Power management systems and devices

• US 10,821,983 B1
• Filed: 12/08/2014
• Issued: 11/03/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: iQar Inc.
• Original Assignee: Invently Automotive Inc. (iQar Inc.)
• Inventors: Koebler, Martin, Goldstein, Nicole G., Brown, Stephen J., Harper, Jason H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shafi, Muhammad
• Application Number:
  US14/563,007
• Time in Patent Office: 2,157 Days
• Field of Search: 701123
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/00 Instruments specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement of instruments in or on vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 15/2045 for optimising the use of energy
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2220/44 Wheel Hub motors, i.e. integrated in the wheel hub
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/12 Speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/421 Speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/423 Torque
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/441 Speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/443 Torque
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/445 Temperature
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/545 Temperature
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/547 Voltage
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/549 Current
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/622 by satellite navigation
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/642 Slope of road
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/645 Type of road
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/647 Surface situation of road, e.g. type of paving
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/662 Temperature
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/665 Light intensity
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/667 Precipitation
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/68 Traffic data
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/10 : by alarm
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/16 : by display
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2260/28 : Four wheel or all wheel drive
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2260/50 : by future state prediction
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/12 : Recording operating variables ; Monitoring of operating variables
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 50/62 : charged by low-power generators primarily intended to support the batteries, e.g. range extenders
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/12 : responding to state of charge [SoC]
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/16 : responding to battery ageing, e.g. to the number of charging cycles or the state of health [SoH]
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 7/12 : for vehicles propelled by dc motors
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 8/003 : Converting light into electric energy, e.g. by using photo-voltaic systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/03 : for supply of electrical power to vehicle subsystems or for circuit arrangements for charging batteries H02J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 1/10 : by utilising wheel movement for accumulating energy, e.g. driving air compressors
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 13/586 : the retarders being of the electric type
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2201/04 : Hill descent control
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2210/36 : Global Positioning System [GPS]
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 7/18 : operated by wayside apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 7/22 : initiated by contact of vehicle, e.g. bumper, with an external object, e.g. another vehicle , or by means of contactless obstacle detectors mounted on the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/04 : including control of propulsion units
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/06 : including control of combustion engines
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/10 : including control of change-speed gearings
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/11 : Stepped gearings
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/20 : Road profile, i.e. the change in elevation or curvature of a plurality of continuous road segments
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/10 : Historical data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 : of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2720/103 : Speed profile
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/143 : Speed control B60W30/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/188 : Controlling power parameters of the driveline, e.g. determining the required power
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/076 : Slope angle of the road
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/09 : Driving style or behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/105 : Speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/0097 : Predicting future conditions
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/14 : Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/34 : Route searching; Route guidance
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3469 : Fuel consumption; Energy use; Emission aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3617 : using user history, behaviour, conditions or preferences, e.g. predicted or inferred from previous use or current movement
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 : communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 : using electronic data carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 : where the origin of the information is a central station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096844 : where the complete route is dynamically recomputed based on new data
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/40 : Engine management systems
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/62 : Hybrid vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/64 : Electric machine technologies in electromobility
• 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 10/72 : Electric energy management in electromobility
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/92 : Energy efficient charging or discharging systems for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors specially adapted for vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/16 : Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles

Abstract

Described herein are devices, systems, and methods for managing the power consumption of an automotive vehicle, and thereby for optimizing the power consumption of the vehicle. The devices and systems for managing the power consumption of the vehicle typically include power management logic that can calculate an applied power for the vehicle engine based on information provided from the external environment of the vehicle, the operational status of the vehicle, one or more command inputs from a driver, and one or more operational parameters of the vehicle.

Claims

1. A vehicle telemetry interface comprising:

a processor, memory, a communications element, and a sensor interface;

wherein the processor executes control logic programmed to (a) acquire information from the sensor interface, (b) store the information in the memory, (c) communicate the information to a database external to the vehicle using a wireless communication network and (d) determine a route from a current location of the vehicle to a destination based on the information;

wherein the information from the sensor interface includes a combination of driver information and vehicle operational status information from a plurality of sensors within the vehicle that are connected to the sensor interface;

wherein the information is stored in the database in records associated with a driver identity, a date, a time and location information of the vehicle when the information was acquired; and

wherein the driver information includes (a) the destination explicitly provided by a current driver among a plurality of drivers, (b) a preferred speed explicitly provided by the current driver, (c) a maximum and minimum range of speed adjustments explicitly provided by the current driver and (d) a preferred route to the destination explicitly provided by the current driver.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein operational status may be selected from one or more of a current speed of the vehicle, a motor speed, a current orientation of the vehicle, a RPM of a motor of the vehicle, wheel rotations per minute, a battery state, a voltage of a battery, amp hours from the battery, a temperature of the battery, an age of the battery, a number of times the battery has charged and discharged, a tire pressure, a drag force due to rolling resistance of the vehicle, a weight of the vehicle, an amount of air going to an engine, an amount of gas going to the engine, and a weight of the current driver.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the driver information is comprised of driver command inputs to the vehicle including acceleration applied by the current driver, and braking applied by the current driver.

4. The device of claim 3, wherein the driver command inputs are inputs by the current driver through a user interface element.

5. The device of claim 3, wherein the driver command inputs are measurements of driving behavior acquired through the sensor interface.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein (i) the location information comprises a segment from a series of route segments and (ii) a record in the database is associated with one of the route segments.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the device is connected to a user interface element that presents a message to a current driver based on processing of the information acquired from the sensor interface.

8. The device of claim 7, wherein the message to the current driver is based on a calculation of driving behaviors that would save energy.

9. The device of claim 7, wherein a driver history for the current driver is aggregated over time for further analysis of driving behavior.

10. The device of claim 7, wherein the message to the current driver is based on a calculation of a difference between actual driving behavior and optimal driving behavior.

11. The device of claim 1, wherein the driver identity of the current driver is inferred from the information acquired from the sensor interface.

12. The device of claim 1, wherein the driver identity of the current driver is entered through a user interface.

13. The device of claim 1, wherein the driver information is inferred from a combination of a weight sensor and historical driving behavior information.

14. The device of claim 1, wherein the vehicle operational status and driver information are associated with the driver identity, the time and the location information to form a driver history recorded in the database.

15. The device of claim 1, wherein the information about an external environment of the vehicle is selected from one or more of the current location of the vehicle, an elevation of the vehicle, upcoming elevations of the vehicle, a current slope/grade of a road, a predicted slope/grade of next segments of the road, traffic surrounding the vehicle, a location of stoplights, a timing of stoplights, a map of a roadway, a present angle of sunlight, a predicted angle of sunlight for upcoming route segments, weather around the vehicle, a present wind direction, a predicted wind direction for upcoming route segments, a present wind velocity, a predicted wind velocity for upcoming route segments, a current temperature, a predicted temperature for upcoming route segments, a current air pressure, a predicted air pressure for upcoming route segments, a day of week, a visibility, present road conditions, predicted road conditions for upcoming route segments, and a distance from other vehicles.

16. A vehicle telemetry device comprising:

a processor, memory, a communications element, and a sensor interface;

wherein the processor executes control logic programmed to (a) acquire information from the sensor interface, (b) store the information in the memory, (c) communicate the information to a database external to the vehicle using a wireless communication network and (d) determine a route from a current location of the vehicle to a destination based on the information;

wherein the information comes from a plurality of sensors within the vehicle that are connected to the sensor interface;

wherein a driver identity of a current driver among a plurality of drivers is derived from the information acquired from the sensor interface;

wherein the information is stored in the database records associated with the driver identity, a date, a time and location information of the vehicle when the information was acquired; and

wherein the information includes (a) a tire pressure, (b) a drag force due to a rolling resistance of the vehicle and (c) a weight of the vehicle.

17. A vehicle telemetry device comprising:

a processor, memory, a communications element, and a sensor interface;

wherein the processor executes control logic programmed to (a) acquire information from the sensor interface, (b) store the information in the memory, (c) communicate the information to a database external to the vehicle using a wireless communication network and (d) determine a route from a current location of the vehicle to a destination based on the information;

wherein the information from the sensor interface includes a combination of driver commands, information from an external environment of the vehicle and vehicle operational status information from a plurality of sensors within the vehicle that are connected to the sensor interface;

wherein a driver identity of a current driver among a plurality of drivers is derived from the information acquired from the sensor interface;

wherein the information is stored in the database in records associated with the driver identity, a date, a time and location information of the vehicle when the information was acquired; and

wherein the vehicle operational status information includes (a) an amount of air going to an engine of the vehicle, (b) an amount of gas going to the engine and (c) a weight of the current driver.

18. The device according to claim 17, wherein (i) the information of the external environment includes a proximity to other vehicles in a direction of travel of the vehicle and (ii) a speed of the vehicle in the direction of travel is automatically adjusted based on the proximity to avoid a collision.

19. The device according to claim 17, wherein the route minimizes an amount of gas consumed by the vehicle to reach the destination.

20. The device according to claim 17, wherein the control logic is remotely updatable from a remote source.