Hybrid energy off highway vehicle electric power management system and method

Abstract

An energy management system for use with a hybrid energy off highway vehicle. The off highway vehicle includes a primary energy source and a power converter driven by the primary energy source for providing primary electric power. A traction bus is coupled to the power converter and carries the primary electric power. A traction drive is connected to the traction bus. The traction drive has a motoring mode in which the traction drive is responsive to the primary electric power for propelling the off highway vehicle. The traction drive has a dynamic braking mode of operation wherein said traction drive generates dynamic braking electrical energy. The energy management system includes an energy management processor for determining a power storage parameter and a power transfer parameter. An energy storage system is connected to the traction bus and is responsive to the energy management processor. The energy storage system selectively stores electrical energy as a function of the power storage parameter and selectively supplying secondary electric power from the stored electrical energy to the traction bus as a function of the power transfer parameter.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] The invention of the present application is a Continuation-in-Part that claims of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 378,431, filed on Mar. 3, 2003, and entitled “HYBRID ENERGY OFF HIGHWAY VEHICLE ELECTRIC POWER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD”, which claims priority from U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 033,172, filed on Dec. 26, 2001, and entitled “HYBRID ENERGY POWER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD”, allowed Dec. 23, 2002, and from U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60 / 278,975, filed on Mar. 27, 2001, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. The following commonly owned, co-pending applications are related to the present application and are incorporated herein by reference: [0002] U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 378,335, filed on Mar. 3, 2003, and entitled “HYBRID ENERGY OFF HIGHWAY VEHICLE POWER STORAGE SYSTEM AND METHOD”; [0003] U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 033,347, filed on Dec. 26, 2001, and...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Such electric energy generated in the dynamic braking mode is typically wasted.

As indicated above, prior art Off Highway Vehicles typically waste the energy generated from dynamic braking.

Attempts to make productive use of such energy have been unsatisfactory.

Among the disadvantages of such a system are the safe storage of the hydrogen gas and the need to carry water for the electrolysis process.

Still other prior art systems fail to recapture the dynamic braking energy at all, but rather selectively engage a special generator that operates when the associated vehicle travels downhill.

One of the reasons such a system is unsatisfactory is because it fails to recapture existing braking energy and fails to make the captured energy available for reuse on board the Off Highway Vehicle.

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