RECONFIGURABLE CONTROL ARCHITECTURES AND ALGORITHMS FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLE WIRELESS ENERGY TRANSFER SYSTEMS

• US 20170066335A1
• Filed: 11/18/2016
• Published: 03/09/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WiTricity Corporation
• Original Assignee: WiTricity Corporation
• Inventors: Verghese, Simon, Kesler, Morris P., Hall, Katherine L., Lou, Herbert Toby, Fiorello, Ron
• Granted Patent: US 10,424,976 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/00 Electric devices on electrically-propelled vehicles for safety purposes; Monitoring operating variables, e.g. speed, deceleration or energy consumption methods or circuit arrangements for monitoring or controlling batteries or fuel cells B60L58/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/124 Detection or removal of foreign bodies
• 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 53/60 Monitoring or controlling charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/48 for electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/12 of the resonant type
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/60 responsive to the presence of foreign objects, e.g. detection of living beings
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/80 involving the exchange of data, concerning supply or distribution of electric power, between transmitting devices and receiving devices
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/90 involving detection or optimisation of position, e.g. alignment
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00034 Charger exchanging data with an electronic device, i.e. telephone, whose internal battery is under charge
• 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 control architecture for electric vehicle wireless power transmission systems that may be segmented so that certain essential and/or standardized control circuits, programs, algorithms, and the like, are permanent to the system and so that other non-essential and/or augmentable control circuits, programs, algorithms, and the like, may be reconfigurable and/or customizable by a user of the system. The control architecture may be distributed to various components of the wireless power system so that a combination of local or low-level controls operating at relatively high-speed can protect critical functionality of the system while higher-level and relatively lower speed control loops can be used to control other local and system-wide functionality.

Claims

1. A wireless energy transfer system with a segmented control architecture, the system comprising:

a wireless energy transfer system coupled to a primary controller; and

a user configurable secondary controller in communication with the primary controller;

wherein the primary controller performs essential control functions for the wireless system.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the essential control functions of the primary controller comprise maintaining wireless energy transfer operating safety limits.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the essential control functions of the primary controller comprise monitoring and controlling the voltage and current on energy transfer components.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the user configurable secondary controller allows adjustment of at least one non-safety critical parameter of the system.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the primary controller and the user configurable secondary controller are each physically implemented on the same hardware.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the user configurable secondary controller is configurable to adjust a maximum output power of the wireless energy transfer system.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the user configurable secondary controller is configurable to adjust a frequency of the wireless energy transfer system.

8. The system of claim 4, wherein the user configurable secondary controller is configurable to adjust the security of the wireless energy transfer system.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the primary controller and the user configurable secondary controller are each virtual controllers implemented on the same processor.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the primary controller and the user configurable secondary controller are each separate processors.