Charging sequence control system and method for charging station

Abstract

The invention relates to a charging sequence control system and method for a charging station. A vehicle charging control system includes: charging locations including N vehicle parking locations and M vehicle chargers, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2 and M is an integer less than N and greater than or equal to 1; and a charging control module configured to set a charging sequence for charging vehicles at the charging locations based on at least two of: (a) arrival times of the vehicles to the charging locations, respectively; (b) the expected departure time of the vehicle from the charging position; (c) the charging level of the battery of the vehicle when the charging position is reached; (d) a target charging level of the battery of the vehicle when leaving the charging position, respectively; (e) respectively determining the credit of the user of the vehicle; and (f) respectively approving, by the user of the vehicle, an additional charge for advance in the charging sequence.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The information provided in this section is for the purpose of generally presenting the background of the present disclosure. The work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this section, and aspects of the description that may not have originally been prior art at the time of filing, are neither explicitly nor implicitly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure. Background Art

[0002] The present disclosure relates to charging stations for vehicles, and more particularly to systems and methods for determining a charging sequence and charging time period for vehicles at a charging station.

[0003] The power distribution system for electric vehicles includes a fixed charging station capable of charging an electric vehicle parked near the charging station. For example, the charging station may include a power line for electrically connecting the battery of the electric vehicle to a power source such as an electric grid. The vehicle moves to the location of the fixed charging station to charge the vehicle.

[0004] Another type of charging station includes a mobile charging station. In the example of a mobile charging station, the mobile charging station moves to the location of the vehicle to charge the vehicle. Summary of the invention

[0005] In a feature, a vehicle charging control system includes: charging locations, including N vehicle parking locations and M vehicle chargers, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2 and M is an integer less than N and greater than or equal to 1; and a charging control module, configured to set a charging sequence for charging vehicles at the charging locations based on at least two of the following items: (a) arrival times of the vehicles at the charging locations, respectively; (b) expected departure times of the vehicles from the charging locations, respectively; (c) charge levels of the batteries of the vehicles upon arrival at the charging locations, respectively; (d) target charge levels of the batteries of the vehicles upon leaving the charging locations, respectively; (e) credits of users of the vehicles, respectively; and (f) additional charges approved by the users of the vehicles for advancement in the charging sequence, respectively.

[0006] In other features, the charging control module is further configured to: move the vehicle to the positions of the M vehicle chargers according to the charging sequence; and actuate the vehicle charger to electrically connect the vehicle charger to the vehicle.

[0007] In other features, the charging control module is further configured to: move the vehicle charger to the locations of the N vehicles according to the charging sequence; and actuate the vehicle charger to electrically connect the vehicle charger to the vehicles.

[0008] In other features, the charging control module is configured to determine the charging sequence based on at least three of (a)-(f).

[0009] In other features, the charging control module is configured to determine the charging sequence based on all of (a)-(f).

[0010] In other features, the charging control module is configured to advance a time for starting charging of one of the vehicles in the charging sequence when the expected departure time of the one vehicle is earlier than the expected departure times of other vehicles in the charging sequence.

[0011] In other features, the charging control module is configured to delay a time for starting charging of one of the vehicles in the charging sequence when an expected departure time of the one vehicle is later than expected departure times of other vehicles in the charging sequence.

[0012] In other features, the charging control module is configured to advance a time for starting charging of one of the vehicles in the charging sequence when a charge level of the one vehicle is less than a charge level of the other vehicles.

[0013] In other features, the charging control module is configured to delay a time for starting charging of one of the vehicles in the charging sequence when the charge level of the one vehicle is greater than the charge levels of the other vehicles in the charging sequence.

[0014] In other features, the charging control module is configured to receive (e) and (f), respectively, from a mobile device of a user of the vehicle via a network.

[0015] In other features, the charging control module is configured to advance a time for starting charging of one of the vehicles in the charging order in response to receiving user input indicating acceptance of use of a user's credit amount by a user associated with the one vehicle in the charging order.

[0016] In other features, the charging control module is configured to advance a time for starting charging of one of the vehicles in the charging order in response to receiving user input indicating acceptance of payment of an advance fee by a user associated with the one vehicle.

[0017] In other features, the vehicle is an electric vehicle.

[0018] In other features, the vehicles are each at least partially autonomous.

[0019] In other features, (d) the target charge level of the battery of the vehicle upon leaving the charging location is a fixed predetermined value.

[0020] In other features, (d) the target charge levels of the batteries of the vehicles upon leaving the charging locations are set based on user input from a mobile device associated with the vehicles, respectively.

[0021] In other features, the charging control module is configured to determine (b) expected departure times of the respective vehicles from the charging locations based on average parking periods of the respective vehicles at the charging locations.

[0022] In other features, the charging control module is configured to set the expected departure time of the vehicle based on (a) the arrival time of the vehicles at the charging locations and the average parking time periods of the vehicles at the charging locations.

[0023] In other features, the charging control module is configured to receive (b) expected departure times of the vehicles from the charging locations, respectively, from mobile devices of users associated with the vehicles.

[0024] In a feature, a vehicle charging control method includes: providing N vehicle parking locations and M vehicle chargers at a charging location, wherein N is an integer greater than or equal to 2 and M is an integer less than N and greater than or equal to 1; and setting a charging sequence for charging vehicles at the charging locations based on at least two of the following items: (a) arrival times of the vehicles at the charging locations, respectively; (b) expected departure times of the vehicles from the charging locations, respectively; (c) charge levels of the batteries of the vehicles upon arrival at the charging locations, respectively; (d) target charge levels of the batteries of the vehicles upon leaving the charging locations, respectively; (e) credits of users of the vehicles, respectively; and (f) additional charges approved by the users of the vehicles for advancement in the charging sequence, respectively.

[0025] Further areas of applicability of the present disclosure will become apparent from the detailed description, claims and drawings.The detailed description and specific examples are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0026] The present disclosure will be more fully understood from the detailed description and accompanying drawings, in which:

[0027] Figure 1 is a functional block diagram of an example charging system;

[0028] Figure 2 is a functional block diagram of an example charging system;

[0029] Figure 3 is a front view of an example implementation of a mobile computing device;

[0030] Figure 4 is a functional block diagram of an example implementation of a mobile computing device;

[0031] Figure 5 is a flow chart depicting an example method of determining a charging order for vehicles at charging locations; and

[0032] Figure 6 is an example diagram of the charging sequence of vehicles over time.

[0033] Among the drawings, reference numerals may be repeated to identify similar and / or identical elements. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0034] The charging facility (e.g., site) for a vehicle includes a plurality of parking locations (spots) for a plurality of different vehicles. The charging station also includes one or more vehicle chargers, such as a direct current (DC) charger. The charging station includes fewer vehicle chargers than parking locations. As such, not all vehicles at the charging station can be charged at the same time.

[0035] The present application relates to systems and methods for determining a charging sequence and time period for charging vehicles at a charging facility. A charging sequence module determines a charging sequence for charging vehicles at a charging facility based on the following items: vehicle arrival time, vehicle expected departure time, vehicle battery power level at arrival, vehicle battery low level at expected departure, vehicle battery capacity, vehicle average parking time, credit of a user for moving forward in the charging sequence, and the additional fee that the user is willing to pay for moving forward in the charging sequence. Given multiple inputs, this generates an optimal charging sequence.

[0036] Figure 1 is a functional block diagram of an example charging system. A charging facility including N vehicle parking locations (points) is shown, where N is an integer greater than 1. Figure 1 In the example of FIG. 4 , the charging facility includes 40 different vehicle parking locations (N=40).

[0037] The user of the vehicle (e.g., owner, manager, etc.) takes the vehicle to a charging facility to charge the battery (or battery pack) of the vehicle. In various implementations, the vehicle to be charged can be a fully electric vehicle that does not include an internal combustion engine or a hybrid vehicle that includes both one or more electric motors and an internal combustion engine for propulsion.

[0038] The charging facility includes M chargers, where M is an integer greater than or equal to 1. Figure 1In the example of , the charging facility includes two chargers (M=2): charger 104 and charger 108. Since there are fewer chargers than parking locations (N>M), not all vehicles can be charged at the same time.

[0039] The charging control module 112 determines the charging sequence used to charge the vehicles at the parking facility based on a number of different parameters, as discussed further below. Figure 1 In the example of , the circles represent one or more perception sensors, such as a camera, a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) sensor, and / or one or more other types of perception sensors.

[0040] Each vehicle to be charged at the charging facility may be partially or fully autonomous in that it is configured to move forward, backward, and turn without driver input based on input from the vehicle's sensors. The charging control module 112 controls the vehicle to move the vehicle (forward, backward, turn) to the location of the charger (104 or 108) to be used to charge the vehicle. The charging control module 112 may also move the vehicle to a parked position prior to charging without driver input.

[0041] Figure 2 is a functional block diagram of an example charging system including the charging control module 112 . The charging control module 112 receives charging requests and charging information from a plurality of vehicles 202 .

[0042] The charging control module 112 receives a charging request from a mobile device such as a mobile device 204. Examples of mobile devices include mobile phones, tablet devices, laptop computers, desktop computers, and other types of computing devices. The mobile device, the vehicle, and the charging control module 112 communicate via one or more networks 208. The network 208 may include a wireless network or a combination of wireless and wired networks.

[0043] The charging control module 112 determines a charging sequence for charging the vehicle at the charging location based on the received information.

[0044] Figure 3 A front view of an example implementation including a mobile device 204 . Figure 4 A functional block diagram of an example implementation of mobile device 204 is included. Figure 3 and Figure 4, the mobile device 204 includes a central processing unit (CPU) or processor 304, one or more input devices 308 (e.g., a touch screen display, a microphone, one or more switches, etc.), a display 312 (e.g., a touch screen display), one or more other output devices (not shown), a network interface 316, and a memory 320. Although the input device 308 and the display 312 are illustrated as components of the mobile device 204, the input device and the output device (e.g., the display) can be peripheral devices. In addition, although an example of a single processor is provided, the mobile device 204 can include two or more processors.

[0045] The network interface 316 connects the mobile device 204 to the network 208. For example, the network interface 316 may include a wired interface (e.g., an Ethernet interface) and / or a wireless interface (e.g., WiFi, Bluetooth, near field communication (NFC) or other wireless interface). The processor 304 of the mobile device 204 executes an operating system (OS) 324 and one or more other applications. The processor 304 executes a charging application 328 to manage the charging of the vehicle. The operations performed by the mobile device 204 discussed herein are performed by the mobile device 204 (more particularly, the processor 304) during the execution of the charging application 328. Another instance of the charging application can be executed in the vehicle, such as within and by the infotainment module of the vehicle. The infotainment module can receive user input about charging using the charging application.

[0046] The mobile device 204 generates charging information based on user input to the mobile device 204 and sends the charging information to the charging control module 112. The charging information may include, for example, the arrival time (t a ), the battery power capacity of the vehicle battery (BC), the remaining power of the vehicle battery upon arrival at the charging location (Pa), the expected departure time of the vehicle from the charging location (t d The charging information may also include a (eg, target) battery power level (P d ), the average parking time of vehicles (PT avg ), the user's current number of credit points (CP) associated with the vehicle, and a premium (PF) that the user is willing to pay for faster charging (than the standard charging sequence determined by the charging control module 112).

[0047] When the vehicle arrives at the charging location, the arrival time of the vehicle at the charging location can be captured by the charging control module 112 (e.g., via a sensor, etc.). The battery power capacity of the vehicle can be determined by the charging control module 112, for example, based on a unique identifier of the vehicle (e.g., a vehicle identification number (VIN)). The mobile device can send a unique identifier or a battery power capacity. The expected departure time (and possible date) can be sent by the mobile device based on user input to the mobile device. In various implementations, the departure timing can be determined by the mobile device or the charging control module 112, for example, based on an average charging time, which can be the average time spent by the vehicle during each stop at the charging location. The battery power level at the departure time can be sent, for example, by the mobile device based on user input to the mobile device. The battery power level at the departure time can be, for example, a target state of charge (SOC). In various implementations, the battery power level at the departure time can be a predetermined SOC, such as 85% SOC or another suitable value. The average parking time can be, for example, the average time that the vehicle is parked at a specific parking location. The current number of credit points of the user associated with the vehicle can be tracked by the charging control module 112 and given by the charging control module, for example, in response to the user accepting a request to be delayed in the standard charging sequence via the mobile device. The additional fee that the user is willing to pay for faster charging (than the standard charging sequence determined by the charging control module 112) can be sent by the mobile device and received by the mobile device based on user input to the mobile device. The additional fee can be, for example, a predetermined fixed rate (e.g., dollars per hour) or can be user-specified (e.g., in an auction-like situation).

[0048] The charging control module 112 determines the charging sequence using one or more equations that relate the charging information to the charging sequence. For example, the charging control module 112 may determine the charging sequence (CS) using the following equation:

[0049] CS=f(t a_i ),t d_i ,P a_i ,P d_i ,B.C. i ,CT i ,PT avg_i ,CP i ,PF i ), where i refers to

[0050] The i-th vehicle at the charging location.

[0051] The charging sequence includes the time sequence and order used to charge each vehicle at the parking location and the time period during which each vehicle is charged. When the vehicle at the parking location is to be charged, the charging control module 112 moves the vehicle to the location of the charger or moves the charger to the location of the vehicle. Once the vehicle to be charged is at the location of the charger, or vice versa, the charging control module 112 activates the charger to electrically connect to the vehicle and start charging.

[0052] Figure 5 is a flow chart depicting an example method of controlling charging and determining a charging sequence for charging a vehicle at a charging location. Control begins at 504, where the charging control module 112 determines whether the vehicle has arrived at the charging location. If 504 is true, control continues to 508. If 504 is false, control may remain at 504. In various implementations, the driver of the vehicle may exit the vehicle upon arrival at the charging location, and the charging control module 112 may control the vehicle to move the vehicle to a parked position.

[0053] At 508, the charging control module 112 captures the arrival time of the vehicle at the charging location and the current power level (e.g., SOC) of the battery of the vehicle at the arrival time at the charging location. At 512, the charging control module 112 obtains charging information from a mobile device associated with the vehicle or based on information from a mobile device associated with the vehicle.

[0054] At 516, the charging control module 112 may determine a charging (time) period for charging the vehicle to charge the battery of the vehicle to the target departure charge level of the battery. The charging control module 112 may, for example, determine the difference between the current power level of the battery upon arrival and the target departure charge level of the battery, and determine the charging period based on the difference. The charging control module 112 may determine the charging period, for example, using an equation or lookup table relating the difference to the charging period for the charging rate of the charger to be used for charging.

[0055] At 520, the charging control module 112 determines a charging sequence for charging the vehicle at the charging location based on the received, captured, determined, etc. charging information. The charging control module 112 can send the charging sequence and the expected charging period (e.g., time range) to a mobile device associated with the vehicle. The mobile device can output the charging sequence and the expected charging period, for example, visually via a display of the mobile device and / or audibly via a speaker of the mobile device.

[0056] At 524, the charging control module 112 may determine whether the start time of the expected charging period is at or before the expected departure time of the vehicle from the charging location. If 524 is true, the charging control module 112 may charge the vehicle in the charging sequence at 528. If 524 is false, control may transfer to 532. At 532, the charging control module 112 may determine whether a user input request to advance (e.g., move forward in time) the charging of the vehicle has been received, such as from a mobile device. If 532 is true, control may continue to 536. If 532 is false, control may continue to 528 and leave the determined charging sequence unchanged.

[0057] At 536, the charging control module 112 may determine a credit point quantity (CP) and / or a premium fee (PF) associated with the requested advance vehicle charging. This may be, for example, a predetermined credit point quantity per advance predetermined period, a premium fee per advance predetermined period, or a combination of credit points and premium fees per advance predetermined period. The charging control module 112 may send the credit point quantity and / or premium fee to a mobile device associated with the vehicle. The mobile device may output the credit point quantity and / or premium fee, for example, visually via a display of the mobile device and / or audibly via a speaker of the mobile device.

[0058] At 540, the charging control module 112 may determine whether user input has been received indicating that the user accepts the number of credits and / or additional fees to be used to advance in the charging sequence. If 540 is true, then at 544, the charging control module 112 adjusts the charging sequence to advance the charging of the vehicle in the charging sequence (e.g., the charging start time) at 544, and control continues with 528. If 540 is false, control may continue with 540 and leave the charging sequence unchanged.

[0059] Figure 6 An example diagram illustrating an example charging sequence of vehicles V1 -Vn over time is included.

[0060] The foregoing description is merely illustrative in nature and is in no way intended to limit the present disclosure, its application or use. The broad teachings of the present disclosure can be implemented in a variety of forms. Therefore, although the present disclosure includes specific examples, the true scope of the present disclosure should not be so limited, because other modifications will become apparent when studying the drawings, the specification and the appended claims. It should be understood that one or more steps within the method can be performed in a different order (or simultaneously) without changing the principles of the present disclosure. In addition, although each embodiment is described above as having certain features, any one or more of those features described with respect to any embodiment of the present disclosure can be implemented in the features of any other embodiment and / or combined with the features of any other embodiment, even if the combination is not explicitly described. In other words, the described embodiments are not mutually exclusive, and the arrangement of one or more embodiments to each other is still within the scope of the present disclosure.

[0061] Spatial and functional relationships between elements (e.g., between modules, circuit elements, semiconductor layers, etc.) are described using various terms, including "connected," "engaged," "coupled," "adjacent," "next to," "on top of," "above," "below," and "disposed." Unless explicitly described as "directly," when describing a relationship between a first element and a second element in the above disclosure, the relationship can be: a direct relationship, in which there are no other intermediate elements between the first element and the second element; but it can also be: an indirect relationship, in which there are one or more intermediate elements (spatially or functionally) between the first and second elements. As used herein, the phrase at least one of A, B, and C should be interpreted to mean a logical (A OR B OR C) using a non-exclusive logical OR, and should not be interpreted to mean "at least one of A, at least one of B, and at least one of C."

[0062] In the figure, the direction of the arrow, as indicated by the arrow head, generally shows the flow of information (such as data or instructions) of interest to the description. For example, when element A and element B exchange various information, but the information sent from element A to element B is related to the description, the arrow can be directed from element A to element B. This unidirectional arrow does not imply that no other information is sent from element B to element A. In addition, for information sent from element A to element B, element B can send a request or receipt confirmation of the information to element A.

[0063] In this application (including the definitions below), the term "module" or the term "controller" may be replaced with the term "circuit". The term "module" may refer to, be part of, or include: an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC); a digital, analog, or mixed analog / digital discrete circuit; a digital, analog, or mixed analog / digital integrated circuit; a combinational logic circuit; a field programmable gate array (FPGA); a processor circuit (shared, dedicated, or group) that executes code; a memory circuit (shared, dedicated, or group) that stores code executed by the processor circuit; other suitable hardware components that provide the described functionality; or a combination of some or all of the above, such as a combination in a system on a chip.

[0064] The module may include one or more interface circuits. In some examples, the interface circuit may include a wired or wireless interface connected to a local area network (LAN), the Internet, a wide area network (WAN), or a combination thereof. The functions of any given module of the present disclosure may be distributed between multiple modules connected via the interface circuit. For example, multiple modules may allow load balancing. In other examples, a server (also referred to as a remote or cloud) module may perform some functions on behalf of a client module.

[0065] The term code as used above may include software, firmware, and / or microcode, and may refer to a program, a routine, a function, a class, a data structure, and / or an object. The term shared processor circuit encompasses a single processor circuit that executes some or all of the code from multiple modules. The term group processor circuit encompasses a processor circuit that executes some or all of the code from one or more modules in conjunction with an additional processor circuit. References to multiple processor circuits encompass multiple processor circuits on discrete dies, multiple processor circuits on a single die, multiple cores of a single processor circuit, multiple threads of a single processor circuit, or a combination of the above. The term shared memory circuit encompasses a single memory circuit that stores some or all of the code from multiple modules. The term group memory circuit encompasses a memory circuit that stores some or all of the code from one or more modules in conjunction with additional memory.

[0066] The term memory circuit is a subset of the term computer-readable medium. The term computer-readable medium as used herein does not encompass transient electrical or electromagnetic signals propagated through a medium (such as on a carrier wave); therefore, the term computer-readable medium may be considered to be tangible and non-transitory. Non-limiting examples of non-transitory, tangible computer-readable media are non-volatile memory circuits (e.g., flash memory circuits, erasable programmable read-only memory circuits, or mask read-only memory circuits), volatile memory circuits (such as static random access memory circuits or dynamic random access memory circuits), magnetic storage media (such as analog or digital tapes or hard drives), and optical storage media (such as CDs, DVDs, or Blu-ray discs).

[0067] The apparatus and methods described in this application may be implemented in part or in whole by a special-purpose computer created by configuring a general-purpose computer to perform one or more specific functions embodied in a computer program. The functional blocks, flow chart components and other elements described above serve as software specifications that can be translated into a computer program by routine work of a skilled technician or programmer.

[0068] The computer program includes processor executable instructions stored on at least one non-transitory, tangible computer-readable medium. The computer program may also include or rely on stored data. The computer program may include a basic input / output system (BIOS) that interacts with the hardware of the special-purpose computer, device drivers that interact with specific devices of the special-purpose computer, one or more operating systems, user applications, background services, background applications, etc.

[0069] A computer program may include: (i) descriptive text to be parsed, such as HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), XML (Extensible Markup Language), or JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), (ii) assembly code, (iii) object code generated by a compiler from source code, (iv) source code executed by an interpreter, (v) source code compiled and executed by a just-in-time compiler, etc. By way of example only, source code may be written using syntax from a language including C, C++, C#, Objective-C, Swift, Haskell, Go, SQL, R, Lisp, Fortran, Perl, Pascal, Curl, OCaml, HTML5 (Hypertext Markup Language Fifth Revision), Ada, ASP (Active Server Pages), PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor), Scala, Eiffel, Smalltalk, Erlang, Ruby, Visual Lua, MATLAB, SIMULINK, and

Claims

1. A vehicle charging control system, comprising: charging locations, including N vehicle parking locations and M vehicle chargers, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2 and M is an integer less than N and greater than or equal to 1; and A charging control module configured to set a charging sequence for charging the vehicle at the charging location based on at least two of the following: (a) the arrival time of the vehicles at the charging locations; (b) the expected departure time of the vehicles from the charging locations; (c) the charge level of the battery of the vehicle upon arrival at the charging location; (d) a target charge level of the battery of the vehicle upon leaving the charging location; (e) the credit worthiness of the respective user of the vehicle; and (f) additional charges for advancement in the charging sequence, respectively, are approved by the user of the vehicle.

2. The vehicle charging control system according to claim 1, wherein the charging control module is further configured to: move the vehicle to the positions of the M vehicle chargers according to the charging sequence; and actuate the vehicle charger to electrically connect the vehicle charger to the vehicle.

3. The vehicle charging control system according to claim 1, wherein the charging control module is further configured to: move the vehicle charger to the positions of the N vehicles according to the charging sequence; and actuate the vehicle charger to electrically connect the vehicle charger to the vehicle. 4 . The vehicle charging control system of claim 1 , wherein the charging control module is configured to determine the charging sequence based on at least three of (a)-(f). 5 . The vehicle charging control system of claim 1 , wherein the charging control module is configured to determine the charging sequence based on all of (a)-(f).

6. The vehicle charging control system of claim 1, wherein the charging control module is configured to advance a time for starting charging of one of the vehicles in the charging sequence when the expected departure time of the one vehicle is earlier than the expected departure time of the other vehicles.

7. The vehicle charging control system of claim 1, wherein the charging control module is configured to delay a time for starting charging of one of the vehicles in the charging sequence when an expected departure time of the one vehicle is later than an expected departure time of other vehicles.

8. The vehicle charging control system of claim 1, wherein the charging control module is configured to advance a time for starting charging of one of the vehicles in the charging sequence when a charge level of the one vehicle is lower than charge levels of other vehicles.

9. The vehicle charging control system of claim 1, wherein the charging control module is configured to delay a time for starting charging of one of the vehicles in the charging sequence when the charging level of the one vehicle is greater than the charging levels of the other vehicles. 10 . The vehicle charging control system of claim 1 , wherein the charging control module is configured to receive (e) and (f) respectively from a mobile device of a user of the vehicle via a network.

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