Battery management system, method, and program

Abstract

According to the present invention, a determination unit determines the need for monitoring a received video. A display unit displays the received video in time series for each elapsed time, and displays the video displayed for each elapsed time in a different mode on the basis of the need for monitoring. A diagnosis unit diagnoses the state of a battery. An acquisition unit acquires unique information of the battery. A registration unit registers, in a storage device, the diagnosis result of the battery and the unique information in association with each other.

Description

Battery management system, method and program

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a battery management system, a battery management method, and a battery management program for managing the state of a battery.

[0002] The condition of a vehicle's battery changes depending on the environment and conditions in which it is used, so it is important to manage the battery condition.

[0003] For example, Patent Document 1 describes a battery information management method for managing battery performance information. In the method described in Patent Document 1, information such as the number of times the battery has been charged, the date of manufacture, the initial capacity, and the charging rate is stored together with battery identification information (battery ID).

[0004] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2023-103669

[0005] In order to manage the battery status, it is necessary to manage it in association with the battery's identification information. However, since the battery itself is installed in the vehicle, it is generally difficult to visually confirm the battery's identification information from the outside. Furthermore, since batteries are generally detachable, there is a high possibility that they will be distributed in various places, making it difficult to manage them in association with the vehicle itself.

[0006] Therefore, an object of the present disclosure is to provide a battery management system, a battery management method, and a battery management program that can manage the state of a battery in association with the identification information of the battery.

[0007] The battery management system according to the present disclosure is characterized by including a diagnostic unit that diagnoses the state of the battery, an acquisition unit that acquires the battery's unique information, and a registration unit that associates the battery's diagnostic results with the unique information and registers them in a storage device.

[0008] The battery management method according to the present disclosure is characterized by diagnosing the state of the battery, acquiring the battery's unique information, and registering the battery diagnosis result and the unique information in association with each other in a storage device.

[0009] The battery management program according to the present disclosure is characterized in that it causes a computer to execute a diagnostic process for diagnosing the state of a battery, an acquisition process for acquiring the battery's unique information, and a registration process for associating the battery's diagnostic results with the unique information and registering them in a storage device.

[0010] According to the present disclosure, the state of the battery can be managed in association with the identification information of the battery.

[0011] Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of an embodiment of a battery management system; Fig. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the battery management system; Fig. 3 is a block diagram showing a modified example of the battery management system; Fig. 4 is a block diagram showing an overview of a battery management system according to the present disclosure; Fig. 5 is a schematic block diagram showing the configuration of a computer according to at least one embodiment;

[0012] First, the background of the present disclosure will be explained. Identification information for each battery is generally managed by the serial number (stamp) at the time of manufacture. However, although the serial number usually allows the manufacturer of the battery and the automobile OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) to be identified, as described above, it is difficult to associate the diagnostic results indicating the battery status with the battery itself, making it difficult to ascertain the battery status.

[0013] Therefore, the present disclosure describes a method for managing the state of a battery even in a situation where the battery's identification information is difficult to see from the outside. Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings.

[0014] 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of an embodiment of a battery management system 100. The battery management system 100 includes a storage unit 10, a diagnosis unit 20, an acquisition unit 30, an identifier acquisition unit 40, a registration unit 50, and a communication unit 60.

[0015] The storage unit 10 is a storage device that stores data required when the battery management system 100 of this embodiment performs various processes. In this embodiment, the storage unit 10 also stores battery diagnosis results. Specific aspects of how the battery diagnosis results are registered will be described later.

[0016] In addition, in this embodiment, a case where the storage unit 10 is configured integrally with other processing units is exemplified. However, the storage unit 10 may be realized by a device different from the other processing units. A mode in which the storage unit 10 is realized by a device different from the other processing units will also be described later. In this embodiment, the storage unit 10 is realized by, for example, a magnetic disk or the like.

[0017] The diagnosing unit 20 diagnoses the state of a battery mounted on a vehicle. Specifically, the diagnosing unit 20 diagnoses the state of the battery when the vehicle is connected to the battery management system 100. The vehicle and the battery management system 100 may be connected in any manner. For example, when the battery management system 100 is realized as a part of a charger, the diagnosing unit 20 may diagnose the state of the battery when the vehicle and the charger are electrically connected.

[0018] The battery state may also be diagnosed arbitrarily. For example, the diagnosing unit 20 may diagnose the current maximum capacity of the battery or the power supply state of the battery.

[0019] The acquisition unit 30 acquires information specific to the battery mounted on the vehicle. In this embodiment, the acquisition unit 30 acquires the electrical characteristics of the battery as the battery's specific information. Specifically, the acquisition unit 30 measures the value of current flowing through the battery and acquires waveform patterns of the current, voltage, etc. This waveform pattern is used as the battery's specific information. It is known that the electrical characteristics of a battery are unique to each battery, like a human fingerprint, and therefore the acquired electrical characteristics of the battery can be used as the battery's specific information.

[0020] The identifier acquisition unit 40 acquires a battery identifier that is uniquely assigned to the battery's unique information. The battery's unique information itself can be used to uniquely identify the battery. However, since the battery's unique information, such as the battery's electrical characteristics, requires a large amount of information to be handled, assigning a battery identifier to the battery's unique information makes management easier.

[0021] The method of acquiring the battery identifier may be any method that can uniquely identify the specific information of the battery. In order to assign uniquely distinguishable battery identifiers, it is preferable that the management of battery identifiers be performed centrally.

[0022] The registration unit 50 associates the battery diagnosis result performed by the diagnosis unit 20 with the unique information acquired by the acquisition unit 30 and registers them in the storage unit 10. Note that if the battery identifier has been acquired by the identifier acquisition unit 40, the registration unit 50 may associate the diagnosis result with the battery identifier and register them in the storage unit 10.

[0023] More specifically, the registration unit 50 determines whether or not a battery identifier corresponding to the unique information is registered in the storage unit 10. If the battery identifier corresponding to the unique information is registered in the storage unit 10, the registration unit 50 may additionally register or update the diagnostic result in association with the battery identifier.

[0024] On the other hand, if the battery identifier corresponding to the unique information is not registered in the memory unit 10, the identifier acquisition unit 40 may acquire the battery identifier for that unique information, and the registration unit 50 may associate the diagnostic result with the acquired battery identifier and register it in the memory unit 10.

[0025] The communication unit 60 notifies the user of the battery diagnosis result in response to an inquiry from the user. The communication unit 60 may take any form, and for example, the user's terminal device (not shown) and the communication unit 60 may be connected via a wired connection or short-range wireless communication. When the communication unit 60 receives a battery identifier from the terminal device, it may obtain the diagnosis result corresponding to the received battery identifier from the storage unit 10 and notify the terminal device of the diagnosis result.

[0026] The diagnosis unit 20, acquisition unit 30, identifier acquisition unit 40, registration unit 50, and communication unit 60 are realized by a computer processor (e.g., a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)) that operates according to a program (battery management program).

[0027] For example, the program may be stored in the storage unit 10 of the battery management system 100, and the processor may read the program and operate as the diagnosis unit 20, the acquisition unit 30, the identifier acquisition unit 40, the registration unit 50, and the communication unit 60 in accordance with the program. Furthermore, the functions of the battery management system 100 may be provided in a Software as a Service (SaaS) format.

[0028] Furthermore, the diagnosis unit 20, acquisition unit 30, identifier acquisition unit 40, registration unit 50, and communication unit 60 may each be realized by dedicated hardware. Furthermore, some or all of the components of each device may be realized by general-purpose or dedicated circuits, processors, etc., or a combination thereof. These may be configured by a single chip, or by multiple chips connected via a bus. Some or all of the components of each device may be realized by a combination of the above-mentioned circuits, etc., and a program.

[0029] Furthermore, when some or all of the components of the battery management system 100 are realized by a plurality of information processing devices, circuits, etc., the plurality of information processing devices, circuits, etc. may be centrally or decentralized. For example, the information processing devices, circuits, etc. may be realized as a client-server system, a cloud computing system, or the like, in a form in which each is connected via a communication network.

[0030] Next, the operation of the battery management system 100 of this embodiment will be described. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the battery management system 100 of this embodiment. The diagnosing unit 20 diagnoses the state of the battery (step S11). The acquiring unit 30 acquires the battery's unique information (step S12). Note that the process of diagnosing the battery's state in step S11 and the process of acquiring the battery's unique information in step S12 may be performed in reverse order or simultaneously. The registering unit 50 then associates the battery's diagnosis result with the unique information and registers them in the storage unit 10 (step S13).

[0031] As described above, in this embodiment, the diagnosing unit 20 diagnoses the state of the battery, and the acquiring unit 30 acquires the battery's unique information. Then, the registering unit 50 associates the battery diagnosis result with the unique information and registers it in the storage unit 10. Therefore, the battery state can be managed in association with the battery's identification information.

[0032] Next, a modified example of the battery management system 100 of the present disclosure will be described. In the above embodiment, the storage unit 10 is configured integrally with other processing units. In this modified example, the storage unit 10 is realized by a device separate from the other processing units.

[0033] Fig. 3 is a block diagram showing a modified example of a battery management system. The battery management system 100a shown in Fig. 3 includes a vehicle connection device 110, a storage server 200, and an identifier acquisition device 120. Although Fig. 3 shows two vehicle connection devices 110, the number of vehicle connection devices 110 is not limited to two and may be one, or three or more.

[0034] The storage server 200 is a storage device corresponding to the storage unit 10 in the above embodiment, and is connected to the vehicle connection device 110 via a communication line. The storage server 200 may be located on a cloud, for example, as illustrated in FIG. 3 .

[0035] The identifier acquisition device 120 is a device that realizes the functions of the identifier acquisition unit 40 in the above embodiment. The identifier acquisition device 120 may also be located, for example, on a cloud. However, the functions of the identifier acquisition device 120 (i.e., the functions of the identifier acquisition unit 40) may be realized by the vehicle connection device 110. By realizing the identifier acquisition device 120 as a device separate from the vehicle connection device 110, it becomes possible to centrally manage battery identifiers.

[0036] The vehicle connection device 110 is connected to a vehicle and acquires various information related to the vehicle's battery. The vehicle connection device 110 of this modification includes a diagnosis unit 20, an acquisition unit 30, a registration unit 50, and a communication unit 60.

[0037] The functions of the diagnosis unit 20, acquisition unit 30, registration unit 50, and communication unit 60 are the same as those of the above embodiment. The registration unit 50 performs registration processing or update processing on the storage server 200, which is a storage device.

[0038] Here, the functions of each vehicle connection device 110 may be the same or different. For example, the vehicle connection device 110 may have only the function of the communication unit 60. In this case, the communication unit 60 may acquire the battery diagnosis result from the storage server 200 in response to an inquiry from a user and notify the user.

[0039] Next, an overview of the present disclosure will be described. Fig. 4 is a block diagram showing an overview of a battery management system according to the present disclosure. A battery management system 80 (e.g., battery management system 100, battery management system 100a) according to the present disclosure includes a diagnosing unit 81 (e.g., diagnosing unit 20) that diagnoses the state of a battery, an acquiring unit 82 (e.g., acquiring unit 30) that acquires unique information of the battery, and a registering unit 83 (e.g., registering unit 50) that associates the battery diagnosis result with the unique information and registers the association result in a storage device (e.g., storage unit 10, storage server 200).

[0040] With such a configuration, the state of the battery can be managed in association with the battery identification information.

[0041] Specifically, the acquisition unit 82 may acquire the electrical characteristics of the battery as the battery-specific information.

[0042] Furthermore, the diagnosing unit 81 may diagnose the deterioration state of the battery as the state of the battery.

[0043] Specifically, the diagnosing unit may diagnose the current maximum capacity as the state of the battery.

[0044] The battery management system 80 may also include an identifier acquisition unit (e.g., the identifier acquisition unit 40) that acquires a battery identifier that is uniquely assigned to the specific information of the battery. The registration unit 83 may then register the diagnosis result and the battery identifier in association with each other in the storage device.

[0045] In addition, if a battery identifier corresponding to the unique information is not registered in the storage device, the identifier acquisition unit may acquire a battery identifier for that unique information, and the registration unit 83 may associate the diagnostic result with the battery identifier and register it in the storage device.

[0046] Furthermore, when a battery identifier corresponding to the unique information is registered in the storage device, the registration unit 83 may additionally register or update the diagnostic result in association with the battery identifier.

[0047] The battery management system 80 may also include a communication unit (for example, the communication unit 60) that notifies the battery diagnosis results.

[0048] Alternatively, the storage device may be realized by a storage server on the cloud (for example, the storage server 200), and the registration unit 50 may perform registration processing on the storage server.

[0049] 5 is a schematic block diagram showing the configuration of a computer according to at least one embodiment. The computer 1000 includes a processor 1001, a main memory device 1002, an auxiliary memory device 1003, and an interface 1004. The computer 1000 may also be connected to a computer that executes a mathematical programming solver, an annealing machine, a simulator, or the like.

[0050] The above-described battery management system 80 is implemented in a computer 1000. The operations of the above-described processing units are stored in the form of a program (battery management program) in an auxiliary storage device 1003. The processor 1001 reads the program from the auxiliary storage device 1003, loads it into the main storage device 1002, and executes the above-described processing in accordance with the program.

[0051] In at least one embodiment, the auxiliary storage device 1003 is an example of a non-transitory tangible medium. Other examples of non-transitory tangible media include a magnetic disk, a magneto-optical disk, a CD-ROM (Compact Disc Read-only memory), a DVD-ROM (Read-only memory), and a semiconductor memory connected via the interface 1004. In addition, when this program is distributed to the computer 1000 via a communication line, the computer 1000 that receives the program may load the program into the main storage device 1002 and execute the above-described processing.

[0052] The program may be a program for realizing part of the above-described functions. Furthermore, the program may be a so-called differential file (differential program) that realizes the above-described functions in combination with another program already stored in the auxiliary storage device 1003.

[0053] A part or all of the above-described embodiments can be described as, but not limited to, the following supplementary notes.

[0054] (Supplementary Note 1) A battery management system comprising: a diagnostic unit that diagnoses a state of a battery; an acquisition unit that acquires unique information of the battery; and a registration unit that associates the diagnosis result of the battery with the unique information and registers the result in a storage device.

[0055] (Supplementary Note 2) The battery management system according to Supplementary Note 1, wherein the acquisition unit acquires electrical characteristics of the battery as the unique information of the battery.

[0056] (Supplementary Note 3) The battery management system according to Supplementary Note 1 or Supplementary Note 2, wherein the acquisition unit acquires, as the battery-specific information, a waveform indicating a pattern of a current or a voltage generated in the battery.

[0057] (Supplementary Note 4) The battery management system according to any one of Supplementary Note 1 to Supplementary Note 3, wherein the diagnosing unit diagnoses a deterioration state of the battery as the state of the battery.

[0058] (Supplementary Note 5) The battery management system according to any one of Supplementary Note 1 to Supplementary Note 4, wherein the diagnosing unit diagnoses a current maximum capacity as the state of the battery.

[0059] (Supplementary Note 6) A battery management system according to any one of Supplementary Note 1 to Supplementary Note 5, further comprising an identifier acquisition unit that acquires a battery identifier that is uniquely assigned to the battery's specific information, and a registration unit that associates the diagnostic result with the battery identifier and registers them in a storage device.

[0060] (Supplementary Note 7) A battery management system according to Supplementary Note 6, wherein the identifier acquisition unit acquires a battery identifier for the unique information if the battery identifier corresponding to the unique information is not registered in the storage device, and the registration unit associates the diagnosis result with the battery identifier and registers them in the storage device.

[0061] (Appendix 8) A battery management system described in any one of Appendices 1 to 6, wherein, when a battery identifier corresponding to the unique information is registered in the storage device, the registration unit additionally registers or updates and registers the diagnostic result in association with the battery identifier.

[0062] (Supplementary Note 9) The battery management system according to any one of Supplementary Note 1 to Supplementary Note 8, further comprising a communication unit that notifies the result of diagnosis of the battery.

[0063] (Supplementary Note 10) The battery management system according to any one of Supplementary Note 1 to Supplementary Note 9, wherein the storage device is realized by a storage server on a cloud, and the registration unit performs a registration process on the storage server.

[0064] (Supplementary Note 11) A battery management method comprising: diagnosing a state of a battery; acquiring specific information of the battery; and registering the diagnosis result of the battery and the specific information in a storage device in association with each other.

[0065] (Supplementary Note 12) The battery management method according to Supplementary Note 11, wherein electrical characteristics of the battery are acquired as the specific information of the battery.

[0066] (Supplementary Note 13) A storage medium storing a battery management program for causing a computer to execute a diagnostic process for diagnosing the state of a battery, an acquisition process for acquiring specific information of the battery, and a registration process for correlating the diagnostic result of the battery with the specific information and registering the result in a storage device.

[0067] (Supplementary Note 14) The storage medium according to Supplementary Note 13, further storing a battery management program that causes a computer to acquire, in the acquisition process, the electrical characteristics of the battery as the battery's unique information.

[0068] Although the present invention has been described above with reference to the embodiments and examples, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments and examples. Various modifications that can be understood by those skilled in the art can be made to the configuration and details of the present invention within the scope of the present invention.

[0069] REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 10 Storage unit 20 Diagnosis unit 30 Acquisition unit 40 Identifier acquisition unit 50 Registration unit 60 Communication unit 100, 100a Battery management system 110 Vehicle connection device 120 Identifier acquisition device 200 Storage server

Claims

1. A diagnostic unit that diagnoses the battery status, An acquisition unit that acquires unique information about the aforementioned battery, The system includes a registration unit that associates the battery diagnostic results with the unique information and registers them in a storage device. A battery management system characterized by the following features.

2. The acquisition unit acquires the battery's electrical characteristics as unique information about the battery. The battery management system according to claim 1.

3. The acquisition unit acquires waveforms that show the current or voltage patterns occurring in the battery as unique information about the battery. A battery management system according to claim 1 or claim 2.

4. The diagnostic unit diagnoses the battery's condition, specifically its degradation status. A battery management system according to claim 1 or claim 2.

5. The diagnostic unit diagnoses the current maximum capacity as part of the battery status. A battery management system according to claim 1 or claim 2.

6. It includes an identifier acquisition unit that acquires a battery identifier that is uniquely assigned to the specific information of the battery, The registration unit associates the diagnostic result with the battery identifier and registers it in the storage device. A battery management system according to claim 1 or claim 2.

7. The identifier acquisition unit, if a battery identifier corresponding to the unique information is not registered in the storage device, acquires the battery identifier for the unique information. The registration unit registers the diagnostic result and the battery identifier in the storage device. The battery management system according to claim 6.

8. The registration unit, if a battery identifier corresponding to unique information is registered in the storage device, adds or updates the diagnostic result in association with that battery identifier. A battery management system according to claim 1 or claim 2.

9. Diagnose the battery status, The unique information of the aforementioned battery is obtained, The diagnostic results of the battery and the unique information are associated and registered in the storage device. A battery management method characterized by the following.

10. On the computer, Diagnostic process to diagnose the battery status, An acquisition process for obtaining the unique information of the aforementioned battery, and Registration process: Registers the battery diagnostic results and the unique information in a storage device. A battery management program to enable the execution of the program.