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Inductively charged vehicle with automatic positioning

  • US 9,073,442 B2
  • Filed: 03/09/2011
  • Issued: 07/07/2015
  • Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2010
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A vehicle that receives electric power, in a non-contact manner, from an electric power transmitting coil in a power supply facility provided externally to the vehicle, the vehicle comprising:

  • an electric power receiving coil that is disposed at a bottom of the vehicle and receives electric power from the electric power transmitting coil via electromagnetic field resonance;

    an image capturing device that captures an image of an outside viewed from the vehicle;

    a display unit that displays an outside view from the vehicle that is captured by the image capturing device;

    a first guiding control portion that guides the vehicle to a position at which the electric power transmitting coil is provided based on the image of the outside viewed from the vehicle captured by the image capturing device;

    a second guiding control portion that guides the vehicle to the position at which the electric power transmitting coil is provided, based on at least one of (i) a voltage of electric power which the electric power receiving coil receives from the electric power transmitting coil, and (ii) information on an electric power output which a communication unit mounted on the vehicle receives from the power supply facility; and

    a controller configured to switch between (i) the first guiding control portion guiding the vehicle to the position at which the electric power transmitting coil is provided when the electric power transmitting coil is recognized by the image capturing device, and (ii) the second guiding control portion guiding the vehicle to the position at which the electric power transmitting coil is provided when the electric power transmitting coil is not recognized by the image capturing device,wherein the electric power receiving coil is disposed at a position that is offset toward a peripheral face, on which the image capturing device is disposed, with respect to a center of the bottom in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle.

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