Method for monitoring and navigating a vehicle with electric drive moving towards a predetermined target along a navigated route

• US 9,829,329 B2
• Filed: 08/07/2014
• Issued: 11/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GPS Tuner Systems Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag
• Original Assignee: GPS Tuner Kft.
• Inventors: Nagy, Tamas, Tarnok, Gabor
• Primary Examiner(s): Pipala, Edward J
• Application Number:
  US14/914,630
• Publication Number:
  US 20160209226A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,209 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B62M 6/45 Control or actuating devices therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3469 Fuel consumption; Energy use; Emission aspects

Abstract

A method for monitoring and navigating a vehicle with electric drive towards a target with an off-line navigation device, in which a table is prepared and stored with data related to the vehicle when moving with a predetermined speed and under a predetermined load; storing in the memory the consumption of the vehicle when it takes a unity distance along a horizontal road with the predetermined speed; then storing corrected consumption values as a function of positive or negative angles of inclination of a road section of unity length that represents the ratio of experimentally determined consumption values of the vehicle at any given angle of inclination to the consumption along the horizontal road of unity length; storing map data also including the altitude and/or steepness information; then after the start of the vehicle monitoring in given time intervals the momentary storage capacity of the battery of the vehicle; dividing the remaining route leading to the target into a plurality of road sections so that each road section has a respective uniform angle of inclination, and in case of each of said sections and based on the stored data the respective weighted costs associated with the section is calculated; the weighted costs are summarized to the remaining length of the route whereby the expected consumption of the vehicle till reaching the target is determined, and comparing the expected consumption with the measured available capacity of the battery, and if the expected consumption is higher than the available capacity of the battery, warning the driver of the vehicle.

Claims

1. A method for navigating a vehicle with electric drive moving towards a predetermined target from a starting point with an off-line navigation device, the method comprising:

preparing a table having data relating to the vehicle when moving with a predetermined speed and under a predetermined load;

storing said associated data in an electronic memory;

storing in the memory an energy consumption value of the vehicle when moving a unity distance along a horizontal road at the predetermined speed;

storing a set of corrected consumption values as a function of positive or negative angles of inclination along a road section of said unity distance, the set of corrected consumption values represents the relationship of experimentally determined consumptions of the vehicle at any given angle of inclination to the energy consumption value along the horizontal road of said unity distance given said predetermined speed and said predetermined load;

storing a set of map data comprising a plurality of possible routes along which said vehicle can move including altitude and/or steepness information;

dividing each of said plurality of possible routes leading to the predetermined target into a plurality of road sections wherein each road section having a respective uniform angle of inclination, and wherein the meeting points of neighboring road sections are referred to as knot points and the road sections interconnecting the knot points are referred to as edges;

determining a set of respective weighted costs representing consumption of the vehicle for each of said edges;

summarizing said weighted costs for each of said plurality of possible routes, and selecting one of said plurality of possible routes having the smallest respective weighted cost of said plurality of possible routes and navigating the vehicle towards the target along said selected route;

monitoring in given time intervals a momentary storage capacity of the vehicle, in each time interval repeating the calculation of said summarized cost from an actual route position to the predetermined target along said selected route; and

based on the recalculated summarized cost, determining an expected consumption of the vehicle from the actual route position to the predetermined target, and comparing the expected consumption with the momentary storage capacity, and if the expected consumption is higher than the momentary storage capacity, warning the driver of the vehicle that the available capacity will be insufficient to reach the predetermined target and searching a plurality of alternative routes between the actual route position to the predetermined target, and calculating for each of said plurality of alternative routes the expected consumption, and if said expected consumption for one of said plurality of alternative routes is under the measured available capacity, suggesting said alternative route to the driver and in case of an acceptance by the driver, navigating the driver to the predetermined target along said alternative route.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle is driven both by human and electrical energy and if the ratio of machine and human contribution to the drive can be adjusted in the vehicle, then together with or instead of said warning the ratio of the human and electric drives is either suggested to the driver or adjusted, with which the available energy will be sufficient until reaching the target.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said monitoring step is carried out in time intervals between 0.5 to 2 seconds.