Description:A multimodal and universal vehicle charging system, and method of operation thereof
Field of the Invention
This invention, in general, relates to a charging system for electric vehicles. More particularly, the present invention relates to a charging system having a multi-modal and universal plug, socket and adaptor for charging the electric vehicles.
Background of the Invention
The industry of electric vehicle has expanded and grown exponentially over a past few years. Today, nearly every automotive company across the world is racing to produce the best EVs and has pledged to go all electric by 2035 or beyond, but wider adoption of EVs brings a few challenges. One of such challenge is with regard to the specificity of charging system provided corresponding to each different electric vehicle. This problem is faced more on the customer end due to the limitation of the charging system to be working only for their electric vehicles or the limitation of the electric vehicles getting charged only by a particular charger configured specifically for that vehicle and not for others.
Generally, companies make charging system as per the capacity and configuration of the electric vehicles manufactured by them, which means making their own charging plug and socket including the 3-pin socket for its own issue and payment method. In such cases, user of the vehicles face problems when he is not able to find a charging system specific to the charging requirement of his vehicles on the go.
Further, for charging the vehicles, consumers are hassled up even more when every time they have to download and install a different mobile application for payment, complete KYC and make the payment by way of scanning a separate barcode each time. This process is mainly followed as all the existing charging sockets and chargers have a different structural and functional configuration, hence a dedicated mobile application for each such charging system for payment purpose. This is reason why the consumers have to keep multiple mobile applications on their phone so that they can use all such existing charging system of different companies for charging and making payments. Therefore, this creates a complexity in terms of managing multiple applications and following multiple steps before charging and making payment. Therefore, the existing charging system for electric vehicles are not user friendly, involves complication and unnecessarily takes user’s time before charging starts.
In the existing charging system, users are forced to find structural and functional compatibility between the charger they are provided with their vehicles and power source publicly available at charging stations. In order to match the compatibility, the electric vehicle companies make a dedicated software application which can be used to match the compatibility in terms of identification of the vehicle and payment processing for allowing vehicle charging. Suppose there is a user who has an electric vehicle bought from a company, and for charging his vehicle on the go, if he needs to use the power source publicly available at the charging station of some other companies and not the power source from the company same as his vehicle, in this case, user would have to ensure that he has the software application installed corresponding to all the power source publicly available at the charging station by the other companies. This requires user to keep and be using multiple software applications on their phone or system only for their vehicle charging purpose, hence, creating a lot of hassle and confusion on daily basis for customers. Further, every time at the time of connecting the charger between the vehicle and the power source, user is mandatorily required to scan a separate barcode using the software application for vehicle’s identification and payment for charging as there is no solution available that automatically carries out the function of vehicle’s identification and payment for charging services by just connecting the charger with the power source.
There are many instances noted in the past where it has been seen that the charger for the electric vehicle from one company is not properly fitting into the power source publicly provided at the charging stations from another company. The ones that fit do not charge the vehicle as expected. This happens ineffectively to the difference in structural configuration and functional capacity between the charger for an electric vehicle by one company and power source publicly available at the charging stations by another company, hence making their inter-dependent functioning ineffective and limiting their application.
There is a need for and demand for a solution to the problems mentioned above. It is, therefore, desirable to provide a universal charging system for electric vehicles that overcomes the drawbacks associated with the prior arts and obviates the existing challenges.
Summary of the Invention
Both the foregoing summary and the following description provide examples and are explanatory only. Accordingly, the foregoing summary and the following detailed description should not be considered to be restrictive. Further, features or variations may be provided in addition to those set forth herein. For example, embodiments may be directed to various feature combinations and sub-combinations described in the description.

A primary objective of the present invention is to provide a multi-modal and universal charging system which is hassle free for vehicle owners in terms of its utility by any of the existing electric vehicles.
Another primary objective of the present invention is to provide a multi-modal and universal charging system that provides an integrated plug-in solution for identification, payment and charging of the vehicle.
Yet another main objective of the present invention is to provide a charging socket or adaptor which is handy and matches compatibility between any charger and power source.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a charging system which has multiple modalities for charging to the vehicle.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a multi-modal universal vehicle charging system comprising an electric plug having two or more pins, an automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) linked unit physically or electrically coupled with or within the plug, an charging socket designed to mate with the electric plug and comprising an AIDC reader positioned so as to allow reading of the AIDC linked unit irrespective of its arrangement on or off the AIDC linked unit, and an authorizing unit communicatively coupled with the electrical socket and configured to activate a flow of electrical power from the electrical socket to the vehicle via the electric plug based on a positive reading of the AIDC linked unit by the AIDC reader.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a multi-modal universal vehicle charging system comprising an electric plug having two or more pins, an automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) linked unit physically or electrically coupled with or within the plug, an charging socket designed to mate with the electric plug and comprising an AIDC reader positioned so as to allow reading of the AIDC linked unit irrespective of its arrangement on or off the AIDC linked unit, and an authorizing unit communicatively coupled with the electrical socket and configured to activate a flow of electrical power from the electrical socket to the vehicle via the electric plug based on a positive reading of the AIDC linked unit by the AIDC reader, wherein AIDC linked unit is but not limited to RFID and NFC tag or card or device embedded with information required for authorization of the charging of the user’s vehicle.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a multi-modal universal vehicle charging system comprising an electric plug having two or more pins, an automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) linked unit physically or electrically coupled with or within the plug, an charging socket designed to mate with the electric plug and comprising an AIDC reader positioned so as to allow reading of the AIDC linked unit irrespective of its arrangement on or off the AIDC linked unit, and an authorizing unit communicatively coupled with the electrical socket and configured to activate a flow of electrical power from the electrical socket to the vehicle via the electric plug based on a positive reading of the AIDC linked unit by the AIDC reader, wherein said AIDC linked unit is electrically embedded within the electric plug.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a multi-modal universal vehicle charging system comprising an electric plug having two or more pins, an automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) linked unit physically or electrically coupled with or within the plug, an charging socket designed to mate with the electric plug and comprising an AIDC reader positioned so as to allow reading of the AIDC linked unit irrespective of its arrangement on or off the AIDC linked unit, and an authorizing unit communicatively coupled with the electrical socket and configured to activate a flow of electrical power from the electrical socket to the vehicle via the electric plug based on a positive reading of the AIDC linked unit by the AIDC reader, wherein said AIDC linked unit is externally pasted on the body of the electric plug.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a multi-modal universal vehicle charging system comprising an electric plug having two or more pins, an automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) linked unit physically or electrically coupled with or within the plug, an charging socket designed to mate with the electric plug and comprising an AIDC reader positioned so as to allow reading of the AIDC linked unit irrespective of its arrangement on or off the AIDC linked unit, and an authorizing unit communicatively coupled with the electrical socket and configured to activate a flow of electrical power from the electrical socket to the vehicle via the electric plug based on a positive reading of the AIDC linked unit by the AIDC reader, wherein said AIDC linked unit is in a form an adaptor interface designed to physically mate with the pins of the electric plug and establish connection with the charging socket for authorization.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a multi-modal universal vehicle charging system comprising an electric plug having two or more pins, an automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) linked unit physically or electrically coupled with or within the plug, an charging socket designed to mate with the electric plug and comprising an AIDC reader positioned so as to allow reading of the AIDC linked unit irrespective of its arrangement on or off the AIDC linked unit, and an authorizing unit communicatively coupled with the electrical socket and configured to activate a flow of electrical power from the electrical socket to the vehicle via the electric plug based on a positive reading of the AIDC linked unit by the AIDC reader, wherein said AIDC linked unit is an RFID or NFC card used independently of the electric plug for authorizing and activating the flow of electrical power from the electrical socket to the vehicle via the electric plug.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a multi-modal universal vehicle charging system comprising an electric plug having two or more pins, an automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) linked unit physically or electrically coupled with or within the plug, an charging socket designed to mate with the electric plug and comprising an AIDC reader positioned so as to allow reading of the AIDC linked unit irrespective of its arrangement on or off the AIDC linked unit, and an authorizing unit communicatively coupled with the electrical socket and configured to activate a flow of electrical power from the electrical socket to the vehicle via the electric plug based on a positive reading of the AIDC linked unit by the AIDC reader, wherein the charging socket is having one or more indicator for confirming positive or negative authorization between the AIDC linked unit and the AIDC reader, and configured to indicate vehicle charging progression in real time as the electric plug is inserted into the socket after positive authorization.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a multi-modal universal vehicle charging system comprising an electric plug having two or more pins, an automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) linked unit physically or electrically coupled with or within the plug, an charging socket designed to mate with the electric plug and comprising an AIDC reader positioned so as to allow reading of the AIDC linked unit irrespective of its arrangement on or off the AIDC linked unit, and an authorizing unit communicatively coupled with the electrical socket and configured to activate a flow of electrical power from the electrical socket to the vehicle via the electric plug based on a positive reading of the AIDC linked unit by the AIDC reader, wherein the AIDC reader is positioned on the periphery of the charging socket so as to allow the AIDC linked unit get read by the AIDC reader irrespective of its direction of proximity.
In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method of charging electric vehicles, wherein said method comprising bringing an AIDC linked unit independently or AIDC coupled electric plug in close proximity to an AIDC reader from any direction for authorization of the charging of the vehicle, activating a flow of power from a charging socket based on a positive authorization between the AIDC linked unit and the AIDC reader, and inserting the plug into the charging socket for transferring the activated flow of power to the vehicle via the electric plug.
In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method of charging electric vehicles, wherein said method comprising bringing an AIDC linked unit independently or AIDC coupled electric plug in close proximity to an AIDC reader from any direction for authorization of the charging of the vehicle, activating a flow of power from a charging socket based on a positive authorization between the AIDC linked unit and the AIDC reader, and inserting the plug into the charging socket for transferring the activated flow of power to the vehicle via the electric plug, wherein said method comprises of coupling the (AIDC) linked unit with an electric plug before bringing the AIDC linked electric plug in close proximity to the AIDC reader.
In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method of charging electric vehicles, wherein said method comprising bringing an AIDC linked unit independently or AIDC coupled electric plug in close proximity to an AIDC reader from any direction for authorization of the charging of the vehicle, activating a flow of power from a charging socket based on a positive authorization between the AIDC linked unit and the AIDC reader, and inserting the plug into the charging socket for transferring the activated flow of power to the vehicle via the electric plug, wherein said method comprises of establishing connection with the charging socket for authorization of the charging through an adaptor interface designed to physically mate with the pins of the electric plug and positioned between the socket and the electric plug during charging of the vehicle.
In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method of charging electric vehicles, wherein said method comprising bringing an AIDC linked unit independently or AIDC coupled electric plug in close proximity to an AIDC reader from any direction for authorization of the charging of the vehicle, activating a flow of power from a charging socket based on a positive authorization between the AIDC linked unit and the AIDC reader, and inserting the plug into the charging socket for transferring the activated flow of power to the vehicle via the electric plug, wherein said method comprises of indicating positive or negative authorization of the charging of the vehicle and charging progression in real time as the electric plug is inserted into the socket after positive authorization.
Description of the Invention
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, there is provided a universal charging system for charging battery of an electric vehicle, comprising a power cable having connectors with power terminal at its ends, wherein one of the ends is configured to get connected to battery terminal of the vehicle and the other end is configured to be connected to an external power source for supplying power for charging of the vehicle.
In accordance with the one of the embodiments of the present invention, there is provided a universal charging system for charging battery of an electric vehicle, comprising a power cable having connectors with power terminal at its ends, wherein one of the ends is configured to get connected to battery terminal of the vehicle and the other end is configured to be connected to an external power source for supplying power for charging of the vehicle, wherein said charging system further comprises of a plug detachably connected with power terminal of one of the connectors of the power cable and the external power source.
Further, in accordance with any of the above embodiments, the connectors end with power terminal of the power cable can be defined as input and output ends, wherein the input end is connected to the external power supply that receives input power for supplying power and the output end is connected to vehicle’s battery input port for charging of the vehicle.
In accordance with one of the embodiments of the present invention, there is provided a universal charging system for charging battery of an electric vehicle, comprising a power cable having connectors with power terminal at its ends, wherein one of the ends is configured to get connected to battery terminal of the vehicle and the other end is configured to be connected to an external power source for supplying power for charging of the vehicle, wherein said charging system further comprises of a plug having first and second side, configured to be detachably connected with power terminal of the input connector end of the power cable from its first side, wherein the second side is detachably connected to the external power supply.
Further, in accordance with any of the above embodiments, the plug is structurally designed and functionally configured in such a manner that its first side fits and efficiently operate with any type of power cable connector input end having power terminal and the second side also conveniently fits on to the external power source of any design for receiving power and supplying the same to the vehicle’s battery via the power cable connector output end.
Further, in accordance with any of the above embodiments, the plug/adaptor is provided with an NFC chip and the external power source is provided with an NFC reader, and the plug/adaptor is communicatively coupled with the external power source by way of the NFC chip and NFC reader for enabling automatic connection establishment, battery or vehicle identification, payment processing and charging of the vehicle’s battery, wherein said connection establishment, identification and payment processing are further managed, controlled and monitored by a smartphone or a computing system or any other system executing similar functions. In this case, the user need not to physically use the phone or computing system while connecting the charger with the external power supply via the plug as the plug automatically establishes communication with mobile application and automatically carries out the functionality of identification, payment processing and charging. In this way, the user can just connect the charger with the external power source employing the plug and leave it as it is and be assured of charging without worrying about anything else and simply unplug the charger along with the plug from the external power source once charging is completed.
In one of the embodiments, the connection establishment and payment processing for charging of the vehicle, the NFC enabled plug uses IoT and blockchain technology for seamless payment and other operations required for charging of the vehicle.
Further, the mobile application installed on the phone or any other computing system stores information with regard to the vehicle and plug of every user so that when the charger is connected to the external power supply via the plug for charging of the vehicle, the user need not to every time scan a unique barcode for his vehicle identification and making of payment as by just doing one time registration of the user is sufficient for automatic connection establishment, payment processing and start charging for any number of next times.
In one embodiment, the plug can serve as an NFC tag which is automatically read by the NFC reader provided on the external power source when the NFC enabled plug connected with the input end of the power cable from its first side is connected with the external power supply from its second side, for automatic identification, payment and initiate charging of the vehicle.
In another embodiment, the communicatively coupled NFC plug with the power plug and the external power source, is also configured to work without internet for automatic identification, payment and initiate charging of the vehicle.
In yet another embodiment, the NFC enabled plug is configured to provide peer to peer charging of the electric vehicles.
Referring to Figure 1, in one embodiment, there is plug and socket system (1), wherein the Plug (6) is any plug, and the charging socket (3) is provided with RFID enabled plate (10) and RFID transceiver (2), therefore, when the any plug fits into the socket, the RFID enabled plate (10) between them acts as a communication unit for automatic identification, payment and initiating charging of the vehicle.
Referring to Figure 2, the charging socket (3) is having holes as AC/DC power outlet for receiving metallic pins of the plug (6 or 7), wherein the charging socket (3) is embedded with an RFID transceiver (2) on its top periphery along its circumference and the charging socket (3) is having hardware component such as status indicator (4) along its outer periphery for showing the information related to charging status, RFID transceiver (2) and authorizing unit (5) eembedded with cloud communication and authentication for authentication of the credentials of the vehicle, vehicle owner and charger, payment processing and communication followed by power delivery control.
Referring to Figure 3a, when the plug (6 or 7) is inserted into the charging socket (3), the power inlet/supply system (1A) sends signal to power delivery controller (1B) for delivering controlled power to the vehicle via the plug (6 or 7) but before the power flow is initiated, authentication takes place by the embedded cloud communication and authentication unit within the authorizing unit with the help of cloud communication and user ID authentication by way of wireless communication between the plug (6 or 7) and the charging socket (3), wherein the power delivery is activated after authentication is done by wireless communication and following are the modalities of operation that can also be referred from Figure 3(b), 4, 5 and 6:
- Any plug (6) acting as inlet for charger/electronic appliance, the charging socket as power outlet (3) with RFID transceiver (2) on the power outlet (3) and an AIDC/RFID enabled adaptor plate (10) embedded with user ID and Data between the plug (6 or 7) and the charging socket (3).
- Any plug (6) acting as inlet for charger/electronic appliance, the charging socket as power outlet (3) with RFID transceiver (2) on the power outlet (3) and RFID/AIDC enabled card (9) containing embedded with user ID and Data between the plug (6 or 7) and the charging socket (3).
- Plug (7) acting as an inlet for the charger/electronic appliance and embedded with user ID and Data between the plug and the charging socket (3), and the charging socket as power outlet (3) with RFID transceiver (2) on the power outlet (3).
- Any plug (6) acting as an inlet for charger/electronic appliance with RFID sticker (8) pasted on its front surface and the charging socket as power outlet (3) with RFID transceiver (2);
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 multi-modal universal vehicle charging system comprising:
an electric plug (6 or 7) having two or more pins;
an automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) linked unit (8 or 9 or 10) physically or electrically coupled with or within the plug (6 or 7);
a charging socket (3) designed to mate with the electric plug (6 or 7) and comprising an AIDC transceiver (2) positioned so as to allow reading of the AIDC linked unit (8 or 9 or 10) irrespective of its arrangement on or off the AIDC linked unit (8 or 9 or 10); and
an authorizing unit (5) communicatively coupled with the electrical socket (3) and configured to activate a flow of electrical power from the electrical socket (3) to the vehicle via the electric plug (6 or 7) based on a positive reading of the AIDC linked unit (8 or 9 or 10) by the AIDC transceiver (2).
2. The multi-modal universal vehicle charging system as claimed in claim 1, wherein AIDC linked unit (8 or 9 or 10) is but not limited to RFID and NFC tag or card or device embedded with information required for authorization of the charging of the user’s vehicle.
3. The multi-modal universal vehicle charging system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said AIDC linked unit (8) is electrically embedded within the electric plug (7).
4. The multi-modal universal vehicle charging system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said AIDC linked unit (8) is externally pasted on the body of the electric plug (6).
5. The multi-modal universal vehicle charging system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said AIDC linked unit (8 or 9 or 10) is in a form of an adaptor interface (10) designed to physically mate with the pins of the electric plug (6) and establish connection with the charging socket (3) for authorization.
6. The multi-modal universal vehicle charging system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said AIDC linked unit (8 or 9 or 10) is an RFID or NFC card (9) used independently of the electric plug (6) for authorizing and activating the flow of electrical power from the electrical socket (3) to the vehicle via the electric plug (6).
7. The multi-modal universal vehicle charging system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the charging socket (3) is having one or more indicator (4) for confirming positive or negative authorization between the AIDC linked unit (8 or 9 or 10) and the AIDC transceiver (2), and configured to indicate vehicle charging progression in real time as the electric plug (6 or 7) is inserted into the socket (3) after positive authorization.
8. The multi-modal universal vehicle charging system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the AIDC transceiver (2) is positioned on the periphery of the charging socket (3) so as to allow the AIDC linked unit (8 or 9 or 10) get read by the AIDC transceiver (2) irrespective of its direction of proximity.
9. A method of charging electric vehicles, comprising:
bringing an AIDC linked unit (8 or 9 or 10) independently or AIDC coupled electric plug (7) in close proximity to an AIDC transceiver (2) from any direction for authorization of the charging of the vehicle;
activating a flow of power from a charging socket (3) based on a positive authorization between the AIDC linked unit (8 or 9 or 10) and the AIDC transceiver (2); and
inserting the plug (6 or 7) into the charging socket (3) for transferring the activated flow of power to the vehicle via the electric plug (6 or 7).
10. The method as claimed in claim 9, comprises of coupling the (AIDC) linked unit (8 or 9) with an electric plug (6) before bringing the AIDC linked electric plug (7) in close proximity to the AIDC transceiver (2).
11. The method as claimed in claim 9, comprises of establishing connection with the charging socket (3) for authorization of the charging through an adaptor interface (10) designed to physically mate with the pins of the electric plug (6) and positioned between the socket (3) and the electric plug (6) during charging of the vehicle.
12. The method as claimed in claim 9, comprises of indicating positive or negative authorization of the charging of the vehicle and charging progression in real time as the electric plug (6 or 7) is inserted into the socket (3) after positive authorization.