A positioning system for battery swapping compartments on new energy ships

Abstract

This utility model discloses a positioning system for the battery compartment of a new energy vessel, belonging to the field of battery swapping for new energy vessels. The system includes: an RTK base station, a first controller, and a first positioning module installed at a shore-based battery swapping station; the RTK base station and the first positioning module are respectively connected to the first controller; and an RTK mobile station, a second positioning module, a multi-source sensor network, and a second controller installed in the vessel's battery swapping compartment; the RTK mobile station, the second positioning module, and the multi-source sensor network are respectively connected to the second controller; the first controller communicates with the second controller via a wireless communication network. This utility model improves the positioning accuracy of the battery compartment.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This utility model belongs to the field of battery swapping for new energy ships. Specifically, this utility model relates to a positioning system for the battery compartment of a new energy ship battery swapping system. Background Technology

[0002] With the development of new energy technologies, electric ships, as an environmentally friendly mode of water transportation, are gradually being widely used. The power source for electric ships is primarily battery packs, and battery pack replacement is a crucial aspect of their operation. Currently, the new energy vehicle sector has developed relatively mature battery swapping technology.

[0003] For example, the patent document with publication number CN112959919A, publication date June 15, 2021, entitled "A Battery Swapping System and Method for New Energy Vehicles," provides a battery swapping system for new energy vehicles. This system utilizes a battery swapping robot to locate the battery pack and then swaps the depleted battery pack inside the vehicle with a fully charged battery pack in the charging cabinet, achieving rapid battery swapping for new energy vehicles. The new energy vehicle battery swapping system provided by this invention includes: a vehicle positioning platform for parking vehicles waiting for battery swapping and defining the approximate location of the vehicle; a charging cabinet for charging and storing the battery pack; a battery swapping robot that, after locating the vehicle's battery pack, grabs the battery pack and places it in an empty space within the charging cabinet, and then grabs a fully charged battery pack from the charging cabinet and places it inside the vehicle; and a control center for data interaction between the vehicle, the vehicle positioning platform, the battery swapping robot, and the charging cabinet.

[0004] However, existing battery swapping technologies face unique challenges when applied to new energy ships. Unlike land vehicles, ships in water are affected by various factors such as wind speed, current, and load, leading to significant changes in the ship's position and attitude. This is especially true when a ship is equipped with multiple heavy battery packs (each weighing approximately 3 tons), where the changes in the ship's tilt angle and position become even more pronounced. Existing battery swapping technologies for cars and commercial vehicles, such as lidar detection and positioning camera technology, are primarily designed for fixed land platforms and cannot effectively cope with the dynamic changes in the ship's hull in the aquatic environment, resulting in the inability to accurately locate the battery compartment.

[0005] Therefore, this utility model proposes a positioning system for the battery swapping compartment of new energy ships. Utility Model Content

[0006] This utility model aims to overcome the shortcomings of the existing technology and proposes a positioning system for the battery compartment of a new energy ship, so as to achieve the following objectives: improve the positioning accuracy of the battery compartment.

[0007] To achieve the above objectives, the technical solution adopted by this utility model is: a positioning system for a battery swapping compartment on new energy ships, the system comprising:

[0008] An RTK base station, a first controller, and a first positioning module are installed at the shore-side battery swapping station, with the RTK base station and the first positioning module respectively connected to the first controller;

[0009] The system comprises an RTK mobile station, a second positioning module, a multi-source sensor network, and a second controller, all located in the ship's battery swapping compartment. The RTK mobile station, the second positioning module, and the multi-source sensor network are respectively connected to the second controller. The first controller communicates with the second controller via a wireless communication network.

[0010] Preferably, the RTK mobile station is positioned on the ship's battery swapping compartment at various corners of the battery compartment and at the battery interface.

[0011] Preferably, the positioning system includes a third positioning module located in the ship's battery swapping compartment. The third positioning module is connected to the second controller and installed in the same location as the second positioning module to form a redundancy check with the information collected by the second positioning module.

[0012] Preferably, the multi-source sensor network includes an inertial measurement unit, an ultrasonic sensor, a lidar, and a vision sensor. The inertial measurement unit, ultrasonic sensor, lidar, and vision sensor are respectively connected to the second controller to assist in the positioning of the battery compartment.

[0013] Preferably, the system further includes an alarm device installed at the shore-based battery swapping station. The alarm device is connected to the first controller and is used to issue an alarm when the location of the ship's battery swapping compartment is abnormal.

[0014] Preferably, the system further includes a local storage device located at the shore-based battery swapping station. The storage device is connected to the first controller and is used to store the positioning data of the ship's battery swapping compartment received by the first controller.

[0015] Preferably, the system further includes a cloud server, which is connected to the first controller via a wireless communication network and is used to back up the positioning data of the ship's battery swapping compartment received by the first controller.

[0016] Preferably, both the first controller and the second controller are PLCs.

[0017] The technical advantages of this invention are as follows: By adopting RTK real-time dynamic carrier phase differential technology, this invention can achieve centimeter-level precise positioning of the battery compartment of new energy ships. Even when the ship's tilt angle changes due to factors such as wind speed and load, it can maintain high-precision positioning. Compared with existing lidar detection and positioning camera technologies, the method of this invention is not affected by the hull sway and can continuously provide stable position information. Attached Figure Description

[0018] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of a positioning system for a battery swapping compartment on a new energy ship, according to an embodiment of the present invention. Detailed Implementation

[0019] The specific embodiments of this utility model will be further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The purpose is to help those skilled in the art to have a more complete, accurate, and in-depth understanding of the inventive concept and technical solution of this utility model, and to facilitate its implementation. It should be noted that the terms "first," "second," etc., used in this application are only for the convenience of describing the technical solution and distinguishing different components, and are not intended to limit this application. To make the technical solution of this utility model clearer, it will be explained and illustrated through the following embodiments.

[0020] This embodiment provides a positioning system for the battery swapping compartment of new energy ships, such as... Figure 1 As shown, the system includes:

[0021] An RTK base station (signal transmitter), a first controller, and a first positioning module are set up at the shore-side battery swapping station, with the RTK base station and the first positioning module respectively connected to the first controller;

[0022] The system consists of an RTK mobile station (signal receiver), a second positioning module, a second controller, and a multi-source sensor network, all located in the ship's battery swapping compartment. The RTK mobile station, the second positioning module, and the multi-source sensor network are all connected to the second controller. The first controller communicates with the second controller via a wireless communication network.

[0023] When a new energy vessel docks for battery swapping, the RTK base station's location is fixed and its coordinates are known. The first controller calculates the error between the RTK base station's location and the positioning signal collected by the first positioning module, and drives the RTK base station to transmit this error to the RTK mobile station in the vessel's battery swapping compartment via a wireless communication network (e.g., 4G / 5G cellular network). Upon receiving the error, the RTK mobile station uploads it to the second controller. Subsequently, the second controller corrects the positioning signal collected by the second positioning module based on the error signal received by the RTK mobile station. Simultaneously, it fuses signals collected by a multi-source sensor network to obtain the precise location of the vessel's battery swapping compartment, which is then transmitted back to the first controller via the wireless communication network. The first controller then performs the battery swapping operation based on the precise location of the battery swapping compartment.

[0024] Specifically, in this embodiment, the RTK mobile station is set at key locations in the ship's battery swapping compartment, including various corners of the battery compartment and the battery interface, thereby obtaining the location information of multiple key points in the ship's battery swapping compartment, which facilitates the subsequent determination of the precise location of the battery compartment by the second controller.

[0025] Considering that a failure of the second positioning module during battery compartment positioning could cause the positioning system to malfunction, this embodiment of the positioning system further includes a third positioning module located in the ship's battery swapping compartment. The third positioning module is connected to the second controller and installed in the same location as the second positioning module. In the event of a failure of the second positioning module, the positioning data from the third positioning module can serve as a backup. Furthermore, even when the second positioning module is functioning normally, the positioning data from the third positioning module can form a redundancy check with the information collected by the second positioning module, further improving the positioning accuracy of the ship's battery swapping compartment.

[0026] In addition, the first, second, and third positioning modules in this embodiment can use GPS or BeiDou positioning systems, and the appropriate system can be selected flexibly according to the specific implementation requirements. Both the first and second controllers in this embodiment use PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers), which have efficient and reliable data processing and control capabilities, support algorithm deployment for data analysis, thereby improving positioning accuracy; at the same time, they are highly scalable and support the integration of new devices (such as sensors).

[0027] Ships are affected by various factors in water, such as wind speed, current, and load, causing significant changes in their position and attitude, making it impossible to accurately locate the battery compartment. To overcome these effects, the positioning system in this embodiment employs a multi-source sensor network to assist in battery compartment positioning. This multi-source sensor network includes an inertial measurement unit (IMU), ultrasonic sensors, lidar, and a vision sensor, all of which are connected to the second controller.

[0028] An inertial measurement unit (IMU) is mounted on the battery compartment and includes a three-axis accelerometer, a three-axis gyroscope, and a three-axis magnetometer. It measures the battery compartment's attitude and acceleration changes, acquiring acceleration, angular velocity, and magnetic field strength data 100 times per second. Eight ultrasonic sensors are installed around the battery compartment for near-range obstacle detection and relative position measurement, with a measurement range of 0.2-10 meters and an accuracy of ±0.01 meters, acquiring distance data 10 times per second. A lidar sensor can be installed on the top of the battery compartment, scanning the surrounding environment 360° with a measurement range of up to 100 meters and an accuracy of ±0.02 meters, acquiring point cloud data 20 times per second. Four high-definition cameras, installed around the battery compartment, are used for environmental recognition and visual positioning, acquiring 30 frames of image data per second. All data collected by the multi-source sensor network is sent to a second controller. The second controller can then perform weighted averaging, extended Kalman filtering, and particle filtering fusion operations on the multi-source sensor data and the corrected positioning data from a second or third positioning module to overcome changes in the ship's attitude and obtain accurate location information for the ship's battery swapping compartment. It should be noted that data fusion techniques from multiple sources such as weighted averaging, extended Kalman filtering, and particle filtering are all existing technologies that can be implemented by the controller, and will not be elaborated here.

[0029] The ship's second controller communicates with the shore-based first controller via a wireless communication network to send the ship's battery swapping compartment location information to the shore-based first controller. The first controller performs the battery swapping operation based on the received ship's battery swapping compartment location information. In this embodiment, the positioning system also includes an alarm device located at the shore-based battery swapping station when the first controller detects an abnormality in the ship's battery swapping compartment location (e.g., a change in ship position exceeding a preset threshold is considered abnormal). This alarm device is connected to the first controller and is used to issue an alarm when the ship's battery swapping compartment location is abnormal, thereby promptly alerting the battery swapping station staff.

[0030] Furthermore, the system in this embodiment also includes a local storage device located at the shore-based battery swapping station. This storage device is connected to the first controller and is used to store the positioning data of the ship's battery swapping compartment received by the first controller. In this embodiment, the local storage device retains positioning data for the most recent 72 hours, facilitating future maintenance and fault detection by the user.

[0031] Meanwhile, to ensure data security, the system in this embodiment also includes a cloud server. The cloud server is connected to the first controller via a wireless communication network and is used to back up the positioning data of the ship's battery swapping compartment received by the first controller. In this embodiment, the positioning data is backed up to the cloud server every 24 hours to ensure data security.

[0032] The present invention has been described above by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the specific implementation of the present invention is not limited to the above-described manner. Any non-substantial improvements made using the inventive concept and technical solution of the present invention; or the direct application of the inventive concept and technical solution to other situations without modification, are all within the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A new energy ship battery replacement battery compartment positioning system, characterized in that: The system includes: An RTK base station, a first controller, and a first positioning module are installed at the shore-side battery swapping station, with the RTK base station and the first positioning module respectively connected to the first controller; The system comprises an RTK mobile station, a second positioning module, a multi-source sensor network, and a second controller, all located in the ship's battery swapping compartment. The RTK mobile station, the second positioning module, and the multi-source sensor network are respectively connected to the second controller. The first controller communicates with the second controller via a wireless communication network.

2. The positioning system for a battery swapping compartment of a new energy ship according to claim 1, characterized in that: The RTK mobile station is positioned on the ship's battery swapping compartment at various corners of the battery compartment and at the battery interface.

3. The positioning system for a battery swapping compartment on a new energy ship according to claim 1, characterized in that: The positioning system includes a third positioning module located in the ship's battery swapping compartment. The third positioning module is connected to the second controller and installed in the same location as the second positioning module to form a redundancy check with the information collected by the second positioning module.

4. The positioning system for a battery swapping compartment of a new energy ship according to claim 1, characterized in that: The multi-source sensor network includes an inertial measurement unit, an ultrasonic sensor, a lidar, and a vision sensor. The inertial measurement unit, ultrasonic sensor, lidar, and vision sensor are respectively connected to the second controller to assist in the positioning of the battery compartment.

5. A positioning system for a battery swapping compartment on a new energy ship according to claim 1, characterized in that: The system also includes an alarm device installed at the shore-based battery swapping station. The alarm device is connected to the first controller and is used to issue an alarm when the location of the ship's battery swapping compartment is abnormal.

6. A positioning system for a battery swapping compartment on a new energy ship according to claim 1, characterized in that: The system also includes a local storage unit located at the shore-based battery swapping station. The storage unit is connected to the first controller and is used to store the positioning data of the ship's battery swapping compartment received by the first controller.

7. A positioning system for a battery swapping compartment on a new energy ship according to claim 1, characterized in that: The system also includes a cloud server, which is connected to the first controller via a wireless communication network and is used to back up the positioning data of the ship's battery swapping compartment received by the first controller.

8. A positioning system for a battery swapping compartment on a new energy ship according to claim 1, characterized in that: Both the first controller and the second controller are PLCs.

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