TECHNICAL FIELD
The present application claims priority to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2020-
0131452 filed on October 12, 2020 in the Republic of Korea, the disclosures of which are
incorporated herein by reference.
10 The present disclosure relates to a battery management apparatus and method, and
more particularly, to a battery management apparatus and method capable of collecting
voltage information of a battery over a longer period.
BACKGROUND ART
15 Recently, the demand for portable electronic products such as notebook computers,
video cameras and portable telephones has increased sharply, and electric vehicles, energy
storage batteries, robots, satellites and the like have been developed in earnest.
Accordingly, high-performance batteries allowing repeated charging and discharging are
being actively studied.
20 Batteries commercially available at present include nickel-cadmium batteries,
nickel hydrogen batteries, nickel-zinc batteries, lithium batteries and the like. Among
them, the lithium batteries are in the limelight since they have almost no memory effect
compared to nickel-based batteries and also have very low self-charging rate and high
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energy density.
After these batteries are produced and assembled, they may go through a
distribution process to be delivered to customers. In the distribution process, the battery
may be naturally discharges, and in particular, a battery having a defect during the
5 manufacturing process may be discharged more than a normal battery. Therefore, in the
battery distribution process, diagnosing defects of a battery by measuring the battery
voltage is one of the most important processes.
However, in the battery distribution process, there is a limit for a worker to
measure the voltage of each battery.
10 In addition, since a commercial power is not supplied in most cases in the battery
distribution process, the amount of power that can be provided to measure the battery
voltage and output the measured voltage to a server is inevitably limited.
Therefore, in order to continuously diagnose the state of the battery in the battery
distribution process, it is required to develop a technology that can dramatically reduce
15 power consumption by reducing unnecessary power consumption.
DISCLOSURE
Technical Problem
The present disclosure is designed to solve the problems of the related art, and
20 therefore the present disclosure is directed to providing a battery management apparatus
and method that may collect a voltage of a battery for a longer period of time with a
limited power by adjusting a communication cycle and/or a voltage measurement cycle in
consideration of ambient temperature and ambient humidity.
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These and other objects and advantages of the present disclosure may be
understood from the following detailed description and will become more fully apparent
from the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. Also, it will be easily
understood that the objects and advantages of the present disclosure may be realized by the
5 means shown in the appended claims and combinations thereof.
Technical Solution
A battery management apparatus according to one aspect of the present disclosure
may comprise: a voltage measuring unit configured to measure a voltage of a battery at
10 every preset voltage measurement cycle; a communication unit configured to output
voltage information for the voltage measured by the voltage measuring unit at every preset
communication cycle; a power unit configured to provide an operation power to the
communication unit when the communication unit operates; an environment information
measuring unit configured to measure environment information including at least one of
15 ambient temperature and humidity of the power unit; and a control unit configured to
receive the measured environment information from the environment information
measuring unit, judge whether the power unit is operable based on at least one of the
received environment information, a capacity of the power unit, and a consumed current
and a communication time consumed for the communication unit to output the voltage
20 information, and control an operation of the communication unit according to a judgment
result about whether the power unit is operable.
When it is judged that the power unit is operable, the control unit may be
configured to operate the communication unit to output the voltage information.
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The control unit may be configured to calculate a diagnostic coefficient for the
power unit based on the environment information, calculate an available limit for the
power unit based on the calculated diagnostic coefficient, the capacity of the power unit,
the consumed current and the communication time, and judge whether the power unit is
5 operable according to the calculated available limit.
The available limit may be configured to decrease as the calculated diagnostic
coefficient is greater.
The control unit may be configured to calculate the diagnostic coefficient
according to a temperature difference between a criterion temperature preset for the power
10 unit and the ambient temperature of the power unit and a humidity difference between a
criterion humidity preset for the power unit and the ambient humidity of the power unit.
The control unit may be configured to classify a high-temperature section and a
low-temperature section based on the criterion temperature, and calculate the diagnostic
coefficient to be greater in the case where the ambient temperature of the power unit
15 belongs to the low-temperature section rather than the case where the ambient temperature
of the power unit belongs to the high-temperature section.
The control unit may be configured to compare the available limit with a first
criterion value and determine whether or not to change the communication cycle according
to the comparison result.
20 The control unit may be configured to increase the communication cycle when the
available limit is less than the first criterion value.
The control unit may be configured to judge that the power unit is operable when
the available limit is equal to or greater than the first criterion value.
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When the available limit is less than the first criterion value, the control unit may
be configured to compare the available limit with a second criterion value, and judge that
the power unit is not operable when the available limit is less than the second criterion
value.
5 When the available limit is less than the first criterion value, the control unit may
be configured to increase the communication cycle and the voltage measurement cycle.
A battery management apparatus according to another aspect of the present
disclosure may further comprise a storage unit configured to store the voltage information
about the voltage measured by the voltage measuring unit at every voltage measurement
10 cycle.
The communication unit may be configured to access the storage unit at every
communication cycle and output the stored voltage information.
A battery storage system according to still another aspect of the present disclosure
may comprise the battery management apparatus according to one aspect of the present
15 disclosure.
A battery management method according to still another aspect of the present
disclosure may comprise: an environment information measuring step of measuring
environment information including at least one of ambient temperature and humidity of a
power unit; an operability determining step of judging whether the power unit is operable
20 based on at least one of the environment information measured in the environment
information measuring step, a capacity of the power unit, and a consumed current and a
communication time consumed for a communication unit to output voltage information for
a battery; and a communication unit controlling step of controlling an operation of the
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communication unit according to a judgment result about whether the power unit is
operable, wherein the power unit may be configured to provide an operation power to the
communication unit when the communication unit operates.
5 Advantageous Effects
According to one aspect of the present disclosure, there is an advantage that
voltage information of the battery may be collected for a longer period by changing the
communication cycle and/or the voltage measurement cycle according to the available
limit of the power unit.
10 The effects of the present disclosure are not limited to the effects mentioned above,
and other effects not mentioned will be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from
the description of the claims.
DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
15 The accompanying drawings illustrate a preferred embodiment of the present
disclosure and together with the foregoing disclosure, serve to provide further
understanding of the technical features of the present disclosure, and thus, the present
disclosure is not construed as being limited to the drawing.
FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing a battery management apparatus
20 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing a battery storage system according to
another embodiment of the present disclosure.
FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically showing a battery management method
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according to still another embodiment of the present disclosure.
FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing an operability determining step of the
battery management method according to still another embodiment of the present
disclosure.