Battery control device

Abstract

This battery control device comprises: a leader device that monitors the state of a plurality of battery cell groups provided in a vehicle; and a plurality of follower devices that are installed in the respective battery cell groups, that detect the state of each of the battery cell groups, and that transmit the states of the battery cell groups to the leader device. The leader device and the plurality of follower devices communicate in turns through time-sharing. The follower devices each have an anomaly detection unit that monitors communications between other follower devices and the leader device to detect anomalies in the communications, and if the anomaly detection unit detects an anomaly in the communication, the host follower device transmits the information of the other follower device together with the information of the host follower device to the leader device.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a battery control device. [Background technology]

[0002] Battery modules used in electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, and the like are configured by connecting multiple battery cells, such as lithium-ion batteries, in series or series-parallel. The battery control device that controls this battery module monitors the status of each battery cell and estimates the capacity of each battery cell from the measurement results. This controls the battery module to prevent overcharging and over-discharging. In this field, wireless BMS (Battery Management System) is known, offering advantages such as light weight, low cost, and greater flexibility in vehicle layout.

[0003] The wireless battery control device consists of a measuring device (hereinafter referred to as the slave device) that measures the state of the single battery, a control device (hereinafter referred to as the master device) that analyzes information from the slave device and controls the battery module, and wireless communication that connects them via communication.

[0004] Wireless communication within a vehicle is subject to disturbances such as electromagnetic waves generated from various high-current parts within the vehicle, wireless devices, and noise from outside the vehicle. As a result, communication quality deteriorates in wireless communication within a vehicle, and a configuration that can handle situations where communication is not possible is required.

[0005] As background art in this technical field, Patent Document 1 discloses a method in which, when data transmission fails in wireless communication, the transmission data is broadcast (simultaneously transmitted) to other nearby slave devices, and the slave device that receives the broadcasted battery data transmits the battery data to a control unit. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0006] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2020-205587 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0007] In Patent Document 1, when another slave device performs proxy transmission for a slave device that has failed in data transmission, the communication cycle involves receiving a response from the slave device that has experienced a communication error and transmitting that information to the control unit in the next cycle, which creates the problem of taking time to detect the abnormality.From the perspective of complying with functional safety standards for battery control devices, it is required that a safe state be restored within a certain period of time when a battery control device detects a fault, but the method in Patent Document 1 loses the simultaneity of proxy transmission when communication is poor, which creates the problem of being unable to address this.

[0008] In view of this, an object of the present invention is to provide a battery control device that can ensure the simultaneity of proxy transmission even under poor communication conditions. [Means for solving the problem]

[0009] The battery control device of the present invention comprises a master device that monitors the status of multiple battery cell groups provided in a vehicle, and multiple slave devices that are installed for each battery cell group, detect the status of each battery cell group, and transmit the status of the battery cell group to the master device, wherein the master device and the multiple slave devices communicate in sequence in a time-sharing manner, and the slave devices have an abnormality detection unit that detects abnormalities in the communication by monitoring communication between other slave devices and the master device, and when the abnormality detection unit detects an abnormality in the communication, it transmits information about the other slave devices to the master device along with information about the slave device itself. [Effects of the Invention]

[0010] According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a battery control device that can ensure the simultaneity of proxy transmission even under poor communication conditions. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0011] [Figure 1] 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a battery control device according to an embodiment of the present invention; [Figure 2] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating proxy communication by a slave device according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 3] 10 is an example illustrating communication timing for communication failure and communication monitoring of a slave device according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 4] 10 is an example showing data at the time of alternative communication of a slave device. [Figure 5] 10 is an example of data obtained by compressing data during alternative communication by a slave device according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 6] 10 is an example showing data at the time of alternative communication when a communication error occurs a predetermined number of times with the same slave device, according to a modified example of the present invention. [Figure 7] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of communication timing in which one slave device monitors communications with all other slave devices. [Figure 8] 1 is a flowchart of proxy communication according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0012] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The following description and drawings are examples for explaining the present invention, and some omissions and simplifications have been made as appropriate for clarity of explanation. The present invention can be implemented in various other forms. Unless otherwise specified, each component may be singular or plural.

[0013] In order to facilitate understanding of the invention, the position, size, shape, range, etc. of each component shown in the drawings may not represent the actual position, size, shape, range, etc. Therefore, the present invention is not necessarily limited to the position, size, shape, range, etc. disclosed in the drawings.

[0014] (One embodiment of the present invention and overall configuration) (Figure 1)

[0015] The battery control device 1 according to one embodiment of the present invention will be described below assuming that a lithium ion battery with an operating voltage in the range of approximately 2.5 to 4.5 V is used as the charge / discharge device, which is the smallest unit of control in the battery system. However, the battery system may be configured using devices other than lithium ion batteries as long as they are capable of storing and discharging electric charge.

[0016] Furthermore, the battery control device 1 according to the present invention can be used to monitor and control the state of the battery, and any battery can be used, not just single battery cells, as long as its use can be restricted when the SOC (State of Charge) is too high (overcharging) or too low (over-discharging).

[0017] The battery control device 1 is configured to include a battery module 10, a plurality of slave devices 101 (hereinafter referred to as slaves 101) that measure each group of a plurality of cells 100 that make up the battery module 10, and a master device 200 (hereinafter referred to as master 200) that communicates with the plurality of slaves 101. In this way, wireless communication battery control is performed in a vehicle equipped with the battery control device 1.

[0018] The battery module 10 is configured by connecting a plurality of single battery cells 100 (hereinafter referred to as cells 100) in series or series-parallel. Slaves 101 are installed for each group of the plurality of cells 100, with slaves 101a, 101b, ..., and 101n, respectively, measuring the state of the cell group (hereinafter referred to as cell state) that each slave 101 is targeting. The cells of the cell group that slave 101a, slave 101b, ..., and slave 101n are measured by are referred to as cell 100a, cell 100b, ..., and cell 100n.

[0019] The functional units of the slave 101 will be described, focusing on the slave 101a. The slave 101a is equipped with a measuring device 111 that measures the states of the multiple cells 100a. The measuring device 111 measures the states of the target cell 100a, such as the voltage and temperature.

[0020] The slave 101a also includes a radio device 112 and a radio antenna 116 that serve to wirelessly transmit the measured cell status of the cell 100a to the master 200. The slave 101a communicates with the master 200 using the radio antenna 116. A monitoring line 301 is provided between the radio antennas 116 of the slaves 101a and 101b. This allows the slave 101b to monitor the communication status between the slave 101a and the master 200 (details will be described later).

[0021] In the present invention, the slave 101 has a function of monitoring at least one other slave 101 through the monitoring line 301, but for convenience of explanation in the drawings, one slave 101 is shown monitoring another slave 101 through the monitoring line 301. This monitoring function by one side between the slaves 101 is designed to maintain monitoring for a certain period of time if, for example, the cell voltage monitoring function is lost due to a deterioration in the communication state between the slave 101 and the master 200.

[0022] The slave 101a includes a wireless device 112 equipped with a data storage unit 113, an abnormality detection unit 114, and a communication failure count unit 115. The data storage unit 113 has a function of storing information such as the state of the cell 100a measured by the slave 101a. In addition, in the slave 101b that monitors the slave 101a, the data storage unit 113 stores not only the cell state of the cell 100b measured by the slave 101b, but also the cell state of the cell 100a with which the slave 101a is communicating with the master 200 via the monitoring line 301.

[0023] The anomaly detection device 114 detects whether or not there is an anomaly in the cell 100a in the slave 101a, and detects whether or not there is an anomaly in the cell 100b in the slave 101b that monitors the slave 101a, and also detects a communication anomaly in the slave 101a. The communication failure counting device 115 counts the number of communication failures in the slave 101 that is being monitored. For example, the slave 101b counts the number of communication failures in the slave 101a.

[0024] The anomaly detection device 114 not only detects whether there is an abnormality in the cell state, but also detects communication errors that occur within the communication cycle assigned to the slave 101 that it is monitoring, the state of the single battery cell, etc. The threshold value for detecting an anomaly by the anomaly detection device 114 may be a predetermined fixed value, or may be a value calculated by the master 200 or the vehicle based on the vehicle situation and the state of the cell 100, etc., and transmitted to the slave 101. The result flag of the cell state abnormality detection at this time may be stored in the data storage unit 113 as the vehicle fault diagnosis result. The result flag of the cell state abnormality detection at this time may also be transmitted to the vehicle side as fault data.

[0025] The master 200 includes a wireless device 201 and a wireless antenna 203 for wireless communication with the slave 101a. The master 200 also includes a cell state monitoring unit 202 for acquiring data on the cell state of each of the cells 100a, 100b, ..., 100n measured by each of the slaves 101a, 101b, ..., 101n from the slaves 101a, 101b, ..., 101n. The master 200 controls the battery module 10 based on an analysis of the data on the cell state of the cells 100a, 100b, ..., 100n.

[0026] The communication lines 300a, 300b, ... 300n are wireless communication lines formed between the wireless antennas 116 of the slaves 101a, 101b, ... 101n and the wireless antenna 203 of the master 200. In Fig. 1, the communication lines 300a, 300b, ... 300n are n bidirectional lines.

[0027] The monitoring line 301 is a unidirectional line that monitors the content of communication exchanged over a certain communication line 300. For example, the monitoring line 301 in Fig. 1 monitors the communication line 300a that is provided between the master 200 and the slave 101a. The slave 101b monitors the communication line 300a via the monitoring line 301.

[0028] 1, in addition to the monitoring line 301 between the slaves 101a and 101b, monitoring lines 301 for monitoring each of the communication lines 300 other than the communication line 300a are provided between the slaves 101. Since n slaves 101 monitor at least one communication line 300, a minimum of n unidirectional lines are formed as the monitoring lines 301.

[0029] (Figure 2) Slave 101b monitors the communication line 300a between master 200 and slave 101a via a monitoring line 301. Here, due to a communication failure caused by an external disturbance or the like, the communication line 300a falls into a state in which data from slave 101a is not transmitted to master 200. In this state, the cell status of cell 100a of slave 101a cannot be transmitted to master 200.

[0030] Here, the slave 101b monitoring the communication line 300a detects that there is no reply of an ACK signal (Acknowledgement: indicating that communication has been successful to the slave that transmitted the data) or that a NAK signal (Negative Acknowledgement: indicating that communication has failed) has been sent from the master 200. Then, without waiting for a response from the slave 101a with which communication is unsuccessful, the slave 101b transmits the cell status information of the cell 100a stored in the data storage unit 113 to the master 200 on behalf of the master 200.

[0031] In this way, slave 101b monitoring slave 101a communicates with master 200 on its behalf using monitoring line 301 and its own communication line 300b, so that the monitoring contents of slave 101a can be immediately transmitted to master 200. In this way, it is possible to respond to the return to a safe state within a certain period of time set from the viewpoint of functional safety compliance, and it is possible to eliminate waiting time and shorten the process.

[0032] Furthermore, by monitoring the slave 101a using the monitoring line 301, if the slave 101b can detect not only a communication failure on the communication line 300a but also that a communication abnormality, which will be described later, has occurred a predetermined number of times, the slave 101b can simultaneously determine whether or not there is a failure in the wireless transmission / reception function of the slave 101a that it is monitoring.

[0033] For example, when slave 101b monitors the data transmission of slave 101a via monitoring line 301, slave 101b may detect, by a timeout or the like, that slave 101a does not transmit data relating to the cell status of cell 100a even though it receives a command to start measuring the cell status from master 200. In this case, slave 101b determines that there is a failure in slave 101a, either that it cannot receive the command to start measuring the cell status, or that it cannot transmit data relating to the cell status of cell 100a, and can notify master 200 that slave 101a has a malfunction in wireless transmission and reception.

[0034] The result flag of the wireless transmission / reception malfunction at this time may be stored as a vehicle malfunction diagnosis result in the data storage unit 113. Also, the result of the wireless transmission / reception malfunction at this time may be transmitted to the vehicle side as malfunction data.

[0035] (Figure 3) The specific communication flow of the master 200 during the communication failure described in FIG. 2 will be described below. The horizontal axis represents the time axis (communication period). The master 200 simultaneously broadcasts a command to each of the slaves 101a, 101b, ..., 101n via the communication lines 300a, 300b, ..., 300n to start measuring the cell state of the cell 100 (S100). The broadcast communication refers to the simultaneous transmission of a command from one master 200 to all the slaves 101.

[0036] When each of the slaves 101a, 101b, . . . 101n receives a command to start measurement from the master 200, it measures the cell states of the cells 100a, 100b, .

[0037] After measuring the cell state of the cells 100a, 100b, . . . 100n, each of the slaves 101a, 101b, . . . 101n transmits the cell state of each of the cells 100a, 100b, .

[0038] In order to prevent collisions from occurring in the data transmissions of the slaves 101a, 101b, ..., 101n, a fixed waiting time that differs for each slave is set for each slave 101a, 101b, ..., 101n from the completion of measurement of the state of each cell 100a, 100b, ..., 100n until the transmission of data on the cell state to the master 200. This allows each slave 101a, 101b, ..., 101n to transmit data to the master 200 in sequence.

[0039] The waiting time may be a predetermined fixed value, or may be a value calculated by the master 200 or the vehicle based on the vehicle conditions, the cell conditions of the cell 100, etc., and transmitted to the slave 101.

[0040] Slave 101b monitors the communication content of slave 101a using monitoring line 301 that monitors communication line 300a (S103). Data such as the cell status of cell 100a of slave device 101a obtained by monitoring by slave 101b is stored in data storage unit 113 of at least one of slave 101a and slave 101b.

[0041] If a communication line 300a experiences a communication failure 120 due to a factor such as a disturbance, and the transmitted data from the slave 101a does not reach the master 200, the master 200 transmits to the slave 101a, which transmitted the data, an ACK indicating that the communication was successful, or a NAK indicating that the communication failed (S104).

[0042] The slave device 101b detects, via the monitoring line 301, that the master 200 has not transmitted the ACK or has transmitted a NAK to the slave 101a, and determines that the data transmitted by the slave device 101a being monitored has not been transmitted to the master 200 (S103).

[0043] The monitoring slave 101b adds the cell status of the cell 100 of the monitored slave 101a, stored in the storage unit 113, to the cell status data of the cell 100 that it has measured, and transmits this to the master 200 (S105). The master 200 receives the transmitted data from the slave 101b, performs decoding 121, and returns an ACK 122 to the slave 101b. Note that, since it is necessary for another slave to perform proxy communication in the event of a failure of the slave 101n, a period for proxy communication of the slave 101n is provided in the diagram before the start of the next communication cycle. This completes the communication cycle within the period, and the master 200 again sends a command to each of the slaves 101a, 101b, ..., 101n to start measuring the cell status.

[0044] By doing so, in a method in which slave 101b monitors communication between slave 101a and master 200, by using monitoring line 301, slave 101a with poor communication can omit the process of data transmission and proxy communication request that slave 101b conventionally performed to slave 101n. This makes it possible to shorten the communication waiting time per unit allocated between each slave 101 and master 200, and to set a shorter communication cycle. This also enables master 200 to obtain data on the cell status of cell 100 of slave 101a with poor communication, without delay, within the same communication cycle.

[0045] In addition, in the event of a communication failure or an abnormality in the cell 100n for the slave 101n, the slave 101a may monitor the communication line 300n between the slave 101n and the master 200 via the monitoring line 301 so as not to lose the synchronism of communication.

[0046] (Figure 4) The amount of data during proxy communication will be described. When the slave 101b executes proxy communication with the master 200 (S105) described in Fig. 3, it transmits data on the cell status of the cell 100b of the slave 101b, as well as a result flag of the communication failure of the slave 101a that it monitored, and data on the cell status of the cell 100a measured by the slave 101a. The result flag of the communication failure may be stored in the data storage unit 113 as a fault diagnosis result for the vehicle. The result flag of the communication failure at this time may also be transmitted to the vehicle side as fault data.

[0047] As a result, slave 101b, which is monitoring slave 101a, not only transmits the state of cell 100b to master 200, but also transmits information about the cell state of cell 100a measured by slave 101a to master 200. However, in this state, the amount of data transmitted to master 200 is twice that of slave 101a and slave 101b, so there is a possibility that master 200 will not be able to obtain the information within the time limit.

[0048] (Figure 5) Therefore, using the anomaly detection device 114 provided, the slave 101b compresses the data on the cell status of the cell 100a measured by the slave 101a into only an anomaly detection flag (determination of whether there is an anomaly) indicating only the presence or absence of an anomaly, resulting in at least 1-bit data.The slave 101b then transmits to the master 200 the communication failure flag of the slave 101a and the compressed cell status anomaly flag of the cell 100a, along with the cell status data of the cell 100b measured by itself.In this way, the slave 101b can transmit to the master 200 the data length during proxy communication with the minimum requirement of determining whether an anomaly has been detected in the cell 100a, thereby reducing the communication load due to the increased amount of data transmitted and the decoding time during proxy communication.

[0049] This also meets the need for a short communication cycle to estimate abnormalities that may lead to overvoltage and overdischarge of the cell 100a. Furthermore, suppressing the increase in decoding time per slave 101 is effective for all of the slaves 101 (n slaves) communicating wirelessly with the master 200, and meets the aforementioned need for a short communication cycle.

[0050] Furthermore, the master 200 may detect the abnormality flag of the cell 100a in the first communication cycle, and then receive the details of the voltage and temperature of the cell 100a in the next communication cycle. In this way, the master 200 can respond without losing the synchronicity of communication.

[0051] (Figure 6) Next, we will explain the proxy communication when a communication failure occurs a predetermined number of times in the same monitored slave device 101. When a communication failure occurs in slave 101a, slave 101b compresses only the abnormality flag of cell 100a and transmits it to master 200, as described above, to prevent the loss of simultaneity in abnormality detection in proxy communication. However, if communication failure occurs repeatedly in slave 101a, there may be a serious problem with the cell state of cell 100a.

[0052] For example, to detect an abnormality in cell 100a, the master 200 needs to detect the ups and downs of the cell voltage and the cell temperature at an early stage. However, in the configuration shown in Fig. 5, the master 200 cannot detect the details of cell 100a.

[0053] For this reason, slave 101b counts the number of communication failures of slave 101a, and when this count reaches a predetermined number, it first sends the data exchange flag between slaves 101a and 101b, data related to the cell status of cell 100a measured by slave 101a, the communication failure flag of slave 101a as described above, and the cell status abnormality flag of cell 100b measured by slave 101b to master 200. In this way, master 200 can determine the presence or absence of an abnormality for cell 100b that has had no problems up until then and has a low abnormality level using only the abnormality detection flag, and can grasp the cell status of cell 100a (all data of slave 101a) for which details are required.

[0054] In other words, if the number of communication failures detected by the anomaly detection device 114 of the slave 101b is less than a predetermined number, the anomaly detection device 114 judges that the anomaly is related to the communication failure of the slave 101a, but if the number of communication failures is greater than or equal to the predetermined number, the anomaly detection device 114 judges that the anomaly is related to the cell state of the cell 100a measured by the slave 101a.

[0055] The number of communication failures at this time may be stored in the data storage unit 113 as a fault diagnosis result for the vehicle. The predetermined number of times at this time may be a fixed value determined in advance, or may be a value calculated by the master 200 or the vehicle based on the vehicle situation, the state of the single battery cell 100, etc., and transmitted to the slave 101. The predetermined number of communication failures at this time may be transmitted to the vehicle side as fault data.

[0056] In this way, for a slave 101a in which a predetermined number of communication failures have occurred, the master 200 can periodically obtain not only an abnormality detection flag for the cell status of the cell 100a measured by the slave 101a, but also detailed data on the cell status of the cell 100a. This allows the master 200 to monitor the state transition leading to overvoltage or over-discharge of the cell 100a, even if a communication failure occurs in the slave 101a. Also, as in Figure 5, data compression minimizes the data length during proxy communication, reducing the communication load due to increased transmission data volume and decoding time. By minimizing the increase in communication wait time per slave, the communication cycle between the master 200 and each slave 101 can be set short.

[0057] (Figure 7) While the above-described example shows that a slave 101 monitors at least one other slave 101, FIG. 7 illustrates an example in which one slave 101 is monitored by all other slaves 101.

[0058] Slave 101a is monitored by n-1 slaves 101 from slave 101b to slave device 101n. In this case, n slaves 101 monitor n-1 communication lines 300 other than their own communication, so that a maximum of n×(n-1) unidirectional monitoring lines 301 are formed. In other words, one communication line 300a is monitored by n-1 monitoring lines 301.

[0059] In this way, even if some of the slaves 101 being monitored are unable to monitor due to communication failure caused by disturbance, by prioritizing the monitoring, if any one of the slaves 101 is able to monitor the communication, it can perform proxy communication with the master 200. For example, even if there is a problem with slave 101b monitoring slave 101a, slave 101c, which has the second highest priority, plays a role of backing up so that monitoring of slave 101a can continue. This not only improves the quality of the monitoring line 301, but also provides the battery control device 1 with a redundant function.

[0060] The number of monitoring lines 301 may be a predetermined fixed value, or may be a value calculated by the master 200 or the vehicle based on the vehicle conditions, the cell conditions of the cell 100, etc., and transmitted to the slave 101.

[0061] (Figure 8) The flowcharts of communication timing and transmission of proxy communication data will be described with reference to Figures 3 to 6. As in the above, the flowcharts will be described using as examples the master 200, the slave 101a communicating with the master 200, and the slave 101b monitoring the communication line 300a via the monitoring line 301.

[0062] Slave 101a transmits data relating to the cell status of cell 100 to master 200 (S31). At this time, slave 101b monitors this communication (S10). Slave 101b also monitors an ACK or NAK from master 200 (S11). If data from slave 101a is not transmitted to master 200 due to a disturbance or the like (S32), master 200 detects that it cannot receive the data due to a timeout or the like (S21). In response to this, master 200 does not return an ACK or returns a NAK to slave 101b (S22). Slave 101b detects that master 200 has not returned an ACK or has returned a NAK (S12).

[0063] Slave 101b detects a communication failure of slave 101a via monitoring line 301 and transmits the monitored cell status of cell 100a measured by slave 101a to master 200 as a proxy. Here, a preset function is used to determine whether or not to perform abnormality detection of the cell status of cell 100a measured by slave 101a (S13). If abnormality detection of the cell status is not to be performed (S13: No), slave 101b transmits information of slave 101a to master 200 as a proxy (S15), as described in FIG. 4. Master 200 receives the cell status of cell 100b measured by slave 101b itself, the communication failure flag of slave 101a, and the cell status of cell 100a measured by slave 101a (S23).

[0064] If cell state anomaly detection is to be performed (S13: Yes), it is determined whether the number of communication failures of the slave 101a is equal to or greater than a predetermined number (S14). If the number of communication failures of the slave 101a is less than the predetermined number, the slave 101b transmits to the master 200, on behalf of the slave 101b, whether an anomaly has been detected in the cell state of the cell 100a (S16). The master 200 receives the cell state of the cell 100b measured by the slave 101b itself, the communication failure flag of the slave 101a, and the anomaly detection flag detected by the anomaly detection device 114 for the cell state of the cell 100a measured by the slave 101a (S24).

[0065] If the number of communication failures of the slave 101a is equal to or exceeds the predetermined number (S14: Yes), as explained in Fig. 6, the slave 101b switches the data and transmits the cell status of the cell 100a and whether or not an abnormality has been detected by the slave 101b to the master 200 as a proxy (S17). The master 200 receives the cell status of the cell 100b measured by the slave 101b itself, the abnormality detection flag detected by the abnormality detection device 114, the communication failure flag of the slave 101a, and the cell status of the cell 100a measured by the slave 101a (S25).

[0066] Slave 101b monitors slave 101a, but if it were to try to send the status of slave 101a as is on behalf of slave 101a, there is a possibility that the communication cycle would not be completed. Therefore, if the number of times is less than a predetermined number, it is determined to be a minor abnormality, and slave 101b sends to master 200 the cell status detected by slave 101b as is, along with a flag (small capacity) indicating whether or not there is an abnormality in slave 101a that it is monitoring.

[0067] In this way, the master 200 can grasp the state of each slave 101 according to a predetermined number of times, and can reliably monitor the cell 100 in a short communication cycle.

[0068] According to the embodiment of the present invention described above, the following advantageous effects are achieved.

[0069] (1) The battery control device 1 includes a master unit 200 that monitors the status of multiple battery cell groups provided in the vehicle, and multiple slave units 101 that are installed for each battery cell group, detect the status of each battery cell group, and transmit the status of the battery cell group to the master unit 200. The master unit 200 and the multiple slave units 101 communicate sequentially in a time-division manner, and each slave unit 101 has an abnormality detection unit 114 that detects communication abnormalities by monitoring communication between the other slave units 101 and the master unit 200. When the abnormality detection unit 114 detects a communication abnormality, it transmits information about the other slave units 101 to the master unit 200 along with information about the slave unit 101. This makes it possible to provide a battery control device 1 that can ensure the simultaneity of proxy transmission even when communication is poor.

[0070] (2) When a communication abnormality occurs a predetermined number of times in another slave device 101, the slave device 101 transmits information about the communication abnormality in the other slave device 101 and information about the presence or absence of an abnormality in the state of the battery cell group that the other slave device 101 is detecting to the master device 200. By doing this, the master 200 can determine the presence or absence of an abnormality using only the abnormality detection flag for battery cells 100 in battery groups with a low abnormality level that have not had any problems up until now, and can grasp the cell state of battery cells 100 for which details are required.

[0071] (3) If a communication abnormality occurs a predetermined number of times in another slave device 101, the slave device 101 notifies the vehicle that the other slave device is unable to communicate. In this way, it is possible to notify the vehicle that the slave device 101 being monitored has a malfunction in wireless transmission and reception.

[0072] (4) The slave device 101 transmits to the vehicle information relating to communication abnormalities of other slave devices 101. In this way, information such as the communication status of other slave devices 101 being monitored and malfunctions of wireless transmission and reception can be transmitted to other onboard devices in the vehicle.

[0073] (5) The slave device 101 has a storage unit 113 that stores state information of other slave devices 101. In this way, the slave device 101 can grasp not only the cell state of the cell 100 that it is measuring, but also the cell states of the cells 100 that other slave devices 101 are measuring from the communication between the slave device 101 and the master 200 that it is monitoring.

[0074] The present invention is not limited to battery systems used in HEVs (Hybrid Electric Vehicles), but can also be widely applied to battery systems used in other vehicles, such as plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), battery electric vehicles (BEVs), and railway vehicles, as well as various types of power storage devices used for purposes other than vehicle battery systems.

[0075] Furthermore, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications and other configurations can be combined without departing from the spirit of the present invention. Furthermore, the present invention is not limited to those having all of the configurations described in the above-described embodiments, and includes those in which some of the configurations are omitted. [Explanation of symbols]

[0076] 1 Battery control device 10 Battery Module 100 D-cells 101 Slave device 111 Single battery cell condition measuring device 112 Radio equipment 113 Data Storage Unit 114 Anomaly detection device 115 Communication failure counting device 116 Radio Antenna 120 Communication failure (due to external disturbances, etc.) 121 Receive data from slave device (decode) 122 ACK (ACKnowledgement) 200 Master Device 201 Wireless device (master side) 202 Cell status monitoring unit 203 Wireless antenna (master side) 300 communication lines 301 Monitoring Line

Claims

1. a master device that monitors the states of a plurality of battery cell groups provided in a vehicle; a plurality of slave devices provided for each of the battery cell groups, detecting a state of each of the battery cell groups and transmitting the state of each of the battery cell groups to the master device; The master device and the plurality of slave devices communicate sequentially in a time-division manner, the slave device has an abnormality detection unit that detects an abnormality in communication by monitoring communication between the master device and other slave devices, if the number of times that the abnormality in the communication between the other slave device and the master device detected by the abnormality detection unit is less than a predetermined number, transmit to the master device a determination result of the abnormality in the communication between the other slave device and the master device and a determination result of the abnormality in the battery cell group detected by the other slave device, together with information on the state of the battery cell group detected by the slave device; If the abnormality in the communication between the other slave device and the master device detected by the abnormality detection unit occurs a predetermined number of times or more, the determination result of the abnormality in the communication between the other slave device and the master device and the state of the battery cell group detected by the other slave device are transmitted to the master device together with the determination result of the abnormality in the battery cell group detected by the slave device. Battery control device.

2. The battery control device according to claim 1, When the communication abnormality occurs in the other slave device a predetermined number of times, the slave device notifies the vehicle that the other slave device is unable to communicate. Battery control device.

3. The battery control device according to claim 1, The slave device transmits information about the communication abnormality of the other slave device to the vehicle. Battery control device.

4. The battery control device according to claim 1, The slave device has a storage unit for storing state information of the other slave devices. Battery control device.

5. A battery control device according to claim 1, The abnormality detection unit of each of the slave devices excluding the other slave device among the plurality of slave devices monitors communication between the other slave device and the master device. Battery control device.

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