Fault tolerant wireless battery area network for a smart battery management system

• US 9,559,530 B2
• Filed: 10/10/2014
• Issued: 01/31/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Navitas Solutions
• Original Assignee: Navitas Solutions
• Inventors: Lee, Inseop
• Primary Examiner(s): Dunn, Drew A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Zhou, Zixuan
• Application Number:
  US14/512,382
• Publication Number:
  US 20150028816A1
• Time in Patent Office: 844 Days
• Field of Search: 320/112, 320116-119
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/441 for several batteries or cells simultaneously or sequentially
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 2010/4278 Systems for data transfer from batteries, e.g. transfer of battery parameters to a controller, data transferred between battery controller and main controller
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00026 involving a local wireless network, e.g. Wi-Fi, ZigBee or Bluetooth
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/00 Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 Energy storage using batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/30 State monitoring, e.g. fault, temperature monitoring, insulator monitoring, corona discharge

Abstract

A Wireless battery area network permits the wirelessly monitoring and controlling of individual batteries within large-scale battery applications. The system automatically configures its wireless nodes in the network and provides for the linking of a plurality of batteries (10) to a master battery management unit (M-BMU) (100) by establishing a wireless battery area network within a battery pack that include slave units (S-BMU) (210). The entire system may also be controlled by a top level battery management unit (T-BMU) (510). The system and method allows for the monitoring of voltage, current, temperature, or impedance of individual batteries and for the balancing or bypassing of a battery. A communications controller allows for optimization of wireless communications parameters and beamforming.

Claims

1. A wireless battery area network (WiBaAN) system for intelligent battery pack management comprising:

a plurality of master battery management units (M-BMUs);

a plurality of sensor battery management units (S-BMUs) each connected to at least one corresponding battery cell and at least one sensor configured to monitor said at least one corresponding battery cell, wherein each of said plurality of S-BMUs is connected to at least one of the plurality of M-BMUs by a first wireless mode;

at least one top level battery management unit (T-BMU) configured to control the operations of the plurality of M-BMUs, wherein said at least one T-BMU is wirelessly connected to each the plurality of M-BMUs by a second wireless mode;

at least one communications controller configured to estimate characteristics of a communication channel used by at least one of the first and second wireless modes, and to determine an optimal set of parameters which minimize noise and interference; and

a secondary protection module wirelessly receiving at least one fault signal from at least one S-BMU from the plurality of S-BMUs;

wherein at least a first S-BMU of the plurality of S-BMUs is wirelessly connected with at least one second S-BMU in a mesh network such that at least a first M-BMU of the plurality of M-BMUs is able to communicate with the first S-BMU via the second S-BMU.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the secondary protection module wirelessly receives the at least one fault signal from the at least one S-BMU when at least one M-BMU from the plurality of M-BMUs is not responsive to the at least one fault signal.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one S-BMU of the plurality of S-BMUs is integrated on a single chip.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the at least one S-BMU that is integrated on a single chip further includes one analog-to-digital converter for each sensor included in the at least one S-BMU and a digital multiplexer for combining the signals from each analog-to-digital convertor included on the at least one S-BMU.

2. The system of claim h wherein the parameters that are optimized by the at least one communications controller include at least one of a modulation method, a carrier frequency, a frequency deviation, a signal bandwidth, a transmitter gain setting, a receiver gain setting, a transmitter filter setting, and a receiver filter setting.

3. The system of claim h further comprising:

a rebalancing module connected to a plurality of battery cells for rebalancing a charge between the plurality of battery cells;

wherein an excess charge is automatically redistributed from a first individual battery of the plurality of battery cells to a second individual battery of the plurality of battery cells upon the first individual battery reaching approximately a first maximum charge and wherein the second individual battery is under a second maximum charge.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the first maximum charge and the second maximum charge are equal.

5. The system of claim 3 wherein the rebalancing module disconnects at least one battery cell of the plurality of battery cells from the plurality of battery cells from the system.

7. The system of claim k wherein the secondary protection module is configured to operates independently from the plurality of M-BMUs.

8. The system of claim k wherein the at least one fault signal includes at least one of an indication of over voltage of at least one battery cell and an indication of under voltage of at least one battery cell.

9. The system of claim k wherein the secondary protection module is wirelessly connected to the plurality of S-BMUs through a third diverse wireless connection comprised of at least one of frequency diversity, time diversity, spatial diversity, and modulation diversity.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the third wireless mode is distinct from the first wireless mode and the second wireless mode.

11. The system of claim h wherein a plurality of battery cells is housed in a metal case and each of the plurality of S-BMUs is respectively mounted directly on said corresponding battery cell.

12. The system of claim h wherein the at least one sensor measures a condition of a plurality of battery cells, the condition being selected from the group consisting of voltage, current, impedance and temperature.

15. A wireless battery area network (WiBaAN) system for intelligent battery pack management comprising:

a plurality of master battery management units (M-BMU);

a plurality of sensor battery management units (S-BMU) each connected to at least one corresponding battery cell and at least one sensor configured to monitor said at least one corresponding battery cell, wherein each of said S-BMUs is connected to at least one of the plurality of M-BMUs by a first wireless mode;

at least one top level battery management unit (T-BMU) configured to control the operations of the plurality of M-BMUs, wherein said at least one T-BMU is wirelessly connected to each the plurality of M-BMUs by a second wireless mode; and

at least one communications controller configured to estimate characteristics of a communication channel used by at least one of the first and second wireless modes, and to determine an optimal set of parameters which minimize noise and interference;

wherein the plurality of battery cells are housed in a metal case and wherein each of the plurality of S-BMUs is respectively mounted directly on said corresponding battery cell;

wherein at least one wireless repeater is configured to facilitate wireless communication between the plurality of S-BMUs inside the metal case and at least one M-BMU of the plurality of M-BMUs using the first wireless mode whereby a wireless range of the plurality S-BMUs is extended.

16. A wireless battery area network (WiBaAN) system for intelligent battery pack management comprising:

a plurality of master battery management units (M-BMU);

a plurality of sensor battery management units (S-BMU) each connected to at least one corresponding battery cell and at least one sensor configured to monitor said at least one corresponding battery cell, wherein each of said S-BMUs is connected to at least one of the plurality of M-BMUs by a first wireless mode;

at least one top level battery management unit (T-BMU) configured to control the operations of the plurality of M-BMUs, wherein said at least one T-BMU is wirelessly connected to each the plurality of M-BMUs by a second wireless mode;

at least one communications controller configured to estimate characteristics of a communication channel used by at least one of the first and second wireless modes, and to determine an optimal set of parameters which minimize noise and interference;

a secondary protection module configured to wirelessly receive at least one fault signal from at least one S-BMU from the plurality of S-BMUs, wherein the secondary protection module is configured to wirelessly receive the at least one fault signal when at least one M-BMU from the plurality of M-BMUs is not responsive to the at least one fault signal from the at least one S-BMU from the plurality of S-BMUs;

wherein the secondary protection module is wirelessly connected to the plurality of S-BMUs through a third diverse wireless connection comprised of at least one of frequency diversity, time diversity, spatial diversity, and modulation diversity; and

wherein each of the plurality of S-BMUs is wirelessly connected with at least one other S-BMU in a mesh network such that each of the plurality M-BMUs is able to communicate with a first S-BMU by communicating with a second S-BMU that is in communication with the first S-BMU.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the mesh network of S-BMUs comprises a fourth diverse wireless mode.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the fourth diverse wireless mode is the same as the first wireless mode.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the fourth diverse wireless mode is distinct from the first wireless mode, the second wireless mode, and the third wireless mode.