Vehicle

• US 9,889,756 B2
• Filed: 02/23/2016
• Issued: 02/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Amari, Yusaku
• Primary Examiner(s): BRUSHABER, FREDERICK M
• Application Number:
  US15/050,634
• Publication Number:
  US 20160243950A1
• Time in Patent Office: 721 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/12 Inductive energy transfer
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/126 Methods for pairing a vehicle and a charging station, e.g. establishing a one-to-one relation between a wireless power transmitter and a wireless power receiver
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/38 specially adapted for charging by inductive energy transfer
• 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

Abstract

A drive over estimating unit of an electric vehicle estimates whether or not wheels of the vehicle will drive over a power supplying coil, e.g., power supplying pad, from a stopped position estimation value, e.g., a deviation amount in a direction of positional shifting of the electric vehicle with respect to the power supplying pad, and a steering angle (−θ (left) or +θ (right)) when the vehicle starts to move after non-contact charging thereof is completed. A notification unit issues a notification when it is estimated that the wheels of the electric vehicle will drive over the power supplying coil, e.g., power supplying pad.

Claims

1. A vehicle having a storage battery which is charged with electric power by non-contact charging, the electric power being supplied from a power supplying coil fixed to a road and being received by a power receiving coil of the vehicle in a non-contact manner, the vehicle comprising:

a positional difference amount detecting sensor configured to detect a positional difference amount of the power receiving coil with respect to the power supplying coil at a time when the vehicle is stopped on the road and performs the non-contact charging of the electric power from the power supplying coil to the power receiving coil of the stopped vehicle,

a stopped position estimating controller configured to estimate a stopped position of the vehicle, and determine a stopped position estimation value, by using the positional difference amount of the power receiving coil with respect to the power supplying coil at a time when the vehicle is stopped on the road and performs the non-contact charging of the electric power from the power supplying coil to the power receiving coil of the stopped vehicle;

a drive over estimating controller configured to estimate whether or not wheels of the vehicle will drive over the power supplying coil, from the stopped position estimation value and a steering angle, when the vehicle starts to move after the non-contact charging thereof; and

a notification controller configured to issue a notification when it is estimated that the wheels of the vehicle will drive over the power supplying coil.

2. The vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the drive over estimating controller switches wheels which are targets to be monitored for driving-over, based on a steering direction and a vehicle movement direction.

3. The vehicle according to claim 1, wherein after the vehicle starts to move, the drive over estimating controller continues to perform a drive over estimating process until a relative distance between the power supplying coil and the power receiving coil becomes greater than or equal to a predetermined distance.

4. The vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the drive over estimating controller sets a drive over estimation region with respect to the steering angle or the stopped position estimation value;

and

when the power receiving coil is disposed on a rear side of the vehicle, in the drive over estimating controller, the drive over estimation region in a case that the vehicle starts to move in a rearward direction after the non-contact charging is set to be greater than the drive over estimation region in a case that the vehicle starts to move in a forward direction thereafter.

5. The vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the drive over estimating controller sets a drive over estimation region with respect to the steering angle or the stopped position estimation value;

and

when the power receiving coil is disposed on a front side of the vehicle, in the drive over estimating controller, the drive over estimation region in a case that the vehicle starts to move in a forward direction after the non-contact charging is set to be greater than the drive over estimation region in a case that the vehicle starts to move in a rearward direction thereafter.

6. The vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the positional difference amount detecting sensor is configured to detect of the positional difference amount of the power receiving coil with respect to the power supplying coil in a vehicle width direction.

7. The vehicle according to claim 6, wherein the positional difference amount detecting sensor includes a left sensor disposed on the left side of the power receiving coil and a right sensor disposed on the right side of the power receiving coil.

8. The vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the drive over estimating controller determines a wheel of the vehicle which has a possibility of driving over the power supplying coil when the vehicle starts to move based on the steering angle and a moving direction of vehicle, and monitor the wheel so as to reduce control load of the drive over estimating controller.