Vehicle fault early warning system

• US 9,626,811 B2
• Filed: 10/05/2016
• Issued: 04/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Atieva, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Atieva, Inc.
• Inventors: Ramesh, Vineeth
• Primary Examiner(s): Jabr, Fadey
• Assistant Examiner(s): SHUDY, ANGELINA M
• Application Number:
  US15/286,409
• Publication Number:
  US 20170024937A1
• Time in Patent Office: 195 Days
• Field of Search: 701 293
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/12 responding to state of charge [SoC]
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/382 Arrangements for monitoring battery or accumulator variables, e.g. SoC
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/396 Acquisition or processing of data for testing or for monitoring individual cells or groups of cells within a battery
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0808 Diagnosing performance data testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0816 Indicating performance data, e.g. occurrence of a malfunction
• 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 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries

Abstract

A vehicle fault early warning system is provided in which a central processing system (e.g., vehicle manufacturer, service center, third party) transmits a warning once a set of conditions is identified that routinely leads to a particular vehicle malfunction, where the malfunction may either cause the failure of a component/subsystem or cause a component/subsystem to perform out-of-spec. The warning may be accompanied by instructions as to how to avoid, or at least mitigate, the effects of the vehicle malfunction.

Claims

1. A method of automatically providing a warning notification to a plurality of vehicles, where each vehicle of said plurality of vehicles utilizes an on-board controller comprising a central processing unit (CPU) and a memory, and wherein said on-board controller of each vehicle of said plurality of vehicles is coupled to a plurality of on-board sensors, the method comprising:

monitoring a set of battery pack characteristics with said plurality of on-board sensors, said set of battery pack characteristics selected from the group consisting of a battery pack operating temperature, a state-of-charge (SOC) and a discharge rate, wherein each vehicle of said plurality of vehicles monitors said set of battery pack characteristics with said on-board controller;

monitoring a set of ambient environmental conditions with said plurality of on-board sensors, said set of ambient environmental conditions selected from the group consisting of an ambient temperature, a precipitation level, a humidity level, an atmospheric pressure, and an elevation, wherein each vehicle of said plurality of vehicles monitors said set of ambient environmental conditions with said on-board controller;

transmitting a data log comprising said set of battery pack characteristics and said set of ambient environmental conditions concurrent with said set of battery pack characteristics to a central processing system, wherein each vehicle of said plurality of vehicles performs said transmitting step utilizing said on-board controller;

analyzing a plurality of data logs, said plurality of data logs comprised of said data log received from each vehicle of said plurality of vehicles, wherein said central processing system performs said analyzing step, and wherein said analyzing step further comprises comparing each set of battery pack characteristics corresponding to each data log of said plurality of data logs to a set of desired operating characteristics;

identifying each occurrence of a fault event within said plurality of data logs, wherein said fault event occurs when at least one of said set of battery pack characteristics falls outside of said set of desired operating characteristics, wherein said central processing system performs said identifying step;

comparing a plurality of fault events corresponding to said plurality of data logs, wherein said central processing system performs said step of comparing said plurality of fault events;

identifying a subset of said plurality of fault events, wherein said ambient environmental conditions concurrent with each fault event of said subset of said plurality of fault events are analogous; and

transmitting said warning notification to each vehicle of said plurality of vehicles when a numerical value corresponding to a number of fault events comprising said subset of said plurality of fault events exceeds a preset value, wherein said step of transmitting said warning notification is performed by said central processing system, and wherein said warning notification identifies said fault event of said subset of said plurality of fault events and said ambient environmental conditions concurrent with said fault event.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of transmitting said data log to said central processing system is performed periodically by each vehicle of said plurality of vehicles.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of transmitting said data log to said central processing system is performed continuously by each vehicle of said plurality of vehicles.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of transmitting said warning notification further comprises the step of wirelessly transmitting said warning notification to an on-board user interface incorporated into each vehicle of said plurality of vehicles.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of transmitting said warning notification further comprises the step of wirelessly transmitting said warning notification via an application installed on each of a plurality of user smartphones.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of transmitting said warning notification further comprises the step of transmitting a set of fault mitigation instructions to each vehicle of said plurality of vehicles, wherein said set of fault mitigation instructions correspond to said fault event of said subset of said plurality of fault events.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said step of transmitting said set of fault mitigation instructions further comprises the step of wirelessly transmitting said set of fault mitigation instructions to an on-board user interface incorporated into each vehicle of said plurality of vehicles.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of transmitting said warning notification further comprises the step of wirelessly transmitting a set of fault mitigation instructions via an application installed on each of a plurality of user smartphones, wherein said set of fault mitigation instructions correspond to said fault event of said subset of said plurality of fault events.

9. The method of claim 1, said data log further comprising a set of vehicle conditions concurrent with said set of battery pack characteristics, said set of vehicle conditions selected from the group consisting of throttle position, vehicle speed, steering wheel position, motor speed, motor temperature, drive train temperature, and heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) settings.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said warning notification identifies said fault event of said subset of said plurality of fault events and said set of vehicle conditions concurrent with said fault event.

11. The method of claim 1, said set of ambient environmental conditions further comprising a current vehicle location.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said warning notification identifies said fault event of said subset of said plurality of fault events and said current vehicle location concurrent with said fault event.

13. The method of claim 1, said data log further comprising a drive train operating temperature concurrent with said set of battery pack characteristics, wherein said analyzing step further comprises comparing said drive train operating temperature to a desired drive train operating temperature, wherein said fault event occurs when said drive train operating temperature exceeds said desired drive train operating temperature.