Description:An on-board device, system and method for facilitating charging assistance to a vehicle
Field of the Invention
This invention relates to charging infrastructure technology for vehicles. More particularly, the present invention relates to a device, system and method for facilitating charging assistance to vehicles.
Background of the Invention
Charging assistance for electric vehicles (EVs) is an important aspect of ensuring a smooth and convenient experience for EV owners. EV owners need accurate information about the locations, types, and availability of charging stations which includes real-time data on station status (available, occupied, out of service), charging speeds, connector types, and pricing information.
There are multiple user-friendly mobile apps and online platforms existing that EV owners can use to easily locate charging stations, plan routes with charging stops, and monitor charging progress remotely in real time. These platforms can provide navigation to the nearest charging station and enable users to start and stop charging sessions.
As the number of electric vehicles will increase, there will be growing demand for battery charging (or battery swapping) stations, therefore, there exists a business case for third party charging vendors to set up charging/swapping stations which can be accessed by users irrespective of the configuration of the vehicle. Based on the routes taken by customers and evolution of battery technology, the optimal location for charging will keep changing and to get the most suitable location, it is necessary to have data of locations where vehicle battery charge levels fall below a cutoff value. For getting the location and battery SOC (state of charge) data of any vehicle, costly and time-consuming data integrations are required with the backend systems of vehicle makers.
Further, for customers/riders, as the optimal location for charging keeps changing, therefore, it will be desirable to request charging at any location depending on the requirement by the rider. Also, if the customer is stuck in a location where cellular connectivity is poor, there may be issues in requesting charging assistance.
In the prior arts, charging assistance systems are limited only to letting the riders know about the nearest charging stations in cases when charge status of the vehicle goes down and this does not serve the purpose of the present invention as this only provides information about the location of the charging station in closest proximity of the vehicle and does not actually solve the problem by providing immediate charging to the vehicle.
A dedicated mobile application installed in a mobile device is known for facilitating charging assistance to the vehicle rider which works according to the current location of the mobile phone and not the vehicle. There is disclosed no separate device integrated with the vehicle in the prior arts which can provide charging assistance to the vehicle by directly charging the vehicle and neither there is a solution existing for receiving charging assistance at the same place where it is requested.
It is, therefore, desirable to provide an improved device that can be onboarded on to the vehicle for providing charging assistance by directly providing on spot charging to the vehicle as per the requirement of the vehicle, and overcome the existing drawbacks, and obviates complexity associated with the prior arts.
Summary of the Invention
It is one of the objectives of the present invention to provide a device for facilitating charging assistance to a vehicle even in remote areas having poor network.
It is one of the objectives of the present invention to provide a device for facilitating charging assistance to a vehicle which is capable of providing convenient, efficient and stress-free charging process for users, ultimately promoting the adoption of electric vehicles and contributing to sustainable transportation.
It is one of the objectives of the present invention to provide a device for facilitating charging assistance to a vehicle which is capable of optimizing location of fixed or movable battery charging/swapping stations.
It is one of the objectives of the present invention to provide a device for facilitating charging assistance to a vehicle which provides an easy way for an electric vehicle user to request road-side battery charging or changing services regardless of the vehicle OEM.
It is one of the objectives of the present invention to provide a system for facilitating charging assistance to a vehicle which enable the charging agencies to collect data and effectively place its charging vehicles to have least response time.
It is one of the objectives of the present invention to provide a device and a method for facilitating charging assistance to a vehicle that enables charging agency to collect vehicle data so as to effectively place its charging vehicles in locations such that the vehicle driver receives response in least time.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a device for facilitating charging assistance to a vehicle, comprises of a Global Positioning System (GPS) module configured to receive current location of the vehicle from a GPS satellite communication system, a connecting interface connected to an electronic control unit of the vehicle for receiving information about one or more parameters related to charging of the vehicle, a network module communicatively coupled with an external server over satellite internet for exchanging information about said one or more parameters related to charging of the vehicle, and a display interface connected to the connecting interface for displaying one or more parametric values of said parameters indicative of battery health of the vehicle, wherein said display interface is configured to receive an instruction for charging assistance based on the indicated battery health of the vehicle and communicate said instruction along with the parametric values to the external server via the network module.
In accordance with the above embodiment of the present inventor, said display interface is connected with the GPS module for receiving details related to geographical location of the vehicle.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a device for facilitating charging assistance to a vehicle, comprises of a Global Positioning System (GPS) module configured to receive current location of the vehicle from a GPS satellite communication system, a connecting interface connected to an electronic control unit of the vehicle for receiving information about one or more parameters related to charging of the vehicle, a network module communicatively coupled with an external server over satellite internet for exchanging information about said one or more parameters related to charging of the vehicle, and a display interface connected to the connecting interface for displaying one or more parametric values of said parameters indicative of battery health of the vehicle, wherein said display interface is configured to receive an instruction for charging assistance based on the indicated battery health of the vehicle and communicate said instruction along with the parametric values to the external server via the network module, wherein said display interface is communicatively coupled with the network module for transmitting indicated battery health of the vehicle, instruction for charging assistance and said geographical location of the vehicle, and in return receives estimated time of arrival (ETA) of charging assistance from the external server via the network module.
In accordance with one of the above embodiments, wherein said connecting interface is communicatively coupled with an application programming interface for communicating information about one or more parameters related to charging of the vehicle to the display interface.
In accordance with one of the above embodiments, wherein said device further comprises of a rechargeable battery configured to supply power to the GPS module, connecting interface and network module for their operations, wherein said parameter is but not limited to state of charge (SOC) of battery of the vehicle.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a system for facilitating charging assistance to a vehicle, comprises of a communication area network (CAN) bus of the vehicle, a device designed to be onboarded on the vehicle and communicatively connected to the CAN bus and a GPS satellite communication system, for receiving information about one or more parameters related to charging of the vehicle and geographical location of the vehicle, and an external server communicatively coupled with the device for instructing charging assistance for the vehicle based on said one or more of charging parameters and geographical location of the vehicle, wherein said device comprise of a network module communicatively coupled with the external server for transmitting charging assistance instruction and state of charge of the vehicle to the external server and receiving estimated time of arrival (ETA) of charging assistance from the external server.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method for facilitating charging assistance to a vehicle, comprises of receiving one or more parametric values of parameters indicative of battery health and geographical location of the vehicle from a device onboarded on to the vehicle, requesting for charging assistance based on the indicated battery health by transmitting said parametric values and geographical location of the vehicle to an external server via a network module of the device, and displaying an estimated time of arrival of the charging assistance as received from the external server via the network module of the device.
In accordance with the above embodiment of the present invention, said method further comprises of requesting automatically for charging assistance from the external server via the network link upon determining the indicated battery health below its threshold value.
Brief Description of the Drawings
Figure 1 shows a flowchart illustrating data flow among various components.
Figure 2, 3 and 4 show a tree-based flowchart explaining working operation of the intelligent processing module.
Figure 5 shows a block diagram illustrating working of the adaptive indicator system for vehicles.
Detailed Description of the Invention
As a preliminary matter, it will readily be understood by one having ordinary skill in the relevant art that the present disclosure has broad utility and application. As should be understood, any embodiment may incorporate only one or a plurality of the above-disclosed aspects of the disclosure and may further incorporate only one or a plurality of the above-disclosed features. Furthermore, any embodiment discussed and identified as being “preferred” is considered to be part of a best mode contemplated for carrying out the embodiments of the present disclosure. Other embodiments also may be discussed for additional illustrative purposes in providing a full and enabling disclosure. Moreover, many embodiments, such as adaptations, variations, modifications, and equivalent arrangements, will be implicitly disclosed by the embodiments described herein and fall within the scope of the present disclosure.
Accordingly, while embodiments are described herein in detail in relation to one or more embodiments, it is to be understood that this disclosure is illustrative and exemplary of the present disclosure and are made merely for the purposes of providing a full and enabling disclosure. The detailed disclosure herein of one or more embodiments is not intended, nor is to be construed, to limit the scope of patent protection afforded in any claim of a patent issuing here from, which scope is to be defined by the claims and the equivalents thereof. It is not intended that the scope of patent protection be defined by reading into any claim a limitation found herein that does not explicitly appear in the claim itself.
Additionally, it is important to note that each term used herein refers to that which an ordinary artisan would understand such term to mean based on the contextual use of such term herein. To the extent that the meaning of a term used herein—as understood by the ordinary artisan based on the contextual use of such term—differs in any way from any particular dictionary definition of such term, it is intended that the meaning of the term as understood by the ordinary artisan should prevail. Furthermore, it is important to note that, as used herein, “a” and “an” each generally denotes “at least one,” but does not exclude a plurality unless the contextual use dictates otherwise. When used herein to join a list of items, “or” denotes “at least one of the items,” but does not exclude a plurality of items of the list. Finally, when used herein to join a list of items, “and” denotes “all of the items of the list.”
The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the following description to refer to the same or similar elements. While many embodiments of the disclosure may be described, modifications, adaptations, and other implementations are possible. For example, substitutions, additions, or modifications may be made to the elements illustrated in the drawings, and the methods described herein may be modified by substituting, reordering, or adding stages to the disclosed methods. Accordingly, the following detailed description does not limit the disclosure. Instead, the proper scope of the disclosure is defined by the appended claims. The present disclosure contains headers. It should be understood that these headers are used as references and are not to be construed as limiting upon the subjected matter disclosed under the header.
In the present invention, State of Charge (SOC) data is sent by Battery Management System (BMS) on the CAN bus, wherein all the other data that maybe required in future such as ignition ON/OFF, temperature or vehicle drive mode – sport, city etc is available on the CAN bus, wherein these parameters are usually available in ECU (also referred to as Vehicle Control Unit - VCU, or Body Control Unit - BCU). Depending on how the vehicle is made, there is provided a separate module which has a Bluetooth interface that picks data from CAN and transmits to Bluetooth coupled devices, or there may be a diagnostics port, wherein said port may be physically mounted on ECU or any other vehicle part, wherein the OBD port transmits data to physically coupled plug. In the present invention, said plug transmits data to the device main body.
In the present invention, referring to Figure 1, the disclosed device (1) is designed to interface with vehicle CAN (7) data through either a diagnostic port or OBD/CAN connector (2) on Electronic Control Unit (ECU) or through bluetooth interface. In case when there is a global standard to ensure all makers use common technology so as to allow port or bluetooth connection, wherein these standards favor having such a device provided by third party charging management vendors, wherein said device (1) is having a detachable part designed to be plugged in to the diagnostic port and connects with the main part through Bluetooth as this is applicable in cases if a vehicle only supports diagnostic port but does not allow bluetooth data transfer, wherein said device has a dedicated chipset to obtain latitude longitude details of the vehicle and establish internet connection, where said device pulls state of charge (SOC) data from the CAN (7), and the SOC cutoff is programmed into the device (1) and is changed remotely by the charging vendor through over-the-air updates. Whenever SOC falls below cutoff, the device sends location details to the third-party vendor cloud database so that the data can be used for analysis. Also, an onboard battery (1d) powers all modules and can receive external power for charging through a port.
In another embodiment, customers press a button on the device to request for charging assistance, wherein a display interface (1c) on the device indicates estimated time of arrival (ETA) in hours/minutes for the remote charging station to reach the customer location, said device is having an option to pair with the customer's mobile over Bluetooth or using a mobile app (4), wherein the driver can then access other features of the device through a visual interface.
Further, in accordance with another embodiment, the device is configured to communicate with agency servers (5) using satellite internet and is thus independent of telecom coverage in remote areas, and long as there is a line of sight with the sky, device locks on to one of the satellites for transmitting communication.
Referring to figure 2, a main device (1) is disclosed which is mounted on handlebar mounting attachment (3) of a two-wheeler electric vehicle, wherein the device (1) is having action buttons (1a) for activating the device for requesting charging assistance and also provided with display interface (1b) to indicate vehicle related information including but not limited to state of charge (SOC) by way of establishing connection with the CAN bus connector (2) of the vehicle over wireless or bluetooth link or some similar technology.
Referring to Figure 3, the network module (1f) is satellite modem and antenna module which connects with agency servers (5) to exchange data over satellite internet, while the GPS module (1g) connects with typical GPS satellite communication to obtain current vehicle geographical coordinates i.e. latitude and longitudes. Further, the connecting interface (1e) is a wireless adapter (Bluetooth module) which allows connectivity with the CAN Bus (7) for vehicles which support bluetooth connectivity, or to CAN Bus connector (2), wherein said adapter (1e) allows data exchange with the user app so that users can interact through the mobile app (4). Further, bottom part (1c) of the device is having circuitry for display (1b), action buttons (1a), and calculation unit, wherein said circuitry is configured to trigger “assist requested" signal to the modem when action button is pressed, which in return automatically send state of charge value (SOC) and geographical coordinates i.e. latitude and longitudes to agency server (5) along with device ID when the SOC falls below x%, wherein x is the threshold value and its magnitude depends on the requirement of the vehicle or driver or it’s set by the agencies. Furthermore, in case of “assist requested”, the display interface (1b) shows the remaining time for the charging assistance vehicle to reach the rider location.
While the invention is amenable to various modifications and alternative forms, some embodiments have been illustrated by way of example in the drawings and are described in detail above. The intention, however, is not to limit the invention by those examples and the invention is intended to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives to the embodiments described in this specification.
The embodiments in the specification are described in a progressive manner and focus of description in each embodiment is the difference from other embodiments. For same or similar parts of each embodiment, reference may be made to each other.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the above description was in respect of preferred embodiments and that various alterations and modifications are possible within the broad scope of the appended claims without departing from the spirit of the invention with the necessary modifications.
Based on the description of disclosed embodiments, persons skilled in the art can implement or apply the present disclosure. Various modifications of the embodiments are apparent to persons skilled in the art, and general principles defined in the specification can be implemented in other embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the present disclosure is not limited to the embodiments in the specification but intends to cover the most extensive scope consistent with the principle and the novel features disclosed in the specification.
, Claims:We Claim:
1. A device (1) for facilitating charging assistance to a vehicle, comprises of:
a Global Positioning System (GPS) module (1g) configured to receive current location of the vehicle from a GPS satellite communication system;
a connecting interface (1e) connected to a communication area network (CAN) bus (2) of the vehicle for receiving information about one or more parameters related to charging of the vehicle;
a network module (1f) communicatively coupled with an external server over satellite internet for exchanging information about said one or more parameters related to charging of the vehicle; and
a display interface (1c) connected to the connecting interface (1e) for displaying one or more parametric values of said parameters indicative of battery health of the vehicle,
wherein said display interface (1c) is configured to receive an instruction for charging assistance based on the indicated battery health of the vehicle and communicate said instruction along with the parametric values to the external server via the network module (1f).
2. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said display interface (1c) connected with the GPS module (1g) for receiving details related to geographical location of the vehicle.
3. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said display interface (1c) is communicatively coupled with the network module (1f) for transmitting indicated battery health of the vehicle, instruction for charging assistance and said geographical location of the vehicle, and in return receives estimated time of arrival (ETA) of charging assistance from the external server via the network module (1f).
4. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said connecting interface (1e) is communicatively coupled with an application programming interface (4) for communicating information about one or more parameters related to charging of the vehicle to the display interface (1c).
5. The device as claimed in claim 1, further comprises of a rechargeable battery (1d) configured to supply power to the GPS module (1g), connecting interface (1e) and network module (1f) for their operations.
6. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said parameter is but not limited to state of charge (SOC) of battery of the vehicle.
7. A system for facilitating charging assistance to a vehicle, comprises of:
a communication area network (CAN) bus (2) of the vehicle;
a device (1) designed to be onboarded on the vehicle and communicatively connected to the CAN bus (2) and a GPS satellite communication system, for receiving information about one or more parameters related to charging of the vehicle and geographical location of the vehicle; and
an external server (5) communicatively coupled with the device (1) for instructing charging assistance for the vehicle based on said one or more of charging parameters and geographical location of the vehicle,
wherein said device (1) comprise of a network module (1f) communicatively coupled with the external server (5) for transmitting charging assistance instruction and state of charge of the vehicle to the external server (5) and receiving estimated time of arrival (ETA) of charging assistance from the external server (5).
8. A method for facilitating charging assistance to a vehicle, comprises of:
receiving one or more parametric values of parameters indicative of battery health and geographical location of the vehicle from a device (1) onboarded on to the vehicle;
requesting for charging assistance based on the indicated battery health by transmitting said parametric values and geographical location of the vehicle to an external server (5) via a network module (1f) of the device (1); and
displaying an estimated time of arrival of the charging assistance as received from the external server (5) via the network module (1f) of the device (1).
9. The method as claimed in claim 8, further comprises of requesting automatically for charging assistance from the external server (5) via the network link upon determining the indicated battery health below its threshold value.