Battery use optimization utilizing a reserve fleet

• US 9,440,550 B2
• Filed: 09/24/2012
• Issued: 09/13/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Philadelphia Scientific LLC (Philadelphia Scientific)
• Original Assignee: Philadelphia Scientific LLC (Philadelphia Scientific)
• Inventors: Jones, Duncan
• Primary Examiner(s): Parihar, Suchin
• Application Number:
  US14/346,830
• Publication Number:
  US 20140232340A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,450 Days
• Field of Search: 320/109
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2200/30 Trolleys
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2200/42 Fork lift trucks
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/11 DC charging controlled by the charging station, e.g. mode 4
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/64 Optimising energy costs, e.g. responding to electricity rates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/12 The local stationary network supplying a household or a building
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/48 for electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0013 acting upon several batteries simultaneously or sequentially H02J7/1423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/60 Electric or hybrid propulsion means for production processes
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/16 Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/167 Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for supporting the interoperability of electric or hybrid vehicles, i.e. smartgrids as interface for battery charging of electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 30/14 Details associated with the interoperability, e.g. vehicle recognition, authentication, identification or billing

Abstract

A system for the management of a fleet of battery powered vehicles using a paradigm of a reserve pool of vehicles as opposed to a reserve fleet of batteries. In this system, a reserve pool of vehicles is always maintained in a ready state such that vehicles being returned with depleted batteries may be replaced with a vehicle having a fully-charged battery. The system maintains a balance between reserve fleet size and charging time (and therefore the life of the batteries) to provide optimal performance and cost savings. The system has the added advantages of capital efficiency in that that the time and labor required to change batteries, and the need to maintain extra batteries is eliminated.

Claims

1. In an environment having a fleet of battery-powered vehicles, a system comprising:

a plurality of battery charging stations configured to charge batteries connected to said battery-powered vehicles;

a central monitoring facility, including a processor, connected to each of said battery charging stations, for monitoring the charge state of each battery; and

software, running on said processor, said software performing the functions of

accepting vehicles having depleted batteries for charging;

maintaining a queue of vehicles ready for deployment; and

charging said vehicles using a charge rate sufficient to maintain said approximate percentage of queued or charging vehicles.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said software performs the further function of providing a statistical analysis of charge rate and usage to provide recommendations regarding the size of the overall fleet.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein vehicles are added to said queue of vehicles ready for deployment in a manner which provides even use of individual vehicles in the fleet.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein said software performs the further function of monitoring opportunity charging and providing warnings when the use of opportunity charging exceeds a pre-set threshold.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein said software performs the further function of monitoring the size of the reserve fleet and providing warnings when the reserve fleet falls below a pre-set threshold.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein said software performs the further function of providing a statistical analysis of charge rate and usage to provide recommendations regarding the size of the overall fleet.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein vehicles are added to said queue of vehicles ready for deployment in a manner which provides even use of individual vehicles in the fleet.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein said software performs the further function of monitoring opportunity charging and providing warnings when the use of opportunity charging exceeds a pre-set threshold.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein said software performs the further function of monitoring the size of said reserve fleet and providing warnings when said reserve fleet falls below a pre-set threshold.

6. In an environment having a fleet of battery-powered vehicles, a system comprising:

a plurality of battery charging stations configured to charge batteries connected to said battery-powered vehicles;

a central monitoring facility, including a processor, connected to each of said battery charging stations, for monitoring the charge state of each battery

software, running on said processor, said software performing the functions of

maintaining a pre-determined percentage of vehicles in said fleet as a reserve fleet ready for deployment;

accepting in-use vehicles having depleted batteries for charging;

selecting a vehicle from said reserve fleet for deployment when an in-use vehicle is returned for charging; and

charging said vehicles using a charge rate sufficient to maintain said pre-determined percentage of vehicles in said reserve fleet.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein said software performs the further function of providing a statistical analysis of charge rate and usage to provide recommendations regarding the size of the overall fleet.

8. The system of claim 6 wherein vehicles are selected for deployment in a manner which provides even use of individual vehicles in the fleet.

9. The system of claim 6 wherein said software performs the further function of monitoring opportunity charging and providing warnings when the use of opportunity charging exceeds a pre-set threshold.

10. The system of claim 6 wherein said software performs the further function of monitoring the size of said reserve fleet and providing warnings when said reserve fleet falls below a pre-set threshold.

11. In an environment having a fleet of battery-powered vehicles, a system comprising:

a plurality of battery charging stations configured to charge batteries connected to said battery-powered vehicles;

a central monitoring facility, including a processor, connected to each of said battery charging stations, for monitoring the charge state of each battery;

further comprising;

software, running on said processor, said software performing the functions of

accepting vehicles having depleted batteries for charging and maintaining a queue of vehicles ready for deployment, whereby the charging vehicles and said queue of vehicles are maintained in addition to a core fleet as a reserve fleet;

when a vehicle is parked and connected for charging, indicating which vehicle is to be taken next from said reserve fleet; and

charging said vehicles using a charge rate sufficient to maintain the size of said reserve fleet as an approximate percentage of the size of said core fleet or of the size of the overall fleet consisting of said core fleet and said reserve fleet.