System and method for adaptive battery charge and discharge rates and limits on known routes

• US 9,266,443 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2014
• Issued: 02/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Incorporated (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Payne, Joshua D., Dufford, Mohammad E., Fukushiro, Eiji
• Primary Examiner(s): Huynh, Luke
• Application Number:
  US14/231,537
• Publication Number:
  US 20150274028A1
• Time in Patent Office: 694 Days
• Field of Search: 701/22, 701/23, 701/25, 180/65.1, 180/65.21, 180/65.285, 180/65.29, 180/410, 320/128, 320/132, 320/134, 320/104, 320/107
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/00 Methods of charging batteries, specially adapted for electric vehicles; Charging stations or on-board charging equipment therefor; Exchange of energy storage elements in electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/12 responding to state of charge [SoC]
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3461 Preferred or disfavoured areas, e.g. dangerous zones, toll or emission zones, intersections, manoeuvre types, segments such as motorways, toll roads, ferries
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3469 Fuel consumption; Energy use; Emission aspects
• 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 90/14 Plug-in electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/16 Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 903/903 having energy storing means, e.g. battery, capacitor

Abstract

A system and a method for adaptively adjusting a charge and/or discharge rate and a limit of a battery based on a known driving route are described. The method includes storing, in a memory, a known driving route having a plurality of segments, where each segment has a corresponding discharge rate of the battery which was obtained from a previous trip of the vehicle along the same segment. The method also includes calculating, using a processor, an optimal discharge rate for the known driving route, and applying, using the processor, the optimal discharge rate of the vehicle to each segment of the route.

Claims

1. A method for adaptively adjusting a discharge rate of a battery based on a driving route of a vehicle, the method comprising:

storing, in a memory, a driving route having a plurality of segments and a plurality of discharge rates of the battery each corresponding to at least one of the plurality of segments and having been detected during a previous trip of the vehicle along the at least one of the plurality of segments;

detecting, by a GPS unit, a current location of the vehicle;

calculating, using a processor, an optimal discharge rate of the battery for the driving route that is different than a standard discharge rate of the battery and is based on the stored plurality of segments, the stored plurality of discharge rates and the current location of the vehicle; and

requesting, by the processor, the battery to discharge at the optimal discharge rate for at least one segment of the route.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the optimal discharge rate is calculated to have a value similar to the discharge rate of the battery along a city segment of the driving route.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the processor is further configured to calculate the optimal discharge rate to be a rate at which battery power may be provided constantly during the driving route.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

selecting, using the processor, at least one candidate route;

assigning, using the processor, a route weight for each of the candidate routes; and

predicting, using the processor, a predicted route by selecting the candidate route with the highest route weight, wherein the predicted route is the driving route.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the vehicle can operate in an electronic vehicle (EV) mode for the duration of the driving route when the battery is discharging at the optimal discharge route.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising calculating, by the processor, a new optimal discharge rate during each of the plurality of segments based on a current state of charge and information stored in the memory that is associated with each of the plurality of segments that the vehicle has not yet traversed during the current trip along the route.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the usable energy of the battery is nearly depleted upon completion of the driving route.

8. A method for adaptively adjusting a maximum discharge rate limit of a battery based on a driving route, the method comprising:

storing, in a memory;

a segment of a driving route associated with a high power request,

a duration of a power request of a battery during a previous trip of the vehicle along the segment, and

an amount of power requested from the battery during a previous trip of the vehicle along the segment;

detecting, by a GPS unit, a current location of the vehicle;

calculating, using a processor, a maximum discharge rate limit of the battery for the segment that is different than a standard discharge rate of the battery and is based on the stored segment, the stored duration of the power request, the stored amount of power requested from the battery and the current location of the vehicle; and

requesting, by the processor, the battery to discharge at a rate that is less than or equal to the maximum discharge rate limit while the vehicle is traveling along the segment.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the maximum discharge rate limit for the segment is calculated such that the battery can discharge at or below the maximum discharge rate limit while the vehicle is traveling along the entire segment.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the processor is further configured to calculate the maximum discharge rate limit to be a rate at which the battery will include sufficient charge to constantly discharge during a trip of the vehicle along the driving route.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the maximum discharge rate limit is calculated based on battery values corresponding to battery protection limits.

12. The method of claim 8 wherein the maximum discharge rate limit is calculated such that the vehicle can complete the segment without engaging an engine of the vehicle.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein the maximum discharge rate limit is calculated based on a current state of charge of the battery.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising storing, by the memory:

a second segment of the driving route that is associated with another high power request;

a duration of a power request of the battery during a previous trip of the vehicle along the second segment; and

an amount of power requested from the battery during a previous trip of the vehicle along the second segment,

wherein the maximum discharge rate limit is further calculated based on the second stored segment, the stored duration of the power request corresponding to the second segment and the stored amount of power requested from the battery corresponding to the second segment.

15. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

selecting, using the processor, at least one candidate route;

assigning, using the processor, a route weight for each of the candidate routes;

predicting, using the processor, a predicted route by selecting the candidate route with the highest route weight, wherein the predicted route is the driving route.

16. A method for adaptively adjusting a maximum charge rate limit of a battery based on a driving route, the method comprising:

storing, in a memory;

a segment of a driving route associated with a high charging request,

a duration of a charging request of a battery during a previous trip of the vehicle along the segment, and

an amount of charging requested from the battery during a previous trip of the vehicle along the segment;

detecting, by a GPS, a current location of the vehicle;

calculating, using a processor, a maximum charge rate limit of the battery for the segment that is different than a standard charge rate of the battery and is based on the stored segment, the stored duration of the charging request, the stored amount of charging requested from the battery and the current location of the vehicle; and

requesting, by the processor, the battery to discharge at a rate that is less than or equal to the maximum discharge rate limit while the vehicle is traveling along the segment.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the maximum charge rate limit for the segment is calculated such that the battery can charge at or below the maximum charge rate limit while the vehicle is traveling along the entire segment.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the processor is further configured to calculate the maximum charge rate limit to be a rate at which the battery can constantly charge during a trip of the vehicle along the driving route.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein the processor is further configured to calculate the maximum charge rate limit based on values for a current state of charge of the battery and a charge threshold of the battery.

20. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

selecting, using a processor, at least one candidate route;

assigning, using the processor, a route weight for each of the candidate routes; and

predicting, using the processor, a predicted route by selecting the candidate route with the highest route weight, wherein the predicted route is the driving route.

21. A method for adaptively adjusting a discharge rate of a battery based on a known driving route of a vehicle, the method comprising:

selecting, using a processor, at least one candidate route;

assigning, using the processor, a route weight for each of the candidate routes;

predicting, using the processor, a predicted route by selecting the candidate route with the highest route weight;

storing, in a memory, a driving route having a plurality of segments and a plurality of discharge rates of the battery that each corresponding to at least one of the plurality of segments and having been detected during a previous trip of the vehicle along the at least one of the plurality of segments;

calculating, using a processor, an optimal discharge rate for the predicted driving route based on the stored driving route and the plurality of discharge rates of the battery; and

requesting, by the processor, the battery to discharge at the optimal discharge rate for at least one segment of the route.