Systems and methods for hybrid vehicles with a high degree of hybridization

• US 9,676,382 B2
• Filed: 04/17/2014
• Issued: 06/13/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Palo Alto Research Center, Inc. (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Saha, Bhaskar, Schwartz, David E., Garner, Sean, Hanley, John, Barber, Simon
• Primary Examiner(s): Khatib, Rami
• Application Number:
  US14/255,235
• Publication Number:
  US 20150298689A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,153 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/24 including control of energy storage means
• 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 20/20 Control strategies involving selection of hybrid configuration, e.g. selection between series or parallel configuration
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0018 Method for the design of a control system
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/188 Controlling power parameters of the driveline, e.g. determining the required power
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/12 related to parameters of the vehicle itself , e.g. tyre models
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/085 Changing the parameters of the control units, e.g. changing limit values, working points by control input
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/15 Vehicle, aircraft or watercraft design
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/20 Design optimisation, verification or simulation optimisation, verification or simulation of circuit designs G06F30/30
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 903/904 Component specially adapted for hev

Abstract

Hybrid vehicle design circuitry quantifies values for utility/disutility variables of a hybrid vehicle design by evaluating a hybrid vehicle model over a collection of drive cycles/routes. The utility/disutility values include at least one of: total time or additional time beyond a reference time needed for the hybrid vehicle design to complete the drive cycles/routes, a fraction or number of the drive cycles/routes for which the hybrid vehicle design fails to achieve a target velocity, and amount of time or distance over which the hybrid vehicle design fails to achieve a target acceleration or the target velocity over the drive cycles/routes. The hybrid vehicle design circuitry calculates one or more specifications of a hybrid vehicle design based on the utility/disutility values.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

input circuitry configured to receive input values for one or more hybrid vehicle design variables; and

hybrid vehicle design circuitry configured to quantify one or more values for one or more utility/disutility variables of a hybrid vehicle design based on the input values by evaluating a hybrid vehicle model over a collection of at least one of drive cycles and routes (drive cycles/routes), wherein the model operates with time as an independent variable and uses a velocity over distance profile as an input, the utility/disutility values including at least one of;

a total time or additional time beyond a reference time needed for the hybrid vehicle design to complete the drive cycles/routes,

a fraction or number of the cycles/routes for which the hybrid vehicle design fails to achieve a target velocity, and

an amount of time or distance over which the hybrid vehicle design fails to achieve a target acceleration or the target velocity over the cycles/routes,

the hybrid vehicle design circuitry further configured to calculate one or more specifications of a hybrid vehicle design based on the utility/disutility values, the one or more specifications comprising a traction power to achieve a target velocity at a particular distance and specified power delivered.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the target velocity varies over the drive cycles/routes.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein evaluating the hybrid vehicle design includes comparing at least one of the utility/disutility values to a benchmark associated with a standard vehicle model.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the specifications include properties of one or more of:

a fuel-consuming engine;

an energy storage device;

a flywheel;

a battery;

an ultracapacitor;

a transmission; and

a power train.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the utility/disutility values include at least one of an energy consumption value and an engine emission value.

6. The system of any of claim 1, wherein the utility/disutility values include at least one of an instantaneous performance value and a trip-based performance value.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the trip based performance value includes one or more of:

a portion of the drive cycles/routes that can be traversed at the target velocity;

the portion of the drive cycles/routes for which the hybrid vehicle design fails to achieve the target velocity;

a portion of the drive cycles/routes that the hybrid vehicle design can complete;

a portion of the drive cycles/routes that the hybrid vehicle design fails to complete;

the additional time needed for the hybrid vehicle design to complete the drive cycles/routes;

the amount of time or distance that the hybrid vehicle design fails to achieve the target velocity over the drive cycles/routes; and

time to complete each drive cycle/route.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the drive cycles/routes include one or more of terrain and traffic information.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the hybrid vehicle design circuitry is configured to calculate the specifications using a cost function and the utility/disutility values are numerical inputs to the cost function.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the utility/disutility values are weighted with user-selected weighting coefficients.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the specifications include an amount of uniformity of driver experience.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the hybrid vehicle design circuitry is further configured to calculate an actual velocity corresponding to the power delivered if the traction power to achieve the target velocity is less than the power delivered.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the hybrid vehicle design circuitry is configured to calculate the actual velocity by inverting a dynamometer load equation with acceleration linearized according to a simulation time step.

14. A system, comprising:

input circuitry configured to receive input values for one or more hybrid vehicle design variables; and

hybrid vehicle design circuitry configured to quantify one or more values for one or more utility/disutility variables of a hybrid vehicle design based on the input values by evaluating a hybrid vehicle model over a collection of at least one of drive cycles and routes (drive cycles/routes), wherein the model operates with time as an independent variable and uses a velocity over distance profile as an input, the utility/disutility values including at least one of;

total time or additional time beyond a reference time needed for the hybrid vehicle design to complete the drive cycles/routes,

a fraction or number of the drive cycles/routes for which the hybrid vehicle design fails to achieve a target velocity, and

amount of time or distance over which the hybrid vehicle design fails to achieve a target acceleration or the target velocity over the drive cycles/routes,

the hybrid vehicle design circuitry configured to calculate one or more specifications of a hybrid vehicle design based on the utility/disutility values, wherein the design circuitry is configured to calculate the specifications that provide performance within a specified range for a particular geographic region, the one or more specifications comprising a traction power to achieve a target velocity at a particular distance and specified power delivered.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the model includes values for one or more of vehicle specific variables and one of more driver specific variables.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the specifications comprise specifications for one or more reconfigurable vehicle components.