Method, computer-readable storage medium and server for battery exchange matchmaking

Abstract

A battery swapping matching method, a computer-readable storage medium, and a server are disclosed. The method can determine whether an electric vehicle needs to swap batteries with a battery swapping station or other electric vehicles based on the electric vehicle's driving information, and perform battery swapping matching. The method also transmits battery swapping matching information to the user equipment of the electric vehicle to assist in the battery swapping.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] This invention relates to a battery swapping technology for electric vehicles, and more particularly to a battery swapping matching method, a computer-readable storage medium, and a server. [Previous Technology]

[0002] With the arrival of the green energy era and the trend of low carbon emissions, electric vehicles are becoming increasingly popular. Electric vehicles consume power from their battery modules during normal driving and recharge them when driving downhill. To avoid electric vehicles running out of power before reaching their destination or wasting power by recharging beyond their capacity, battery swapping can be performed between the electric vehicle and a battery swapping station or other electric vehicles during operation. Therefore, determining whether an electric vehicle needs a battery swap and facilitating such swaps have become pressing technical problems that need to be solved. [Summary of the Invention]

[0003] To solve the above problems, the present invention provides a battery swapping matching method, comprising: receiving multiple historical driving information of multiple electric vehicles during past driving; calculating historical power consumption information of each electric vehicle based on the historical driving information; receiving current driving information of a first electric vehicle currently in operation among the electric vehicles; and determining, based on the current driving information and the historical power consumption information, whether the first electric vehicle needs to perform a battery swap with a battery swapping station or a second electric vehicle currently in operation among the electric vehicles, so that when the first electric vehicle is determined to need to perform the battery swap and has already been matched with the battery swapping station or the second electric vehicle, battery swapping matching information is transmitted to the user equipment of the first electric vehicle to assist in the battery swapping.

[0004] The present invention also provides a computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions, which are read by a server to execute the above-described battery exchange coupling method.

[0005] The present invention also provides a server for performing the above-described battery exchange matching method.

[0006] When an electric vehicle is about to encounter another electric vehicle, the present invention can perform battery exchange matching based on the driving information transmitted by the electric vehicle, such as time, location, remaining power, destination and pre-planned driving route, to determine whether the electric vehicle needs to exchange batteries, thereby achieving the purpose of saving time and energy. [Simplified Explanation of the Diagram]

[0007] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the application of a battery exchange mediator method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0008] Figure 2 is a flowchart of a battery exchange matching method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Implementation Method

[0009] The following describes the implementation of the present invention through specific embodiments. Those skilled in the art can easily understand other advantages and effects of the present invention from the content disclosed in this specification.

[0010] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the application of a battery swapping and matching method according to an embodiment of the present invention. The information analysis server 10 in Figure 1 is used to execute the battery swapping and matching method shown in Figure 2.

[0011] For this purpose, the information analysis server 10 connects to a plurality of electric vehicles 11 and the same number of user devices 12 via wireless communication (e.g., 4G, 5G or 6G communication), and connects to the geographic information server 13 and the database 14 via wired or wireless communication.

[0012] The information analysis server 10 can support transmission protocols such as Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT), or Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP), and can exchange various information with the electric vehicle 11, user equipment 12, geographic information server 13 and database 14 through these transmission protocols.

[0013] The electric vehicle 11 runs on the power provided by its battery module. The battery module can be swapped at a battery swapping station by manual or mechanical means (i.e., the battery module of the electric vehicle 11 is replaced by a fully charged battery module in the battery swapping station), or swapped with another electric vehicle 11 (i.e., the two electric vehicles 11 exchange battery modules with each other).

[0014] In one embodiment, the number of user devices 12 is the same as the number of electric vehicles 11. Each user device 12 corresponds to one electric vehicle 11. Each user device 12 may be the central control device of the corresponding electric vehicle 11, or an electronic device such as a smartphone, tablet computer, personal computer, or laptop computer of the driver of the corresponding electric vehicle 11.

[0015] In one embodiment, the geographic information server 13 may be a server that provides geographic information and road information, such as a Google Maps server or a Chunghwa Telecom GeoWeb map server.

[0016] Figure 2 is a flowchart of a battery exchange matching method performed by an information analysis server 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The following describes the flow of the battery exchange matching method.

[0017] First, in step 21, for each electric vehicle 11 that is in motion, driving information of that electric vehicle 11 is received. This driving information may be continuously transmitted by the electric vehicle 11 or its user equipment 12 to the information analysis server 10 during the driving process.

[0018] Each piece of driving information includes the vehicle number and model of the electric vehicle 11 to which the driving information belongs, the time when the driving information was transmitted, the location of the electric vehicle 11 at that time, the speed, the remaining battery power and the destination, and the pre-planned driving route to the destination.

[0019] The location and speed in the driving information can be provided by the positioning module of the electric vehicle 11. The positioning module can support the Global Positioning System (GPS) or wireless network signal positioning methods to obtain the location and speed. The remaining battery power in the driving information can be provided by the battery power detection device of the electric vehicle 11.

[0020] In addition, the destination and pre-planned driving route in the driving information can be provided by the navigation module of the electric vehicle 11 or its user equipment 12. The pre-planned driving route in each driving information is a driving route pre-planned by the navigation module of the electric vehicle 11 or its user equipment 12 to which the driving information belongs, from the location in the driving information to the destination in the driving information.

[0021] Table 1 illustrates driving information according to an embodiment of the present invention, wherein each column of Table 1 represents a single piece of driving information.

[0022] In this embodiment, there are a total of ECN electric vehicles 11 in operation, DN destinations, and RN pre-planned driving routes. Each electric vehicle 11 transmits driving information to the information analysis server 10 every 30 seconds, and the position of the electric vehicle in the driving information is represented by longitude and latitude. For example, driver 1 drives electric vehicle number 1 and vehicle model 1 on 2024 / 03 / 01. The electric vehicle obtains its current position (i.e., longitude 102.5423383 and latitude 24.09490167) and current speed (i.e., speed 80 km / h) at 06:00:00 through its positioning module, and can call the Representational State Transfer (REST) ​​application interface (API) of the information analysis server 10 to transmit the driving information to the information analysis server 10.

[0022]

[0023] In step 22, the power consumption information of each electric vehicle 11 is calculated based on the driving information of all electric vehicles 11. The power consumption information includes the power consumption of each electric vehicle 11 in each time period and each road segment.

[0024] In step 23, the driving information and power consumption information of all electric vehicles 11 are stored in database 14. The driving information and power consumption information mentioned above are historical records accumulated in the past relative to the subsequent steps. Therefore, in the following text, the driving information and power consumption information mentioned above will be referred to as historical driving information and historical power consumption information, respectively.

[0025] In step 24, the current driving information of each electric vehicle 11 that is currently in motion is received. The electric vehicle 11 in motion or its user device 12 may continuously transmit the current driving information to the information analysis server 10, wherein the content of the current driving information is the same as the aforementioned historical driving information.

[0026] In addition, the information analysis server 10 can also calculate the power consumption information of the electric vehicle 11 based on the current driving information, and store the current driving information and the power consumption information in the database 14 to become historical driving information and historical power consumption information.

[0027] In step 25, the power consumption of each electric vehicle 11 that is currently in motion to reach its destination along the pre-planned driving path in its current driving information is estimated.

[0028] In detail, for each electric vehicle 11, the pre-planned driving route of the electric vehicle 11 can be obtained from the current driving information of the electric vehicle 11. If the historical power consumption information accumulated in the past includes the power consumption of the same electric vehicle 11 or other electric vehicles 11 of the same model or other electric vehicles 11 with similar power consumption when traveling through all or part of the road segment of the pre-planned driving route, then the power consumption of the electric vehicle 11 to reach the destination along the pre-planned driving route can be estimated accordingly.

[0029] In addition, the information analysis server 10 can also obtain the elevation difference of each segment of the pre-planned driving route from the geographic information server 13, estimate the average slope of each segment based on the length of each segment and the elevation difference, and then estimate the power consumption of the electric vehicle 11 when it reaches the destination along the pre-planned driving route based on the aforementioned historical power consumption information and the length and average slope of each segment in the pre-planned driving route.

[0030] Since electric vehicles recharge their battery modules when driving downhill, the power consumption of electric vehicle 11 may be negative. If it is negative, it means that the journey to the destination not only did not consume the power of the battery module of electric vehicle 11, but also recharged the battery module.

[0031] In step 26, it is determined whether each of the electric vehicles 11 that is in motion needs to exchange batteries with a battery swapping station or another electric vehicle 11 that is in motion.

[0032] In detail, for each of the electric vehicles 11 that is currently in motion, the remaining power of the electric vehicle 11 in the current driving information can be calculated by subtracting the power consumed by the electric vehicle 11 along the pre-planned driving route to reach the destination, and the final power is obtained. The final power is the remaining power of the battery module of the electric vehicle 11 when the information analysis server 10 estimates that the electric vehicle 11 will reach the destination.

[0033] If the final battery level is less than zero, the information analysis server 10 determines that the electric vehicle 11 will run out of battery before reaching the destination.

[0034] Therefore, the information analysis server 10 determines that the electric vehicle 11 needs to perform a battery swap in order to confirm that the electric vehicle 11 can reach its destination before the battery is depleted.

[0035] On the other hand, if the final charge exceeds the upper limit of the battery module of the electric vehicle 11, the information analysis server 10 determines that the electric vehicle 11 will overcharge before reaching the destination. Therefore, the information analysis server 10 determines that the electric vehicle 11 needs to perform a battery swap to avoid wasting power.

[0036] In step 27, battery exchange matching is performed for each electric vehicle 11 that is determined to need battery exchange, that is, each electric vehicle 11 decides on the object to which battery exchange is performed, and the object may be a battery exchange station that the electric vehicle 11 passes through on its pre-planned driving route, or another electric vehicle 11 that is currently in motion.

[0037] In detail, it can be determined whether there is a meeting point in the pre-planned driving paths of each pair of electric vehicles 11 that need to exchange batteries. If there is a meeting point, the time difference between the arrival of the two electric vehicles 11 at the meeting point is estimated based on the current driving information of the two electric vehicles 11, and then it is determined whether the estimated time difference exceeds a preset time length. If the estimated time difference does not exceed the preset time length, it means that the two electric vehicles 11 will meet while driving, and then it is further estimated whether the two electric vehicles 11 will run out of power or overcharge before reaching their destination after arriving at the meeting point and exchanging battery modules.

[0038] For example, the same or similar estimation method as step 25 can be used to estimate the remaining power of the two electric vehicles 11 when they arrive at the meeting point, and to estimate the power consumption of the two electric vehicles 11 from the meeting point to their respective destinations.

[0039] Since exchanging batteries means exchanging the remaining power of the two electric vehicles 11, the remaining power of each of the two electric vehicles 11 after the exchange can be subtracted from the power consumed by the electric vehicle 11 when traveling from the meeting point to the destination, so as to calculate the final power of the electric vehicle 11, and determine whether the electric vehicle 11 will run out of power or overcharge before reaching the destination based on the final power.

[0040] If, without battery swapping, one of the two electric vehicles 11 will run out of power before reaching the destination, and with battery swapping, neither of the two electric vehicles 11 will run out of power before reaching the destination, then the information analysis server 10 can match the two electric vehicles 11 to perform battery swapping.

[0041] Furthermore, if one of the two electric vehicles 11 will overcharge before reaching its destination without battery swapping, and neither of the two electric vehicles 11 will run out of power or overcharge before reaching its destination with battery swapping, then the information analysis server 10 can also match the two electric vehicles 11 for battery swapping.

[0042] Table 2 is a table of power consumption information generated by the information analysis server 10 during step 27 of battery exchange matching in one embodiment. Among them, the electric vehicle with vehicle number 4 has a large altitude difference to reach the destination and is far away from the destination. Therefore, battery exchange is required to reach the destination smoothly.

[0042]

[0043] In addition to matching two electric vehicles 11 to exchange battery modules, the information analysis server 10 can also match electric vehicles 11 to exchange battery modules with battery swapping stations.

[0044] In detail, the information analysis server 10 can query the geographic information server 13 for the location of nearby battery swapping stations, calculate the distance between the battery swapping station and the pre-planned driving route of the electric vehicle 11 that needs to swap batteries, and estimate whether the remaining power of the electric vehicle 11 is sufficient to reach the battery swapping station. If the distance between a battery swapping station and the pre-planned driving route does not exceed a preset distance, and the remaining power of the electric vehicle 11 is sufficient to reach the battery swapping station, then the information analysis server 10 can match the electric vehicle 11 with the battery swapping station to perform battery swapping.

[0045] The above embodiments assume that the battery module specifications of the electric vehicle 11 and the battery swapping station are the same or compatible. If the specifications of these battery modules are not the same or compatible, then the battery swapping matching in step 27 must be supplemented with a judgment condition, namely, the battery module specifications of both parties swapping battery modules must be the same or compatible. The information analysis server 10 can determine whether the battery module specifications of both parties are the same or compatible based on the vehicle model in the current driving information of the electric vehicle 11.

[0046] In step 28, for each electric vehicle 11 that needs to have its battery swapped, if the electric vehicle 11 has been matched with a battery swapping station or another electric vehicle 11, the information analysis server 10 generates corresponding battery swapping matching information and transmits the battery swapping matching information to the user equipment 12 of the electric vehicle 11 to assist in the battery swapping.

[0047] In one embodiment, the battery exchange matching information may include at least the estimated exchange location, the estimated exchange object, and the estimated exchange time. The estimated exchange location is the intersection point of the pre-planned driving routes of the two electric vehicles 11 that will perform the battery exchange or the location of the battery exchange station. The estimated exchange object is the battery exchange station that will perform the battery exchange or another electric vehicle 11. The estimated exchange time is the estimated arrival time of the electric vehicle 11 that will perform the battery exchange later at the intersection point, or the time estimated by the information analysis server 10 for the electric vehicle 11 that receives the battery exchange matching information to arrive at the battery exchange station.

[0048] Table 3 lists the battery swapping matching information generated by the information analysis server 10 in one embodiment. According to Table 2, electric vehicle number 4 needs to have its battery swapped. Therefore, the information analysis server 10 matches electric vehicles numbered 2 and 4 and transmits the corresponding battery swapping matching information to the user equipment of these two electric vehicles respectively, so as to guide these two electric vehicles to location A to perform the battery swapping, thereby achieving the purpose of energy saving and time saving.

[0048]

[0049] In addition, the user equipment 12 can receive information such as vehicle number, time and remaining battery power input by the driver or other user of the corresponding electric vehicle 11, and use such information as query conditions to query the information analysis server 10 and obtain battery exchange matching information that meets the query conditions, and then display the obtained battery exchange matching information.

[0050] The following describes the matching mechanism of the present invention using another embodiment. Electric vehicles 1 to 4 in Table 4 have estimated travel paths of 1 to 4. Electric vehicle 1 is estimated by the information analysis server 10 to have its battery depleted before reaching its destination, thus requiring charging or battery swapping with other electric vehicles. Analysis of the travel paths reveals that electric vehicles 1 and 3 have an intersection point at point B, and electric vehicles 1 and 4 also have an intersection point at point C. Furthermore, electric vehicle 1 is expected to arrive at points B and C at times T1B and T1C, respectively, while electric vehicles 3 and 4 are expected to arrive at points B and C at times T3B and T4C, respectively. By calculating the time difference between the two estimated arrival time combinations T1B and T3B, and T1C and T4C, it can be concluded that the time difference between T1C and T4C does not exceed the preset battery swapping waiting time, and electric vehicle 1 has not yet depleted its battery before reaching point C. Therefore, the information analysis server 10 performs battery swapping matching between electric vehicles No. 1 and No. 4, and generates battery swapping matching information as shown in Table 5 below.

[0050]

[0050]

[0051] In one embodiment, the present invention provides a computer-readable storage medium, such as memory, magnetic tape, magnetic disk, or optical disk. The computer-readable storage medium is used to store instructions, which can be read by a server to execute the aforementioned battery swapping method. In one embodiment, the computer-readable storage medium is a non-transitory computer-readable recording storage medium.

[0052] The technical solution provided by this invention analyzes the battery usage of different electric vehicles traveling along pre-planned routes, using a geographic information server to determine whether there will be insufficient remaining battery power to reach the destination, or whether the remaining battery power will exceed the electric vehicle's maximum battery capacity upon arrival due to overcharging. If either of these situations occurs, the information analysis server analyzes whether the routes of other electric vehicles intersect with the electric vehicle's route, and calculates the estimated arrival time, remaining battery power upon arrival, and battery swapping waiting time as the basis for determining battery swapping. Therefore, the technical solution provided by this invention has the following advantages compared to other conventional technologies:

[0053] First, the present invention can utilize the battery charge recharge characteristics of electric vehicles to exchange batteries with other electric vehicles under specific driving conditions, such as when going downhill on a mountain road with a large slope, so as to avoid the recharge capacity exceeding the upper limit of the battery module and to avoid the consumption of power exceeding the remaining power of the battery module, thereby optimizing the efficiency of battery and power use.

[0054] Secondly, the present invention can perform battery swapping matching based on the distance between the pre-planned driving route and the battery swapping station and the remaining power of the electric vehicle, so as to avoid the additional energy and time loss caused by the extra driving due to the battery swapping station not being on the same route as the driving route, thereby saving time and energy.

[0055] The above embodiments are merely illustrative of the principles and effects of the present invention and are not intended to limit the present invention. Anyone skilled in the art can modify and alter the above embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of protection of the present invention should be as set forth in the following claims.

Claims

1. A battery swapping and bridging method, executed by a server, the battery swapping and bridging method comprising: Receive multiple historical driving information of multiple electric vehicles from past driving times; Calculate the historical power consumption information of each electric vehicle based on the historical driving information; receive the current driving information of the first electric vehicle currently in operation; and determine, based on the current driving information and the historical power consumption information, whether the first electric vehicle needs to exchange batteries with a battery swapping station or a second electric vehicle currently in operation. When the first electric vehicle is determined to need a battery swap and has already been matched with the battery swapping station or the second electric vehicle, transmit battery swapping matching information to the user equipment of the first electric vehicle. If the first electric vehicle is determined to need a battery swap, and has already been matched with the battery swapping station or the second electric vehicle, transmit battery swapping matching information to the user equipment of the first electric vehicle. If it is determined that a battery swap is necessary, the battery swap matching method further includes: determining whether there is an intersection point between the pre-planned driving paths of the first electric vehicle and the second electric vehicle, and estimating the time difference between the arrival of the first electric vehicle and the second electric vehicle at the intersection point, so as to determine whether to match the first electric vehicle and the second electric vehicle for the battery swap; and calculating the distance between the pre-planned driving path of the first electric vehicle and the battery swapping station, and estimating whether the remaining charge of the first electric vehicle is sufficient to reach the battery swapping station, so as to determine whether to match the first electric vehicle and the battery swapping station for the battery swap.

2. The battery exchange matching method as described in claim 1, wherein, The historical driving information and the current driving information include the vehicle number and model of the electric vehicle to which the driving information belongs, the time when the driving information was transmitted, the location of the electric vehicle at that time, the speed, the remaining battery power and the destination, and the pre-planned driving route to the destination.

3. The battery exchange matching method as described in claim 1, wherein, This historical power consumption information includes the power consumption of these electric vehicles at different times and on different road sections.

4. The battery exchange matching method as described in claim 1, wherein, The step of determining whether the first electric vehicle needs to perform the battery swap includes: obtaining the remaining battery power, destination, and pre-planned driving route to the destination from the current driving information; and determining whether the first electric vehicle will run out of power or overcharge before reaching the destination based on the remaining battery power, the pre-planned driving route, and the historical battery consumption information. If so, it is determined that the first electric vehicle needs to perform the battery swap.

5. The battery exchange matching method as described in claim 4, comprising: Based on the pre-planned driving route and the historical power consumption information, the power consumption of the first electric vehicle along the pre-planned driving route to the destination is estimated; and if the final power obtained by subtracting the power consumption from the remaining power is less than zero, it is determined that the first electric vehicle will run out of power, or if the final power is greater than the upper limit of the power of the battery module of the first electric vehicle, it is determined that the first electric vehicle will overcharge.

6. The battery exchange coupling method as described in claim 5, wherein, The power consumption is estimated based on historical power consumption information and the length and average gradient of each segment in the pre-planned driving route.

7. The battery exchange matching method as described in claim 1, wherein, The battery swapping matching information includes the estimated swapping location, the estimated swapping partner, and the estimated swapping time, wherein the estimated swapping partner is the battery swapping station or the second electric vehicle.

8. A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that are read by a server to perform a battery exchange coupling method as described in any one of claims 1 to 7.

9. A server for performing the battery exchange matching method as described in any one of claims 1 to 7.

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