Vehicle energy management

• US 9,557,746 B2
• Filed: 08/23/2013
• Issued: 01/31/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Original Assignee: 2236008 Ontario Inc. (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: Nefedov, Mikhail
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas G
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lewandroski, Sara
• Application Number:
  US13/974,506
• Publication Number:
  US 20150057906A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,257 Days
• Field of Search: 701/70, 701/93, 701/123, 701/51, 701/54, 701/55, 701/56, 701/65, 701/67, 701/99, 701/100, 701/101
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 15/2045 for optimising the use of energy
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 7/10 Dynamic electric regenerative braking B60L7/22 takes precedence
• 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 20/16 for reducing engine exhaust emissions
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0075 Automatic parameter input, automatic initialising or calibrating means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/10 Longitudinal speed
• 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 2556/45 External transmission of data to or from the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/143 Speed control B60W30/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/188 Controlling power parameters of the driveline, e.g. determining the required power
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/0097 Predicting future conditions
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/14 Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention
• CPC Class Codes: F02D 29/02 peculiar to engines driving vehicles; peculiar to engines driving variable pitch propellers
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 13/02 Details
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/08 Registering or indicating performance data other than driving, working, idle, or waiting time, with or without registering driving, working, idle or waiting time
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/40 Engine management systems
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/72 Electric energy management in electromobility
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/84 Data processing systems or methods, management, administration
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 903/93 Conjoint control of different elements

Abstract

A system and method for vehicle energy management are described that take driving context into account to derive suggested vehicle control inputs to reduce energy consumption. Driving context may be based on information including, for example, traffic congestion and/or flow information for a traveled route, road topology information, traffic controls, weather conditions, vehicle characteristics, and other types of driving context information. The driving context may be used to derive suggested control inputs to reduce energy consumption. The suggested control inputs can, for example, be expressed as: a suggested road speed, suggested gear selection, rate of acceleration or rate of deceleration.

Claims

1. A method for vehicle energy management comprising:

in a controlled vehicle, receiving electronic signals and data related to a driving context from a plurality of data sources including crowdsourcing while the vehicle is operating;

retrieving the driving context that includes vehicle characteristics and data generated by a powertrain management system from a memory in the controlled vehicle;

projecting a future driving context based on the data generated by the powertrain management system in the controlled vehicle in response to the driving context;

deriving one or more suggested control inputs in the controlled vehicle in response to the driving context and the future driving contexts; and

in the controlled vehicle, automatically adjusting powertrain functions and a magnitude of braking in the controlled vehicle in response to processing the one or more suggested control inputs;

where the future driving context conveys an external driving environment that the controlled vehicle is about to encounter.

2. The method for vehicle energy management of claim 1, where the projected future driving context is a near-term future driving context.

3. The method for vehicle energy management of claim 1, where the electronic signals and data related to driving context includes data representing any one or more of a vehicle speed, a vehicle direction of travel, a vehicle location, an anticipated route, a cruise control status, live traffic information, a route topology, terrain information, traffic information, traffic controls information or weather information.

4. The method for vehicle energy management of claim 1, where the electronic signals and data represent vehicle data that comprises content identifying powertrain type, whether the controlled vehicle is re-generative braking equipped, a type of transmission or a vehicle energy consumption profile.

5. The method for vehicle energy management of claim 1, where the one or more suggested control inputs include commands directing an acceleration, a maintenance of a constant speed, and a preparation to brake.

6. The method for vehicle energy management of claim 1, where the processing of the one or more suggested control inputs further comprises transmitting the suggested control inputs to an input/output device that renders the control inputs to a driver to provide an indication as to what vehicle control inputs may mitigate energy consumption by the controlled vehicle.

7. The method for vehicle energy management of claim 1, where the processing of the one or more suggested control inputs further comprises transmitting the suggested control inputs to a cruise control system and the powertrain management system.

8. The method for vehicle energy management of claim 1 further comprising automatically making a gear selection.

9. A system for vehicle energy management comprising:

a driving-context input module in a controlled vehicle that receives electronic signals wirelessly and data representing a driving context from a plurality of sources including crowdsourcing and also receives electronic signals from an on-board powertrain management system;

a vehicle characteristics repository to store and provide access to vehicle characteristics;

a control inputs generation processor to project a future driving context based on the data generated by the powertrain management system and from the signals and data related to the driving context and the vehicle characteristics, and to derive one or more suggested control inputs based on the projected future driving context, the signals and data related to the driving context, and the vehicle characteristics; and

a control output module that transmits the suggested control inputs to the powertrain management system that adjusts operating engine functions of the controlled vehicle by indicating an amount of brake force to be applied in response to the suggested control inputs;

where the future driving context comprises an anticipated external driving environment that the controlled vehicle is about to encounter.

10. The system for vehicle energy management of claim 9, where the projected driving context is a near-term future driving context.

11. The system for vehicle energy management of claim 9, where the electronic signals and data related to driving context includes content identifying a vehicle speed, a direction of travel, a location, an anticipated route, a cruise control status, live traffic information, topology, terrain information, traffic information about the route, traffic controls information or weather information.

12. The system for vehicle energy management of claim 9, where the electronic signals and data represent vehicle data that comprises content identifying powertrain type, whether the controlled vehicle is re-generative braking equipped, a type of transmission of the controlled vehicle and a vehicle energy consumption profile.

13. The system for vehicle energy management of claim 9, where the one or more suggested control inputs include any of a command directing an acceleration, a maintaining a constant speed, and a preparation to brake.

14. The system for vehicle energy management of claim 9, where the control output module transmits the one or more suggested control inputs to a vehicle-driver interface that renders the suggested control inputs to a driver to provide an indication as to what vehicle control inputs may mitigate energy consumption by the controlled vehicle.

15. The system for vehicle energy management of claim 9, where the control output module transmits the one or more suggested control inputs to a cruise control system.

16. The system for vehicle energy management of claim 9, further comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory;

where any of the driving-context input module, vehicle characteristics repository, and control output module comprises processor executable instructions stored in the memory.

17. The system for vehicle energy management of claim 9 where one of the suggested control inputs comprises a gear selection.

18. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a program for vehicle energy management comprising:

in a controlled vehicle, computer program code that receives electronic signals and data related to a driving context from a plurality of data sources including crowdsourcing while the vehicle is operating;

computer program code that retrieves the driving context that includes vehicle characteristics and data generated by a powertrain management system from a memory in the controlled vehicle;

computer program code that projects a future driving context based on the data generated by the powertrain management system in the controlled vehicle in response to the driving context;

computer program code that derives one or more suggested control inputs in the controlled vehicle in response to the driving context and the future driving contexts; and

in the controlled vehicle, computer program code that automatically adjusts powertrain functions and a magnitude of braking in the controlled vehicle in response to processing the one or more suggested control inputs;

where the future driving context conveys an external driving environment that the controlled vehicle is about to encounter.