Autonomous Vehicle Compute Cooling via Liquid-to-Liquid Interchiller
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Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomous vehicles face performance degradation and safety risks due to overheating of systems that support autonomous operation, as existing thermal systems are inadequate to efficiently cool compute systems.
Innovation Solution
A thermal system is implemented in autonomous vehicles that diverts coolant from a vehicle thermal loop to a compute thermal loop using a liquid-to-liquid interchiller arrangement, effectively cooling the compute system without compromising cabin cooling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If a dedicated thermal system is designed for compute systems, then cooling effectiveness is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the compute system thermal management with the existing vehicle thermal system by using a liquid-to-liquid interchiller that couples the compute coolant loop to the vehicle coolant loop. This allows the vehicle's existing thermal infrastructure to provide cooling capacity to the compute system, thereby improving cooling effectiveness while avoiding the complexity of a completely separate dedicated thermal system.
Solution Approach 2:
The vehicle thermal system is made multi-functional by enabling it to serve both traditional vehicle cooling needs and compute system cooling requirements simultaneously. The interchiller arrangement allows the vehicle coolant to transfer thermal energy to the compute coolant, making the existing thermal system universal enough to handle multiple thermal management tasks without requiring entirely separate infrastructure.
2Reliability
If an independent thermal system is created for compute systems, then cooling reliability is improved, but loss of energy increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables the vehicle thermal system to serve the compute system's cooling needs through the interchiller arrangement. The vehicle coolant, which would otherwise be wasted or underutilized, provides thermal energy to cool the compute system. This self-service approach improves cooling reliability by leveraging existing thermal capacity while minimizing additional energy consumption, as the thermal energy comes from the vehicle's own operational heat load rather than requiring separate energy input.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution ensures efficient cooling of autonomous vehicle compute systems, maintaining performance and safety by leveraging the vehicle's existing thermal system infrastructure.
Implementation Method 1
A thermal system is implemented in autonomous vehicles that diverts coolant from a vehicle thermal loop to a compute thermal loop using a liquid-to-liquid interchiller arrangement
Data Source
AI summary
According to one aspect, a thermal system of a vehicle which provides cooling to within the vehicle, e.g., within a driver and passenger carrying cabin or compartment, is effectively leveraged to provide cooling capabilities to autonomous vehicle systems. Some coolant flowing through a coolant loop included in the thermal system of a vehicle may be diverted to an offshoot loop which provides cooling to coolant included in a coolant loop configured to cool autonomous vehicle systems, e.g., a compute system that is part of an autonomous vehicle. The coolant from the thermal system of the vehicle may flow past coolant from the coolant loop configured to cool autonomous vehicle systems, and the cooled coolant from the coolant loop configured to cool the autonomous vehicle systems may flow near the autonomous vehicle systems to cool the autonomous vehicle systems.