Charging coil positioning and data encoding magnet arrays for vehicle charging

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a charging coil positioning and data encoding magnet array for vehicle charging. A charging facility includes a primary coil, a magnet, and a controller, wherein the magnets are arranged relative to the primary coil in a pattern such that the field generated by the magnets can be used to position the vehicle relative to the primary coil. Some of the magnets have a predefined polarity characteristic for encoding data about the identification of the primary coil. The controller is configured to receive information about the predefined polarity characteristic from the vehicle or provide information about the predefined polarity characteristic to the vehicle.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a magnet array for assisting in positioning primary and secondary coils for vehicle charging, wherein the magnet array is used to encode data in the magnet array. Background Art

[0002] Some electrified or alternatively powered vehicles may include a traction battery for providing power to an electric motor to drive the wheels. These vehicles may also include an engine for driving the wheels.

[0003] Electricity may be captured and stored in the traction battery through regenerative braking or charging operations. Certain charging operations may include inductive charging, in which a secondary coil arrangement mounted on the vehicle is coupled to a primary coil arrangement of a charging station for power transfer between the secondary coil arrangement and the primary coil arrangement. Such power transfer requires the coils to be correctly positioned relative to each other. Furthermore, because the charging station has multiple primary coil arrangements, such energy transfer requires the charging station and the vehicle to agree on which primary coil arrangement will be used. Summary of the invention

[0004] A charging facility includes a primary coil, magnets, and a controller, wherein the magnets are arranged relative to the primary coil in a pattern that enables the fields generated by the magnets to be used to locate a vehicle relative to the primary coil, wherein some of the magnets have a predefined polarity characteristic for encoding data about an identification of the primary coil, and the controller is configured to receive information about the predefined polarity characteristic from the vehicle or provide information about the predefined polarity characteristic to the vehicle.

[0005] A charging facility includes a primary coil, electromagnets arranged relative to the primary coil in a pattern that enables the field generated by the electromagnets to be used by a vehicle to locate the vehicle relative to the primary coil, and a controller configured to encode data about the identity of the primary coil through the polarity or polarity changes of some of the electromagnets.

[0006] A vehicle includes a secondary coil, magnets, and a controller, wherein the magnets are arranged relative to the secondary coil in a pattern such that the field generated by the magnets can be used to locate a primary coil of a charging facility relative to the secondary coil, some of the magnets having a predefined polarity characteristic for encoding data about an identification of the vehicle, and the controller is configured to receive information about the predefined polarity characteristic from the charging facility or provide information about the predefined polarity characteristic to the charging facility.

[0007] According to an embodiment of the invention, other of the magnets has another predefined polarity characteristic for encoding data about the charging performance of the vehicle.

[0008] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the controller is further configured to: receive information about the other predefined polarity characteristic from the charging facility or provide information about the other predefined polarity characteristic to the charging facility.

[0009] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the magnet is a permanent magnet.

[0010] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the magnet is an electromagnet. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0011] Figure 1 A schematic plan view of a portion of a vehicle's electrical system.

[0012] Figure 2 It is shown Figure 1 Schematic diagram of a battery charging facility for a vehicle approaching a selected charging station.

[0013] Figure 3A , Figure 3B and Figure 3C A schematic diagram of a portion of another battery charging facility.

[0014] Figure 4 is a plan view of a portion of another vehicle's electrical system.

[0015] Figure 5A and Figure 5B is a plan view of a portion of another vehicle's electrical system. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0016] Various embodiments of the present disclosure are described herein. However, the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary, and other embodiments may take various alternative forms that are not explicitly shown or described. The drawings need not be drawn to scale; some features may be exaggerated or reduced to show the details of a particular component. Therefore, the specific structural and functional details disclosed herein should not be interpreted as being restrictive, but merely as a representative basis for teaching those of ordinary skill in the art to utilize the present invention in a variety of ways. It will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the various features shown and described with reference to any of the figures may be combined with the features shown in one or more other figures to produce embodiments that are not explicitly shown or described. The combination of features shown provides representative embodiments for typical applications. However, various combinations and modifications of features consistent with the teachings of the present disclosure may be expected for specific applications or implementations.

[0017] The disclosed processes, methods, logic or strategies may be delivered to and / or implemented by a processing device, controller or computer, which may include any existing programmable electronic control unit or dedicated electronic control unit. Similarly, processes, methods, logic or strategies may be stored as data and instructions executable by a controller or computer in a variety of forms, including but not limited to information permanently stored on various types of manufactured articles (which may include persistent non-writable storage media, such as ROM devices), and information variably stored on writable storage media (such as floppy disks, tapes, CDs, RAM devices, and other magnetic and optical media). The processes, methods, logic or strategies may also be implemented in software executable objects. Optionally, they may be implemented in whole or in part using appropriate hardware components (such as, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), state machines, controllers, or other hardware components or devices) or a combination of hardware, software and firmware components.

[0018] Reference Figure 1 , the vehicle 10 may include a secondary coil 12, power electronics 14, a traction battery 16, an electric motor 18, a magnetometer 20, and a controller 22. (Solid lines represent power flow paths. Dashed lines represent communication paths.) Power received from the secondary coil 12 by inductive charging may be conditioned by the power electronics 14 and transferred to the traction battery 16 for storage. The traction battery 16 may then provide this power to the electric motor 18 to drive the wheels (not shown) of the vehicle 10.

[0019] The magnetometer 20 is positioned relative to the secondary coil 12 so that the magnetic field detected by the magnetometer 20 from a magnet associated with the primary coil (discussed in further detail below) can be used by the controller 22 to identify (for example) the relative position between the secondary coil 12 and the primary coil, as well as to identify the primary coil and distinguish it from other primary coils.

[0020] Reference Figure 2 , showing the vehicle 10 approaching a battery charging facility 26. The battery charging facility 26 includes a plurality of separate primary coils (represented by primary coils 28, 30, 32), a power source 34, a controller 36, and a plurality of permanent magnet arrays 38, 40, 42 associated with the primary coils 28, 30, 32, respectively. (with Figure 1 Likewise, solid lines represent power flow paths and dashed lines represent communication paths.) As is known in the art, the controller 36 may command the power source 34 to provide power to one (or more) of the selected primary coils 28, 30, 32. This command may be caused by a request from the vehicle 10, etc.

[0021] For multiple primary coils 28, 30, 32, the vehicle 10 and the controller 36 need to identify which primary coil will be used for charging purposes. Therefore, the vehicle 10 and the battery charging facility 26 can exchange communications regarding which of the primary coils 28, 30, 32 will be used. For example, the controller 36 can indicate to the vehicle 10 that the primary coil 30 will be used (if so marked, it can be easily visible to the driver of the vehicle 10), or in response to the driver's input, the vehicle 10 can indicate to the controller 36 that the primary coil 30 is intended to be used. As discussed in further detail below, the permanent magnet arrays 38, 40, 42 serve as various magnetic road signs to assist in guiding the vehicle toward the corresponding primary coil, while transmitting data about the charging performance of the corresponding primary coil and / or the battery charging facility 26.

[0022] In this example, the permanent magnet array 38 includes a plurality of permanent magnets (indicated by "N" and "S") mounted in the ground, the plurality of permanent magnets being arranged in rows in descending order such that rows closer to the primary coil 28 have fewer permanent magnets than rows farther from the primary coil 28. If a vehicle such as the vehicle 10 has the ability to detect magnetic fields (such as a magnetometer 20 associated with the permanent magnet array 38), movement in a direction of decreasing magnetic field numbers or decreasing net magnetic field strength may be interpreted as movement toward the primary coil 28, while movement in a direction of increasing magnetic field numbers or increasing net magnetic field strength may be interpreted as movement away from the primary coil 28. That is, the arrangement of the permanent magnet array 38 can assist in guiding / positioning the vehicle relative to the primary charging coil 28. (Data regarding the intended arrangement of the permanent magnet array 38 may be communicated to the vehicle 10 by the controller 36 or other transmission source via a wireless communication path or other communication path.)

[0023] While the relative positions of the permanent magnets of the permanent magnet array 38 can be used as a magnetic field guide for vehicle positioning, the polarity of the permanent magnets can encode various data about the primary coil 28. Figure 2In the example of FIG. 1 , the row of permanent magnets farthest from the primary coil 28 has a magnetic signature of North-South-North "NSN"; the row of permanent magnets closest to the primary coil 28 has a magnetic signature of South "S"; and the row of permanent magnets between the farthest row and the closest row has a magnetic signature of North-North "NN". Some or all of this polarity data may be used to confirm which of the primary coils 28, 30, 32 the vehicle 10 is approaching. As part of any handshake authorization process between the vehicle 10 and the controller 36, the controller 36 may prompt the vehicle 10 to provide some or all of the polarity data encountered by the vehicle 10 as it passes through the permanent magnet array 38. Assuming that each of the permanent magnet arrays 38, 40, 42 has a unique polarity signature, the controller 36 may use the polarity data to confirm that the vehicle 10 is approaching the correct primary coil. Thus, even if other primary coils (not shown) have associated permanent magnet arrays (not shown) with a 3-2-1 arrangement of permanent magnets, their unique polarity signatures may be used to distinguish one from another. (For example, another permanent magnet array may have polarity characteristics of "SSS", "SS", and "S", etc.).

[0024] In addition, some of the polarity characteristics may be used for primary coil identification, while other polarity characteristics may be used to transmit data regarding maximum charging rate, coil type (e.g., monopolar, bipolar), etc. Referring again to the permanent magnet array 38, the polarity characteristics of the row farthest from the primary coil may be used, for example, to encode data to identify the specific primary coil being approached, while the remaining rows may be used to encode data regarding the details of the charging process. An "S" polarity characteristic of the row closest to the primary coil 28 may indicate a monopolar coil arrangement, while an "N" polarity characteristic may indicate a bipolar coil arrangement. An "NN" polarity characteristic between the farthest row and the closest row may indicate that the primary coil 28 allows a fast charging option, while an "NS" or "SS" polarity characteristic may indicate that no such fast charging option is available. Other data regarding parameters involved in charging (or other parameters) may also be encoded in this way.

[0025] In response to reading the data encoded in the permanent magnet array 38, the vehicle 10 may further communicate with the controller 36 and prepare its power system for corresponding charging. For example, to the extent that data regarding a maximum allowable charging rate is encoded in the permanent magnet array 38, the vehicle may request a specific charging rate (less than or equal to the maximum allowable charging rate) without the controller 36 having to communicate or otherwise provide the limit to the vehicle 10. Other scenarios are also contemplated.

[0026] An alternative arrangement is shown for permanent magnet array 40. However, this 2-2-4 arrangement can assist in guiding the vehicle toward primary coil 30 and encode data in a manner similar to that described for permanent magnet array 38. For example, here the polarity feature closest to primary coil 30 can be used to encode data that distinguishes primary coil 30 from the other coils. Other rows can be used to encode data regarding charging related parameters (or other parameters).

[0027] An alternative arrangement is also shown for the permanent magnet array 42. This 1-1-2-1 arrangement is distributed around the primary charging coil 32 instead of being located entirely on one side of the primary coil 32 to further assist in guiding the left-right position of the vehicle relative to the primary coil 32. Of course, other arrangements are also contemplated.

[0028] The examples discussed so far refer to arrays of permanent magnets. However, some or all of the magnets in the array may be electromagnets. In such an arrangement, the polarity characteristics may be changed to update the data encoded therein as needed, or the change in polarity may be used to encode data. For this purpose, reference is made to FIG. 3A to FIG. 3C , a portion of a battery charging facility 46 includes a primary coil 48, a controller 50, and an electromagnet array 52. ​​The electromagnet array 52 may be part of a larger array that includes other electromagnets and / or permanent magnets.

[0029] The electromagnet array 52 is shown at three different points in time, t0, t1, and t2. Changes in the polarity signature may occur between charging operations (i.e., between vehicle uses) or during the use of a single vehicle. Thus, instead of the polarity signature itself completely encoding data, the reversal of polarity may also be used to encode data. The polarity signature in this example is shown as switching from "NSSN" to "NNSN" to "SSSN". This progression may be used to identify the primary coil 48 and / or communicate charging-related parameters (or other parameters).

[0030] Messages regarding a polarity reversal to be performed by the controller 50 or to be detected by the vehicle (not shown) may be exchanged before and / or after such a reversal is performed and / or detected. As an example, before starting a polarity reversal, the controller 50 may communicate to the vehicle that "a process will be performed." As another example, after the polarity reversal is completed, the vehicle may communicate to the controller 50 that "a process is detected," etc.

[0031] The magnetic array not only needs to be mounted in the ground, but also needs to be associated with the primary coil of the charging station. The vehicle may include a similar magnetic array associated with the secondary coil of the vehicle to assist the charging station in positioning the movable primary coil relative to the secondary coil and encoding the parameters involved in charging (or other parameters). That is, in the above disclosure of the present invention, Figure 2 and FIG. 3A to FIG. 3C The concept of the magnet array is also similarly applicable to the magnetic array installed in the vehicle disclosed herein.

[0032] Reference Figure 4 , the vehicle 56 includes a permanent magnet array 58 and a secondary coil 60. As mentioned above, a magnetometer (not shown) of the charging station can be used to detect the primary coil and move the primary coil to a position relative to the secondary coil 60. Likewise, the polarity characteristics of the permanent magnet array 58 can be used to encode data about the identification and / or charging performance of the vehicle 56 for use by the charging station.

[0033] Reference Figure 5A and Figure 5B , the vehicle 64 includes an electromagnet array 66 (which may be part of a larger magnet array), a secondary coil 68, and a controller 70. The controller 70 may cause the polarity of the electromagnets of the electromagnet array 66 to change to encode data regarding the identification and / or charging capabilities of the vehicle 64 for use by the charging station, as discussed elsewhere herein.

[0034] The words used in the specification are descriptive words rather than restrictive words, and it should be understood that various changes can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure and claims. As previously mentioned, the features of various embodiments can be combined to form further embodiments that may not be clearly described or shown. Although various embodiments have been described as providing advantages over other embodiments or prior art implementations or being superior to other embodiments or prior art implementations for one or more desired characteristics, it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that one or more features or characteristics can be compromised to achieve the desired overall system properties according to specific applications and implementations. These properties may include but are not limited to cost, strength, durability, life cycle cost, marketability, appearance, packaging, size, maintainability, weight, manufacturability, ease of assembly, etc. Thus, embodiments described as not meeting expectations as well as other embodiments or prior art implementations in one or more characteristics are not outside the scope of the present disclosure, and can be expected to be used for specific applications.

Claims

1. A charging facility, comprising: Primary coil; electromagnets arranged relative to the primary coil in a pattern that enables a field generated by the electromagnets to be used to locate a secondary coil of a vehicle relative to the primary coil, wherein the electromagnets have predefined polarity characteristics for encoding data regarding an identification of the primary coil; A controller is configured to change the polarity of the electromagnet to further encode data regarding the identity of the primary coil and receive information regarding the identity of the primary coil from the vehicle.

2. The charging facility according to claim 1, wherein: The controller is also configured to change the polarity of the electromagnet to encode data regarding charging performance of the charging facility.

3. The charging facility according to claim 2, wherein: The charging performance includes a maximum charging rate.

4. The charging facility according to claim 2, wherein: The charging properties include coil type.

5. The charging facility according to claim 2, wherein: The charging capabilities include a fast charging option.

6. A charging facility, comprising: Primary coil; electromagnets arranged relative to the primary coil in a pattern that enables a field generated by the electromagnets to be used to locate a secondary coil of a vehicle relative to the primary coil, and the electromagnets having predefined polarity characteristics that encode data regarding charging properties associated with the primary coil; A controller is configured to change the polarity of the electromagnet to further encode data regarding charging properties associated with the primary coil.

7. The charging facility according to claim 6, wherein: The controller is further configured to receive information regarding the polarity or polarity change from the vehicle.

8. The charging facility according to claim 6, wherein: The charging performance includes a maximum charging rate.

9. The charging facility according to claim 6, wherein: The charging properties include coil type.

10. The charging facility according to claim 6, wherein: The charging capabilities include a fast charging option.

11. A vehicle comprising: Secondary coil; electromagnets arranged in a pattern relative to the secondary coil in which a field generated by the electromagnets can be used to position the secondary coil relative to a primary coil of a charging facility, the electromagnets having a predefined polarity characteristic for encoding data regarding an identification of the vehicle; as well as A controller is configured to change the polarity of the electromagnet to further encode data regarding the identification of the vehicle and receive information regarding the identification of the vehicle from a charging facility.

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