Methods for electric vehicle (EV) charge location visual indicators, notifications of charge state and cloud applications

• US 9,579,987 B2
• Filed: 10/12/2015
• Issued: 02/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emerging Automotive, LLC
• Original Assignee: Emerging Automotive, LLC
• Inventors: Penilla, Angel A., Penilla, Albert S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dunn, Drew A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Zhou, Zixuan
• Application Number:
  US14/880,970
• Publication Number:
  US 20160031338A1
• Time in Patent Office: 505 Days
• Field of Search: 320/109, 701/22
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 1/003 to auxiliary motors, e.g. for pumps, compressors
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 1/06 using only one supply
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/12 Speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/34 Cabin temperature
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/547 Voltage
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/622 by satellite navigation
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/72 Charging station selection relying on external data
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/80 Time limits
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/10 by alarm
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/12 by confirmation, e.g. of the input
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/16 by display
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/20 by driver identification
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 50/52 characterised by DC-motors
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 50/53 in combination with an external power supply, e.g. from overhead contact lines
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/12 Inductive energy transfer
• 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 53/14 Conductive energy transfer
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/30 Constructional details of charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/305 Communication interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/31 Charging columns specially adapted for electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/60 : Monitoring or controlling charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/65 : involving identification of vehicles or their battery types
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/66 : Data transfer between charging stations and vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/665 : Methods related to measuring, billing or payment
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/67 : Controlling two or more charging stations
• 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 55/00 : Arrangements for supplying energy stored within a vehicle to a power network, i.e. vehicle-to-grid [V2G] arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/13 : Maintaining the SoC within a determined range
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/21 : having the same nominal voltage
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3469 : Fuel consumption; Energy use; Emission aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3484 : Personalized, e.g. from learned user behaviour or user-defined profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3679 : Retrieval, searching and output of POI information, e.g. hotels, restaurants, shops, filling stations, parking facilities G01C21/3611 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 : Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 : Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 : Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/127 : Shopping or accessing services according to a time-limitation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/145 : Payments according to the detected use or quantity
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/18 : involving self-service terminals [SST], vending machines, kiosks or multimedia terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/308 : using the Internet of Things
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 2240/00 : Transportation facility access, e.g. fares, tolls or parking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 : Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 : Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0238 : at point-of-sale [POS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0259 : based on store location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 : Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0643 : Graphical representation of items or shoppers
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0645 : Rental transactions; Leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 15/005 : dispensed for the electrical charging of vehicles electrical charging as such, B60L50/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/4257 : Smart batteries, e.g. electronic circuits inside the housing of the cells or batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/48 : for electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 5/00 : Circuit arrangements for transfer of electric power between ac networks and dc networks H02J3/36 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/10 : using inductive coupling
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/90 : involving detection or optimisation of position, e.g. alignment
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00 : Circuit arrangements for charging or depolarising batteries or for supplying loads from batteries
• 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: H02J 7/00045 : Authentication, i.e. circuits for checking compatibility between one component, e.g. a battery or a battery charger, and another component, e.g. a power source
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0013 : acting upon several batteries simultaneously or sequentially H02J7/1423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0045 : concerning the insertion or the connection of the batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0047 : with monitoring or indicating devices or circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0048 : Detection of remaining charge capacity or state of charge [SOC]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0049 : Detection of fully charged condition
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/02 : for charging batteries from ac mains by converters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 : specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 : in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• 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 67/125 : involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 : User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 : specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 : Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 : using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 : for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 : for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/00 : User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 : WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/00 : Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 : Energy storage using batteries
• 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 10/72 : Electric energy management in electromobility
• 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: Y04S 10/126 : the energy generation units being or involving electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV], i.e. power aggregation of EV or HEV, vehicle to grid arrangements [V2G]
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 30/14 : Details associated with the interoperability, e.g. vehicle recognition, authentication, identification or billing
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/10 : Energy trading, including energy flowing from end-user application to grid
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/12 : Billing, invoicing, buying or selling transactions or other related activities, e.g. cost or usage evaluation

Abstract

Methods for managing charge status of an electric vehicle (EV) at a charge unit (CU) and systems that use cloud processing, are provided. One method includes detecting connection of a charging connector of the charge unit to a vehicle charge port of the EV. The method also includes receiving charge status of the EV while the charging connector is connected to the CU and activating a visual indicator at the CU. The visual indicator is set indicative of the charge status of the EV. The method includes changing the visual indicator as the charge status of the EV changes. The method enables a user device to receive notifications of charge status and communicate with cloud processing to request changing of the visual indicator of the CU to a non-full state even when the EV is at a full state of charging.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for managing charge status of a charge unit (CU) that is provided for public use to obtain charge for a battery of an electric vehicle (EV), the CU including a computer for processing at least part of the method, comprising:

detecting, by the computer of the CU, a connection of a charging connector of the CU to a vehicle charge port of the EV, the detecting of the connection includes processing a data exchange between electronics of the EV and the computer of the CU;

receiving, by the computer of the CU, charge status of the EV while the charging connector is connected to the CU, the received charge status of the EV changes as charge is provided from the CU to the battery of the EV;

activating a visual indicator at the CU, by the computer of the CU, the visual indicator being set to indicate the charge status of the EV, the visual indicator at the CU being publically visible at and proximate to the CU while the vehicle charge port of the EV is connected to the CU, and the visual indicator of the CU indicating availability when the CU is not connected to the vehicle charge port of the EV;

changing the visual indicator of the CU, by the computer of the CU, when the charge status of the EV changes;

providing a network connection for the CU, the network connection being usable by the computer of the CU to communicate with at least one server of a cloud services system, the cloud services system managing access to the CU via user accounts, wherein the computer of the CU communicates with the cloud services system during charging of the battery of the EV;

sending a notification by the cloud services system to a user account that was used to obtain charge for the EV at the CU, the notification providing data for a graphical user interface that shows the status of charge of the EV; and

receiving instructions from the user account that was used to obtained charge for the EV at the CU, via a device, to make payment of a fee or receive a charge, to change the visual indicator of the CU to indicate a non-full state even when the EV is at a full level of charge while the EV is occupying the CU and is preventing others from access to the CU that is provided for public use;

sending data by the cloud services system to the computer of the CU to make the change to the visual indicator.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein detecting connection includes establishing initiation and processing data exchange between the EV and CU, the exchange of data is through a data line integrated with the charging connector or a wireless link between the EV and CU, or a combination thereof.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the visual indicator at the CU is either connected to the CU or is proximate to the CU, and the visual indicator is set by at least one light emitting diode (LED) or provided by a display screen associated with CU.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the status of charge of the EV is published to the user account that is accessible over the Internet using the device having access to the Internet.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the cloud services system is provided with communication to a plurality of CUs at one or more geo-locations;

receiving a request to find a CU, by the cloud services system, from an EV that is geographically local to one or more CUs;

sending instructions, by the cloud services system to an available CU to activate a blinking of a light to enable visual identification of the available CU from an area that is visually proximate to the CU.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the notification is sent two or more times during progress of charge of the battery of the EV.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the notification is saved to the user account for access from an application or a website.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the payment of the fee provides an amount of time before the visual indicator returns to the full level of charge, the amount of time.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the visual indicator at the CU is either connected to the CU or is proximate to the CU, and the visual indicator is set by at least one light emitting diode (LED) or provided by a display screen associated with CU.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the visual indicator at the CU is either connected to the CU or is proximate to the CU, and the visual indicator is set by at least one light emitting diode (LED) or provided by a display screen associated with CU.

15. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the payment of the fee provides an amount of time before the visual indicator returns to the full level of charge, the amount of time.

16. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the payment of the fee functions as a parking fee when the EV is not actively charging.

9. A computer implemented method for managing charge status of an electric vehicle (EV) at a charge unit (CU), the CU including a computer for processing at least part of the method, comprising:

detecting, by the computer of the CU, a connection of a charging connector of the charge unit to a vehicle charge port of the EV, the detecting of the connection includes establishing initiation of a data exchange between electronics of the EV and the computer of the CU;

receiving charge status of the EV while the charging connector is connected to the CU, the received charge status of the EV changes as charge is provided from the CU to a battery of the EV;

activating a visual indicator at the CU, by the computer of the CU, the visual indicator is indicative of the charge status of the EV, the visual indicator at the CU being publically visible at the CU while the vehicle charge port of the EV is connected to the CU, wherein the CU is provided for public use, and the visual indicator at the CU indicating availability when the CU is not connected to the vehicle charge port of the EV;

receiving information regarding charging being active;

changing the visual indicator of the CU, by the computer of the CU, as the charge status of the EV changes when the charging is active; and

providing a network connection for the CU, the network connection being usable by the computer of the CU to communicate with at least one server of a cloud services system, the cloud services system managing access to the CU via user accounts, wherein the computer of the CU communicates with the cloud services system during charging of the battery of the EV to communicate a level of charge of the battery;

wherein a particular visual indicator indicates a full level of charge of the battery of the EV, and wherein,

a notification is generated by the cloud services system and sent to a user account that was used to obtain charge for the EV at the CU, the notification being sent to at least identify the full level of charge of the battery of the EV;

wherein the user account that was used to obtained charge for the EV at the CU is enabled to pay a fee or receive a charge to change the visual indicator at the CU, in response to input provided via a device that is connected to the cloud services system;

wherein the change to the visual indicator acts to indicate a non-full state even when the EV is at the full level of charge and the EV is occupying the CU and is preventing others from access to the CU that is provided for public use.

11. A computer implemented method, comprising:

detecting, by a computer of a charging unit (CU), a connection of a charging connector of the CU to a vehicle charge port of an electric vehicle (EV), the detecting of the connection includes processing a data exchange between electronics of the EV and the computer of the CU;

receiving, by the computer of the CU, charge status of the EV while the charging connector is connected to the CU, the received charge status of the EV changes as charge is provided from the CU to a battery of the EV;

sending a notification by server to a user account that was used to obtain charge for the EV at the CU, the notification providing data for a graphical user interface that shows the charge status of the EV; and

receiving instructions from a device associated with the user account, to make payment of a fee or receive a charge, to change a visual indicator of the CU to indicate a non-full state even when the EV is at a full level of charge while the EV is occupying the CU and is preventing others from access to the CU that is provided for public use; and

sending data by the server to the computer of the CU to make the change to the visual indicator, wherein the server communicates over the internet with the device.

13. The computer implemented method of claim 11, wherein the notification is sent two or more times during progress of charge of the battery of the EV.

14. The computer implemented method of claim 11, wherein the notification is saved to the user account for access from an application or a website.