Reactive replenishable device management

• US 7,996,098 B2
• Filed: 09/19/2008
• Issued: 08/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Webasto Charging Systems, Inc. (Webasto Beteiligungs Verwaltung Gbr)
• Original Assignee: Aerovironment
• Inventors: Ramer, Nathaniel Jordan, Dickinson, Blake, Horiuchi, Lisa Lei
• Primary Examiner(s): Decady; Albert
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chang; Sunray
• Application Number:
  US12/234,441
• Publication Number:
  US 20090024232A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,054 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 700/80
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2200/10 Air crafts
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2200/12 Bikes
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2200/26 Rail vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2200/32 Waterborne vessels
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2200/42 Fork lift trucks
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2200/44 Industrial trucks or floor conveyors
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2260/32 Auto pilot mode
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/12 Recording operating variables ; Monitoring of operating variables
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/00 Methods of charging batteries, specially adapted for electric vehicles; Charging stations or on-board charging equipment therefor; Exchange of energy storage elements in electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/11 DC charging controlled by the charging station, e.g. mode 4
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/305 Communication interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/65 involving identification of vehicles or their battery types
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/68 Off-site monitoring or control, e.g. remote control
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/80 Exchanging energy storage elements, e.g. removable batteries
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/12 responding to state of charge [SoC]
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/40 for controlling a combination of batteries and fuel cells
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/4207 for several batteries or cells simultaneously or sequentially
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/482 for several batteries or cells simultaneously or sequentially
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 : User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 : Energy storage using batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/60 : Electric or hybrid propulsion means for production processes
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/167 : Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for supporting the interoperability of electric or hybrid vehicles, i.e. smartgrids as interface for battery charging of electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/40 : Application of hydrogen technology to transportation, e.g. using fuel cells
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 30/12 : Remote or cooperative charging
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 30/14 : Details associated with the interoperability, e.g. vehicle recognition, authentication, identification or billing

Abstract

Reactive replenishable device management comprises receiving device measurement data from at least one device, updating one or more device usage profiles associated with the at least one device, and if an analysis of the one or more device usage profiles indicates usage of the at least one device is sub-optimal, performing one or more of: controlling at least one of an attribute or an operation of the at least one device, issuing one or more device management recommendations to a user of the at least one device, and issuing one or more user alerts to the user. The at least one device comprises at least one of one or more replenishable devices, one or more replenishers associated with the one or more replenishable devices, and one or more other devices associated with the one or more replenishable devices.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for vehicle management in a local area network, the method comprising:

remotely receiving (1) identification data, (2) historical data, and (3) real-time data from a plurality of vehicles;

remotely receiving (4) identification data, (5) historical data, and (6) real-time data from batteries associated with the corresponding vehicles;

analyzing the data received from a vehicle and the historical data from one or more battery of the vehicle to generate (a) energy usage data, (b) charge compliance data, and (c) fault data; and

using the energy usage data, the charge compliance data, and the fault data to determine whether vehicle energy usage is sub-optimal,

wherein when vehicle energy usage is sub-optimal, sending a command to a controller coupled with the vehicle to control an action of the vehicle to seek to improve vehicle operation associated with energy usage and charge compliance.

2. The computer-implemented method for vehicle management of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a low water level of the battery; and

sending a command to a watering system that effectuates automatic watering of the battery.

3. The computer-implemented method for vehicle management of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a low state of charge of the one or more battery; and

triggering a reduction of temperature fold back in small steps per week of the one or more battery.

4. The computer-implemented method for vehicle management of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a sub-optimized charging regimen of the one or more battery; and

triggering an adjustment of battery charge rates.

5. The computer-implemented method for vehicle management of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a sub-par battery performance; and

initiating unscheduled battery equalization of the one or more battery.

6. A system for vehicle management in a local area network, the system comprising:

a remote device manager computer including a remote controller, the remote device manager configured to;

remotely receive (1) identification data, (2) historical data, and (3) real-time data from a plurality of vehicles;

remotely receive (4) identification data, (5) historical data, and (6) real-time data from batteries associated with the corresponding vehicles;

analyze the data received from a vehicle and the historical data from one or more battery of the vehicle to generate (a) energy usage data, (b) charge compliance data, and (c) fault data; and

use the energy usage data, the charge compliance data, and the fault data to determine whether vehicle energy usage is sub-optimal,

wherein when vehicle energy usage is sub-optimal, send a command to a device controller coupled with the vehicle to control an action of the vehicle to seek to improve vehicle operation associated with energy usage and charge compliance.

7. The system of claim 6, the remote controller further configured to:

identify a low water level of the battery; and

send a command to a watering system that effectuates automatic watering of the one or more battery.

8. The system of claim 6, the remote controller further configured to:

identify a low state of charge of the one or more battery; and

trigger a reduction of temperature fold back in small steps per week of the one or more battery.

9. The system of claim 6, the remote controller further configured to:

identify a sub-optimized charging regimen of the one or more battery; and

trigger an adjustment of battery charge rates.

10. The system of claim 6, the remote controller further configured to:

identify a sub-par battery performance; and

initiate unscheduled battery equalization of the one or more battery.