Location Enhanced Distance Until Charge (DUC) Estimation for a Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV)

• US 20120290159A1
• Filed: 05/09/2011
• Published: 11/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: McGee, Ryan Abraham, Yu, Hai, Kristinsson, Johannes Geir, Syed, Fazal Urrahman, Filev, Dimitar Petrov
• Granted Patent: US 10,065,628 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/22
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 6/445 Differential gearing distribution type
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/08 including control of electric propulsion units, e.g. motors or generators
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/26 for electrical energy, e.g. batteries or capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 20/00 Control systems specially adapted for hybrid vehicles hybrid vehicle design, B60K6/00; electric vehicles B60L
• 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 2530/13 Mileage
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2710/244 Charge state
• CPC Class Codes: B60Y 2400/214 by power from domestic supply, e.g. plug in supplies
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/62 Hybrid vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/14 Plug-in electric vehicles

Abstract

A method and a system augment or improve a distance until charge (DUC) estimation for a vehicle such as a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) by using location information. Such location information may be provided by a global positioning system (GPS) or the like associated with the vehicle. The method and the system generally estimate the DUC value as a function of past driving pattern historical data that is relevant to a current driving situation. To this end, the method and the system ignore past driving pattern historical data that is not relevant to the current driving situation when estimating the DUC value.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

estimating a distance until charge (DUC) value for a vehicle based on stored information for a prior recharge at the same location as a current recharge.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

storing, for each of a plurality of past charging events of the vehicle, information indicative of the location of the past charging event and distance traveled by the vehicle since the past charging event until the next charging event; and

obtaining the location of a current charging event of the vehicle.

wherein estimating a DUC value includes estimating the DUC value based on the stored information for each past charging event having the same location as the current charging event.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the vehicle is a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle having an engine and a battery both configured to provide power to propel the vehicle;

wherein the method further includes controlling usage of the battery as a function of the DUC value.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein:

estimating a DUC value includes estimating the DUC value as a function of the distance traveled by the vehicle since a past charging event until the next charging event for each past charging event having the same location as the current charging event.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein:

the DUC value is estimated as being one of the average or the mean of the distance traveled by the vehicle since a past charging event until the next charging event for each past charging event having the same location as the current charging event.

6. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

storing, for each of the past charging events, temporal information indicative of when the charging event occurred; and

obtaining temporal information indicative of when the current charging event occurs;

wherein estimating a DUC value includes estimating the DUC value based on the stored information for each past charging event having the same location as the current charging event and having temporal information corresponding to the temporal information of the current charging event.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein:

the temporal information for each past charging event includes at least one of Time of Day (TOD) and Day of Week (DOW) when the past charging event occurred;

wherein the temporal information for the current charging event includes at least one of TOD and DOW when the current charging event occurs.

8. The method of claim 2 wherein:

storing, for each of the past charging events, information indicative of the location of the charging event includes using a global positioning system (GPS) associated with the vehicle to determine the location of the vehicle during the past charging event;

wherein obtaining the location of the current charging event of the vehicle includes using the GPS to determine the location of the vehicle during the current charging event.

9. The method of claim 2 wherein:

storing, for each of the past charging events, information indicative of distance traveled by the vehicle since the past charging event until the next charging event includes using at least one of a global positioning system and an odometer of the vehicle to determine the distance traveled by the vehicle since the past charging event until the next charging event.

10. A system comprising:

a controller configured to estimate a distance until charge (DUC) value for a vehicle based on stored information for a prior recharge at the same location as a current recharge.

11. The system of claim 10 further comprising:

a database configured to store, for each of a plurality of past charging events of the vehicle, information indicative of the location of the past charging event and distance traveled by the vehicle since the past charging event until the next charging event; and

a global positioning system (GPS) configured to obtain the location of a current charging event of the vehicle;

wherein the controller is further configured to estimate the DUC value based on the stored information for each past charging event having the same location as the current charging event.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein:

the vehicle is a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle having an engine and a battery both configured to provide power to propel the vehicle;

wherein the controller is further configured to control usage of the battery as a function of the DUC value.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein:

the controller is further configured to estimate the DUC value as a function of the distance traveled by the vehicle since a past charging event until the next charging event for each past charging event having the same location as the current charging event.

14. The system of claim 11 wherein:

the database is further configured to store, for each of the past charging events, temporal information indicative of when the charging event occurred; and

the GPS is further configured to obtain temporal information indicative of when the current charging event occurs;

the controller is further configured to estimate the DUC value based on the stored information for each past charging event having the same location as the current charging event and having temporal information corresponding to the temporal information of the current charging event.

15. A method comprising:

storing, for each of a plurality of past charging events of a vehicle, information indicative of the location of the past charging event, the location of the next charging event after the past charging event, and distance traveled by the vehicle from the location of the past charging event until the next charging event;

generating from the stored information a probability matrix indicative of the probability of the location of the next charging event for each location of the past charging events;

generating from the stored information a journey matrix indicative of the distance traveled by the vehicle from each location of the past charging events until the corresponding next charging events;

obtaining the location of a current charging event of the vehicle; and

estimating a distance until charge (DUC) value of the vehicle based on information of the probability matrix and the journey matrix for each past charging event having the same location as the current charging event.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein:

the vehicle is a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle having an engine and a battery both configured to provide power to propel the vehicle;

wherein the method further includes controlling usage of the battery as a function of the DUC value.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein:

the journey matrix is indicative of a simple mean of the distance traveled by the vehicle from each location of the past charging events until the corresponding next charging events.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein:

the journey matrix is indicative of a weighted mean of the distance traveled by the vehicle from each location of the past charging events until the corresponding next charging events.

19. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

storing, for each of the past charging events, temporal information indicative of when the past charging event occurred;

obtaining temporal information indicative of when the current charging event occurs;

wherein the probability matrix and the journey matrix are generated from the stored information having temporal information corresponding to the temporal information of the current charging event.

20. The method of claim 15 wherein:

storing, for each of the past charging events, information indicative of the location of the charging event includes using a global positioning system (GPS) associated with the vehicle to determine the location of the vehicle during the past charging event;

wherein obtaining the location of the current charging event of the vehicle includes using the GPS to determine the location of the vehicle during the current charging event.