eVTOL Charging Guidance for Precise Dock Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Electrically powered urban air mobility (UAM) vehicles, such as eVTOLs, face challenges in navigating to charging stations due to limited time for charging between missions and the difficulty in remembering charging point locations and alignment cues, necessitating an onboard system for providing location details and guidance.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that determine whether a vehicle requires charging based on its battery state, identify a suitable charging station from multiple options, and provide guidance information to align the vehicle's charging interface with the station's interface, using processors to calculate navigation and display instructions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If an onboard guidance system is implemented to provide charging location and alignment information, then operator workload is reduced and charging efficiency is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables the vehicle to automatically determine its own charging needs by monitoring battery state of charge, automatically identify suitable charging stations, and autonomously calculate navigation and alignment guidance, reducing the need for operator intervention while managing system complexity through integrated onboard processing
Solution Approach 2:
The onboard system acts as an intermediary between the vehicle operator and the charging infrastructure, processing charging station data, calculating optimal locations, and providing guidance information that simplifies the operator's task while managing system complexity through centralized information processing
2Reliability
If multiple charging stations are considered for selection, then charging reliability is improved, but determination complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system evaluates multiple charging stations by comparing key parameters such as state of charge requirements, battery compatibility, and location suitability, automatically selecting the most appropriate station based on predetermined criteria, thereby improving charging reliability while managing selection complexity through systematic parameter comparison
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary evaluation and comparison of multiple charging stations before the vehicle arrives, pre-determining the optimal charging location based on current battery state and station availability, which improves charging reliability while reducing on-site decision complexity
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed are methods, systems, and non-transitory computer-readable medium for determining guidance information for a vehicle. For instance, the method may include: determining whether the vehicle requires a charging event at least based on a state of charge of a battery system of the vehicle; determining a charging location of a charging station from a plurality of charging stations based on data associated with the vehicle and/or data associated with each of the plurality of charging stations; determining a current location of the vehicle; determining information to guide the vehicle from the current location to the determined charging location and align a charging interface of the vehicle to a charging interface of the charging location; and causing display of the determined information.