255, 901/1
• US Class Current: 700/245
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/80 Exchanging energy storage elements, e.g. removable batteries
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/12 responding to state of charge [SoC]
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/23 by means of a password
• 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

Abstract

A system and a method of managing one or more vehicles deployed in a worksite are provided. The system includes a battery management module which may receive, via a data network, battery health information and/or location co-ordinates from at least one vehicle. The battery management module is configured to issue a battery changing command, via the data network, to a battery-changing device based at least on the battery health information and the location co-ordinates of the vehicles. The battery-changing device may be configured to change at least one battery on the at least one vehicle with charged batteries based on the issued command. The battery-changing device is configured to return each of the changed battery to a central station to recharge the changed battery.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, via a data network, battery health information from at least one vehicle deployed in a worksite;

issuing a battery change command, via the data network, to at least one battery-changing device, based at least in part on the battery health information;

causing the at least one battery-changing device to travel to a location of the at least one vehicle in response to receiving the issued battery change command;

changing a battery, by an automated component of the battery-changing device, on the at least one vehicle based at least in part on the issued battery change command;

causing the at least one battery-changing device to travel to a location of a central station after changing the battery on the at least one vehicle; and

returning the changed battery to the central station for performing at least one operation on the changed battery.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the battery health information includes at least one of a state-of-charge of the battery, voltage of the battery, resistance, temperature, current, and electric quantity data of the battery associated with the at least one vehicle.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one vehicle is at least one of excavator, mining truck, off-highway truck, and construction machine.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one battery-changing device is an autonomous traveling vehicle.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the changing of the battery by an automated component of the battery-changing device includes replacing a depleted/discharged battery with a charged battery.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an optimized route plan for the battery-changing device to travel to a plurality of vehicles based on one or more parameters, wherein the optimized route plan directs the battery-changing device to travel to the plurality of vehicles in a route order that is different than a battery health information order in which battery health information was received from the plurality of vehicles.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the parameters include a weighted urgency determination of replacing a battery on each of the plurality of vehicles, and relative location co-ordinates of each of the one plurality of vehicles.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving location co-ordinates from the one or more vehicles.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the performing of the at least one operation on the changed battery includes at least one of charging the exchanged battery, detecting an abnormality in the changed battery, and rectifying the abnormality in the changed battery.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the data network includes at least one of a wide area network, a local area network, Ethernet, Internet, Intranet, a cellular network, and a satellite network.

11. A system of managing one or more vehicles deployed in a worksite, comprising:

a battery management module comprising;

a receiving module configured to receive, via a data network, battery health information from at least one vehicle; and

an analysis module configured to issue a battery change command, via the data network, based at least in part on the battery health information;

a battery-changing device configured to travel to a location of the at least one vehicle and to change at least one battery on the at least one vehicle using an automated component of the battery-changing device, based on the issued command; and

a central station configured to;

receive each changed battery from the battery-changing device; and

perform at least one operation on each changed battery, wherein the battery-changing device is further configured to travel to a location of the central station after changing the at least one battery on the at least one vehicle.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the analysis module is configured to determine a route for the battery-changing device to travel to a plurality of vehicles based on one or more parameters, wherein the route directs the battery-changing device to travel to the plurality of vehicles in a route order that is different than a battery health information order in which battery health information was received from the plurality of vehicles.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the parameters include a weighted urgency determination of replacing a battery on each of the plurality of vehicles, and relative location co-ordinates of each of the plurality of vehicles.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the at least one vehicle communicates location co-ordinates to the battery management module.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the battery health information includes at least one of a state-of-charge of the battery, voltage of the battery, resistance, temperature, current, and electric quantity data of the battery.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the at least one vehicle includes at least one of excavator, mining truck, off-highway truck, and construction machine.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the at least one battery-changing device is an autonomous traveling vehicle.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the central station is configured to charge the changed battery, detect an abnormality in the changed battery, and/or rectify the abnormality in the changed battery.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the battery-changing device is configured to carry plurality of charged batteries.

20. A computer based system for managing of one or more vehicles deployed in a worksite comprising:

a communication interface communicating with a memory;

the memory configured to communicate with a processor for managing batteries of the one or more vehicles; and

the processor, in response to executing a computer program, performs operations comprising;

receiving, via a data network, battery health information from the at least one vehicle deployed in a worksite;

issuing a battery change command, via the data network, to a battery-changing device, based at least in part on the battery health information;

causing the at least one battery-changing device to travel to a location of the at least one vehicle in response to receiving the issued battery change command;

changing at least one battery, by an automated component the battery-changing device, on the at least one vehicle based at least in part on the issued battery change command;

causing the at least one battery-changing device to travel to a location of a central station after changing the battery on the at least one vehicle; and

returning each changed battery to the central station for performing at least one operation on the changed battery.