Method for Online Adaptation of a Characteristic of a Hybrid Vehicle

• US 20160368481A1
• Filed: 06/17/2016
• Published: 12/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MAN Truck & Bus AG (Volkswagen AG)
• Original Assignee: MAN Truck & Bus AG (Volkswagen AG)
• Inventors: NUBER, Johannes, KIRCHENSTEINER, Elmar, GNNEWICHT, Manuel, HIERLMEIER, Matthias, OVARI, Sebastian
• Granted Patent: US 10,065,631 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 15/2009 for braking
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2260/54 Energy consumption estimation
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/13 Maintaining the SoC within a determined range
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/14 Preventing excessive discharging
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/15 Preventing overcharging
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/06 including control of combustion engines
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/08 including control of electric propulsion units, e.g. motors or generators
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/18 including control of braking systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/26 for electrical energy, e.g. batteries or capacitors
• 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 20/14 in conjunction with braking regeneration
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0088 Adaptive recalibration
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2510/248 Age of storage means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2530/209 Fuel quantity remaining in tank
• 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 2710/0627 Fuel flow rate
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2710/086 Power
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2710/244 Charge state
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/188 Controlling power parameters of the driveline, e.g. determining the required power
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/0097 Predicting future conditions
• CPC Class Codes: B60Y 2200/92 : Hybrid vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60Y 2300/188 : Controlling power parameters of the driveline, e.g. determining the required power
• CPC Class Codes: B60Y 2300/52 : Engine fuel consumption
• 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 10/72 : Electric energy management in electromobility
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 903/93 : Conjoint control of different elements

Abstract

A method for the online adaptation of a characteristic of a hybrid vehicle having a hybridized drive train with an electric drive that can be supplied with electricity from an electrical energy storage arrangement. The characteristic is used for the selection of an operating mode and/or for determining an operating point of the drive train. The characteristic is adapted by establishing partition boundaries that divide a range of states of charge into a plurality of regions, at least one of the partition boundaries can be variably determined during the operation of the vehicle; predetermining a profile of the characteristic depending on a state of charge of the energy storage arrangement, and online adaptation of the characteristic in the event of a shift of at least one of the variable partition boundaries.

Claims

1. A method for the online adaptation of at least one characteristic of a hybrid vehicle having a hybridized drive train with an electric drive configured to be supplied with electricity from an electrical energy storage arrangement, comprising:

(a) establishing a plurality of partition boundaries that divide a range of states of charge of the electrical energy storage arrangement into a plurality of regions, wherein at least one of the partition boundaries is configured to be variably determined during an operation of the vehicle; and

(b) predetermining a profile of the at least one characteristic based at least in part on a state of charge of the electrical energy storage arrangement, wherein respective values of the at least one characteristic at the plurality of partition boundaries are fixedly predetermined; and

(c) online adaptation of the at least one characteristic in a case of a shift of the at least one variable partition boundary, wherein the at least one characteristic is shifted and scaled based at least in part on the fixedly predetermined values at the partition boundaries and corresponding to the shifted variable partition boundary, wherein the at least one characteristic is used for selection of at least one of an operating mode of the drive train and for determining an operating point of the drive train.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein

(a) the predetermined profile of each of the at least one characteristics is formed by a plurality of sub-profiles, each sub-profile extending from a respective partition boundary to an adjacent partition boundary;

and

(b) an adapted profile of the at least one characteristic results when there is a shift of at least one of the variable partition boundaries by one or more of an extension, a compression, and a shift in an abscissa direction of the characteristic of those sub-profiles that end at at least one partition boundary that has been shifted, wherein a boundary point of a sub-profile remains unchanged during the one or more of the extension, the compression, and the shift in the abscissa direction if it lies on a non-shifted partition boundary or is shifted in the abscissa direction together with the partition boundary if it lies on a shifted partition boundary.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein one or more of

(a) at least one of the partition boundaries is continuously adapted during vehicle operation based at least in part on information characterizing a segment of route ahead;

and

(b) at least one of the partition boundaries is continuously adapted during the vehicle operation based at least in part on topographical data of a segment of route ahead indicating a decline profile and an incline profile of the segment of route ahead.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one characteristic comprises a characteristic that one of

(a) specifies an upper boundary for a fuel mass throughput based at least in part on the state of charge of the electrical energy storage arrangement;

and

(b) specifies a nominal performance of the electrical energy storage arrangement based at least in part on the state of charge of the energy storage arrangement.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of partition boundaries includes:

(a) a lower state of charge boundary that identifies a state of charge of the electrical energy storage arrangement from which the electrical energy storage arrangement is outwardly fully discharged; and

b) an upper state of charge boundary that identifies a state of charge of the energy storage arrangement from which the electrical energy storage arrangement is outwardly full charged.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of partition boundaries includes at least one the following partition boundaries that can be variably determined during the operation of the vehicle as a function of operating parameters:

(a) a lower boundary of the state of charge of the energy storage arrangement that is optimal for service life that identifies a state of charge boundary below which the state of charge should not lie for service life reasons and that is selected so that the electrical energy storage arrangement can be safely operated over a nominal service life of the electrical energy storage arrangement if the state of charge does not fall below the state of charge boundary;

(b) an upper boundary of the state of charge of the electrical energy storage arrangement that is optimal for the service life, that identifies a state of charge boundary that should not be exceeded for service life reasons and that is selected so that the electrical energy storage arrangement can be safely operated over a nominal service life of the energy storage arrangement if said state of charge boundary is not exceeded.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein, at least one of

(a) during the operation of the hybrid vehicle a probable energy recovery during a future braking process of the hybrid vehicle is determined as a function of a current speed of the vehicle and at least one of the partition boundaries is adapted during the operation of the vehicle based at least in part on the determined energy recovery;

and

(b) at least one of the partition boundaries is adapted during the operation of the vehicle if a planned use of the vehicle for which the application of the characteristic has been carried out deviates from actual use of the vehicle.

12. The method according to claim 2, wherein one or more of

(a) at least one of the partition boundaries is continuously adapted during vehicle operation based at least in part on information characterizing a segment of route ahead;

and

(b) at least one of the partition boundaries is continuously adapted during the vehicle operation based at least in part on topographical data of a segment of route ahead indicating a decline profile and an incline profile of the segment of route ahead.

7. A method for the selection of an operating mode of a hybridized drive train and/or for determining an operating point of the hybridized drive train of a hybrid vehicle, comprising a method for the online adaptation of at least one characteristic of the hybrid vehicle comprising:

(a) establishing a plurality of partition boundaries that divide a range of states of charge of the electrical energy storage arrangement into a plurality of regions, wherein at least one of the partition boundaries is configured to be variably determined during an operation of the vehicle; and

(b) predetermining a profile of the at least one characteristic based at least in part on a state of charge of the electrical energy storage arrangement, wherein respective values of the at least one characteristic at the plurality of partition boundaries are fixedly predetermined; and

(c) online adaptation of the at least one characteristic in a case of a shift of the at least one variable partition boundary, wherein the at least one characteristic is shifted and scaled based at least in part on the fixedly predetermined values at the partition boundaries and corresponding to the shifted variable partition boundary, wherein the at least one characteristic is used for the selection of at least one of an operating mode of the drive train and for determining an operating point of the drive train.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the plurality of partition boundaries includes at least one of the following partition boundaries that can be variably determined during the operation of the vehicle as a function of operating parameters:

(a) a discharge boundary that indicates a state of charge of the energy storage arrangement below which only operating modes are selected in which the electrical energy storage arrangement is not discharged, for example a solely combustion engine mode or a load point increase; and

(b) a charging boundary that indicates a state of charge of the energy storage arrangement, above which no operating modes are selected in which the energy storage arrangement is charged further by consuming fuel.

13. The method according to claim 8, wherein below the discharge boundary the operating modes comprise one of a solely combustion engine mode and a load point increase.

14. The method according to claim 7, wherein, at least one of

(a) during the operation of the hybrid vehicle a probable energy recovery during a future braking process of the hybrid vehicle is determined as a function of a current speed of the vehicle and at least one of the partition boundaries is adapted during the operation of the vehicle based at least in part on the determined energy recovery;

and

(b) at least one of the partition boundaries is adapted during the operation of the vehicle if a planned use of the vehicle for which the application of the characteristic has been carried out deviates from the actual use of the vehicle.

10. A device comprising:

a microprocessor configured to establish a plurality of partition boundaries that divide a range of states of charge of the electrical energy storage arrangement into a plurality of regions, wherein at least one of the partition boundaries is configured to be variably determined during the operation of the vehicle; and

a memory configured to store a predetermined profile of the at least one characteristic based at least in part on a state of charge of the electrical energy storage arrangement, wherein respective values of the at least one characteristic at the plurality of partition boundaries are fixedly predetermined,

wherein the microprocessor is further configured to perform online adaptation of the at least one characteristic in a case of a shift of the at least one variable partition boundary, wherein the at least one characteristic is shifted and scaled based at least in part on the fixedly predetermined values at the partition boundaries and corresponding to the shifted variable partition boundary,

wherein the at least one characteristic is used for the selection of at least one of an operating mode of the drive train and for determining an operating point of the drive train.

11. A motor vehicle with a device according to claim 10.