Systems and methods for determining relative position and orientation of a vehicle with respect to a charging station

• US 9,862,280 B2
• Filed: 11/28/2013
• Issued: 01/09/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/10/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Jaguar Land Rover Limited (TATA Motors Limited)
• Original Assignee: Jaguar Land Rover Limited (TATA Motors Limited)
• Inventors: McNally, Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): Tso, Edward
• Application Number:
  US14/759,978
• Publication Number:
  US 20150343912A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,503 Days
• Field of Search: 320104, 320107, 320109, 320111
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/16 by display
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/14 Conductive energy transfer
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/18 Cables specially adapted for charging electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/305 Communication interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/31 Charging columns specially adapted for electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/35 Means for automatic or assisted adjustment of the relative position of charging devices and vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/36 by positioning the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/37 using optical position determination, e.g. using cameras
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 15/028 Guided parking by providing commands to the driver, e.g. acoustically or optically
• 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

Abstract

A guidance system for a motor vehicle comprising: a controller, the controller being operable to determine whether a first length of cable is sufficiently long to allow a charging connection to be established between a motor vehicle and a charging station in dependence on data corresponding to a relative position and orientation of the vehicle with respect to the charging station; and output means for providing an output to a user indicating whether the cable is sufficiently long.

Claims

1. A motor vehicle, comprising:

a controller configured to receive data indicative of a relative position or orientation of the vehicle with respect to a vehicle charging station and to determine in dependence on the received data whether a length of a cable is sufficiently long to allow a charging connection to be established between the vehicle and the charging station via the cable; and

wherein the controller is configured to provide output to a user indicating whether the length of the cable is sufficient to establish the charging connection.

2. The motor vehicle of claim 1, wherein the controller is operable to determine a length of a cable route allowing a charging connection to be established that includes one or more predetermined route portions.

3. The motor vehicle of claim 1, wherein the controller is operable to determine a length of a cable route allowing a charging connection to be established that excludes one or more predetermined cable route portions.

4. The motor vehicle of claim 1, wherein the controller is operable to determine a length of a cable route such that the cable route is external to a predetermined peripheral boundary of the vehicle.

5. The motor vehicle of claim 4, wherein the controller is configured such that the predetermined peripheral boundary encircles a wheelbase of the vehicle, optionally a footprint of the vehicle.

6. The motor vehicle of claim 1, wherein the controller is operable to determine a shortest cable route between the vehicle and the charging station.

7. The motor vehicle of claim 1, wherein the controller is operable to determine the relative position and orientation of the vehicle with respect to the charging station in dependence on position data received by the controller.

8. The motor vehicle of claim 7, wherein the position data corresponds to:

a bearing of the charging station from the vehicle or a bearing of the vehicle from the charging station at at least two respective different bearings;

vehicle speed;

vehicle trajectory; and

whether the vehicle is moving in a forward or reverse direction.

9. The motor vehicle of claim 1, operable to determine substantially continuously whether the cable is sufficiently long when it is determined that the charging station is within a first range of the vehicle.

10. The motor vehicle of claim 1, operable to determine the relative position and orientation of the vehicle with respect to the charging station by reference to at least one of the following:

data in respect of a current location of the vehicle and a location of a charging station;

a wireless signal received from the charging station;

an image of an environment external to the vehicle; and

data corresponding to a distance of one or more objects from the vehicle that have been detected by an object distance measuring module, the object distance measuring module being a module operable to detect radiation emitted by the module and reflected back to the module by an object thereby to measure object distance.

11. The motor vehicle of claim 1, operable to provide an indication to the user as to whether a length of cable required to establish a charging connection between the vehicle and the charging station is increasing or decreasing.

12. The motor vehicle of claim 1, wherein the system is operable to receive data indicative of the relative position and orientation of the vehicle with respect to the charging station from an external source.

13. The motor vehicle of claim 1, comprising one or more sensors or one or more detectors for generating the data indicative of the relative position and orientation of the vehicle with respect to the charging station.

14. The motor vehicle of claim 1, wherein the controller is provided with data indicative of the length.

15. The motor vehicle of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to receive data representing one or more dimensions associated with the motor vehicle, and wherein the controller is further configured to determine whether the length of cable is sufficiently long based on the data representing one or more dimensions associated with the motor vehicle and the data indicative of the position or orientation of the vehicle with respect to the vehicle charging station.

16. A method, comprising:

determining, via a controller within a motor vehicle, whether a prescribed length of cable is sufficiently long to allow a charging connection to be established between the motor vehicle and a charging station in dependence on data indicative of a relative position or orientation of the motor vehicle with respect to the charging station;

providing, via the controller, an output to a user indicating whether the cable is sufficiently long; and

establishing a charging connection between the motor vehicle and the charging station via the cable in response to determining that the prescribed length of cable is sufficiently long.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising generating the data indicative of the relative position or orientation of the motor vehicle with respect to the charging station from one or more sensors or one or more detectors.