Synchronized Battery Sampling via Distributed Local Monitors
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional battery management systems face challenges in synchronously sampling voltages and currents of isolated battery cells without a global clock, leading to inaccuracies due to environmental variations and fluctuating load currents, especially in applications like electric vehicles.
Innovation Solution
A battery management system with synchronized data sampling, featuring local monitors and a central controller that broadcasts a sample command to synchronize the sampling of status information across multiple battery cells, ensuring data collection during the same sample period and reducing environmental discrepancies.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a global clock is used to sample voltages and currents synchronously, then measurement precision is improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the battery management function into distributed local monitors, each independently sampling its associated battery cell parameters. This segmentation eliminates the need for a centralized global clock while maintaining sampling capability across multiple nodes.
Solution Approach 2:
A communication bus serves as an intermediary medium between local monitors and the central management unit. The bus enables coordinated data collection and information exchange without requiring direct temporal synchronization through a global clock, thus reducing system complexity.
2Device complexity
If local clocks are configured to each battery cell for independent sampling, then device complexity is reduced, but measurement precision deteriorates due to asynchronous sampling
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple local monitors connect to a common communication bus, merging their independent sampling operations into a coordinated system. This allows each node to maintain simplicity while achieving synchronized data collection through shared communication infrastructure.
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs periodic sampling cycles where local monitors collect data at regular intervals and transmit to the management unit. This periodic operation ensures consistent measurement intervals across all nodes without requiring continuous synchronization, balancing simplicity with measurement accuracy.
3Ease of manufacture
If asynchronous sampling is used to simplify the system, then ease of manufacture is improved, but reliability deteriorates due to environmental variations affecting different cells differently
Solution Approach 1:
The management unit receives periodic data from all local monitors through the communication bus and processes this feedback information to determine overall battery pack status. This centralized feedback mechanism ensures reliable state estimation by considering data from all cells sampled under consistent system conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The communication bus creates an equipotential information exchange medium where all local monitors operate under the same communication protocol and timing framework. This ensures that despite physical distribution, all nodes experience equivalent communication conditions, improving reliability of data collection.
Data Source
AI summary
A battery management system with synchronized data sampling for a battery pack including multiple battery cells is disclosed. The battery management system includes a plurality of local monitors coupled to a plurality of battery cells and operable for sampling status information for the battery cells. The battery management system further includes a central controller coupled to the local monitors and operable for broadcasting a sample command to the local monitor synchronously, wherein the local monitors start to sample the status information for the battery cells in response to the sample command.