DESC:ON-BOARD CENTRAL ELECTRONIC CONTROL SYSTEM FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLE

Field of the Invention
In general, this invention, relates to a system and method for controlling an electric vehicle. More particularly, the present invention provides an innovative on-board control system which enables to monitor, diagnose and control the vehicle smartly.

Background of the Invention
Background description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the present invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.

A long evolution that bike frames and various components and the system of an electric vehicle have undergone has resulted in relatively standard forms according to their use, which offer a satisfactory compromise between several criteria. Among these criteria, mention can be made in particular of the stiffness and aesthetic design of the frame, the appearance of two-wheelers with electric motors, whether simply to assist pedalling or as a principal means of propulsion, of course requires a battery to be carried, which is a particularly heavy element and has a degree of sensitivity to shocks. The integration of a battery in a frame having one of the configurations, usually found in bikes, pose problems particularly the controlling system in smooth running of the vehicle etc.

An electronic control system plays a very important role in functioning of the electric vehicle. Power and energy control is another challenge in any electric vehicle. Fuel efficiency and diagnosis, the potential errors in various units of a vehicle, have always been a major challenge. Various works have been going on by employing number of control units to control different activities and functions of the electric vehicle. Various solutions have been provided to use more computation power using minimum energy.

Various prior arts are disclosing different solutions by employing the central control unit to provide effective solutions in vehicle. However, still there is need to provide an effective solution for controlling the complete vehicle by monitoring and diagnosing the potential issues in the vehicle.

It would be desirable, therefore, to develop an improved and innovative control system which is capable of monitoring, diagnosing and controlling the vehicle in an intelligent manner and obviates the challenges that exists in the prior arts.

Summary of the Invention
The various objectives and embodiments of present invention as presented herein are understood to be illustrative and not restrictive and are non-limiting with respect to the scope of the invention.

It is an objective of the invention to provide a central control unit which is capable of interacting with the whole electric vehicle and control the vehicle efficiently.

It is one other objective of the invention to provide a central control unit which is capable of analysing vehicle behaviour and assist and guide the driver to get better and smart ride experience.

It is another objective of the present invention to provide a smart central control unit to diagnose the vehicle intelligently and provide the future indication for any drive failure of any components of the vehicle to enable providing safety to the driver.

It is another objective of the present invention to provide a central control unit which is capable to guide the driver to drive the vehicle economically.

It is another objective of the present invention to provide a central control unit which is capable of predicting based on the analysis of the vehicle.

It is another objective of the present invention to provide a central control unit which is capable of predicting future of component’s failure in the vehicle and also guide to get the spare parts from the nearest provider based on the historical data analysis.

It is another objective of the present invention to provide a drive control unit which is capable of executing the instructions received by micro-electronic controller.

The above and other objectives of the present invention are achieved according to the following embodiments of the present invention. However, the disclosed embodiments are exemplary based on the preferred and best mode of the invention and does not limit the scope of the present invention.

According to the present invention, a solution for designing an electronic control unit for electric vehicles is provided, wherein said control unit is capable of controlling entire vehicle power requirement smartly, ensuring safety requirements, performing vehicle diagnostic and learning vehicle performance and rider’s behaviour over on-board computing capabilities.

In accordance with preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a smart electronic control system comprising input power protection unit, powering the sub-power unit connected with all the digital components, a Micro Electronic controller (MEC) capable of monitoring, diagnosis and controlling the vehicle by interacting with several units of the vehicle, a Communication unit interacting with various components of the vehicle irrespective of any communication protocol and directing the same to MEC to enabling the MEC to control the functioning of other units of the vehicle, a switch control unit capable of interacting with MEC and all the physical switches of the vehicle, Power analyser unit capable of analysing abnormal load conditions and informing the MEC and wherein MEC is able to take decision to protect and guide to run the vehicle smoothly and a drive control unit capable of performing the execution of instructions received from various units of the vehicle such as Battery Management System, Vehicle Charger, Motor inverter/controller, Telematics Unit, Instrument Cluster, Sub-Master unit and other Vehicle interface and to the micro control unit, wherein several units includes but not limited to communication unit, switch control unit, power analyser unit and drive control unit.

In accordance with preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a smart electronic control system comprising input power protection unit, powering the sub-power unit connected with all the digital components, a Micro Electronic controller capable of monitoring, diagnosis and controlling the vehicle by interacting with several units of the vehicle, a Communication unit interacting with various components of the vehicle irrespective of any communication protocol and directing the same to MEC to enabling the MEC to control the functioning of other units of the vehicle, a Switch control unit capable of interacting with MEC and all the physical switches of the vehicle, Power analyser unit capable of analysing abnormal load conditions and informing the MEC and wherein MEC is able to take decision to protect and guide to run the vehicle smoothly, wherein the Input power protection unit is adapted to protect the unit by any power fluctuation and reverse polarity issues.

In accordance with preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a smart electronic control system comprising input power protection unit, powering the sub-power unit connected with all the digital components, a Micro Electronic controller capable of monitoring, diagnosis and controlling the vehicle by interacting with several other units of the vehicle, a Communication unit interacting with various components of the vehicle irrespective of any communication protocol and directing the same to MEC to enabling the MEC to control the functioning of other units of the vehicle, a Switch control unit capable of interacting with MEC and the all physical switches of the vehicle, Power analyser unit capable of analysing abnormal load conditions and informing to the MEC and wherein MEC is able to take decision to protect and guide to run the vehicle smoothly, wherein the Electronic controller unit is adapted to gather the historical information of the vehicle and keep the same employing an on-board memory unit.

According to the present invention, the other Units include but not limited to motor control unit, battery management unit, charger unit, instruments cluster unit, telematics unit, power management unit, buck/boost converter unit, Drive profile unit, Sub-Master unit and the like.

In accordance with preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a smart electronic control system comprising input power protection unit, powering the sub-power unit connected with all the digital components, a Micro Electronic controller capable of monitoring, diagnosis and controlling the vehicle by interacting with several units of the vehicle, a Communication unit interacting with various components of the vehicle irrespective of any communication protocol and directing the same to MEC to enabling the MEC to control the functioning of other units of the vehicle, a Switch control unit capable of interacting with MEC and the all physical switches of the vehicle, Power analyser unit capable of analysing abnormal load conditions and informing to the MEC and wherein MEC is able to take decision to protect and guide to run the vehicle smoothly, wherein the switch control unit receives the inputs while any switch is being pressed and communicate to the MEC to enable to take any decision and control the functioning by MEC and wherein the switch control unit is capable of monitoring the frequent uses of the switches and communicate with MEC for any further action to be taken and Sub-Master unit to control other interface controlling vehicle features.

According to the present invention, the micro control unit (MCU) /micro-electronic controller (MEC) is capable of predicting the life expectancy of the components and the units of the vehicle based on the number of uses and kind of uses of the same and wherein MEC is adapted of doing on-board data computation and take the judgement based on the analysis results.

In accordance with preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a smart electronic control system comprising input power protection unit which powering the sub-power unit connected with all the digital components, a Micro Electronic controller capable of monitoring, diagnosis and controlling the vehicle by interacting with several units of the vehicle, a Communication unit interacting with various components of the vehicle irrespective of any communication protocol and directing the same to MEC to enabling the MEC to control the functioning of other units of the vehicle, a Switch control unit capable of interacting with MEC and the all physical switches of the vehicle such as High Beam, Low beam, Indicator Left, Indicator right, Holiday mode, Kill switch, Ignition switch, Drive selection switch, Side stand switch, Reverse switch, other combination switches etc, Power analyser unit capable of analysing the abnormal load conditions of auxiliary loads and informing to the MEC and wherein MEC is able to take decision to protect and guide to run the vehicle smoothly, wherein the switch control unit has an isolation sub- unit which is adapted to save the electronic control unit from any external undesired signal inputs.

In accordance with preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a smart electronic control system comprising input power protection unit, powering the sub-power unit connected with all the digital components, a Micro Electronic controller capable of monitoring, diagnosis and controlling the vehicle by interacting with several units of the vehicle, a Communication unit interacting with various components of the vehicle irrespective of any communication protocol and directing the same to MEC to enabling the MEC to control the functioning of other units of the vehicle and report the system with any failure/potential failure, reporting relevant fault code or diagnostic trouble code (DTC) for troubleshooting and diagnostics, a Switch control unit capable of interacting with MEC and the all physical switches of the vehicle, Power analyser unit capable of analysing the abnormal load conditions of auxiliary loads and informing to the MEC and wherein MEC is able to take decision to protect and guide to run the vehicle smoothly, wherein MEC is having over the air update (OTA) feature for live updating the operational parameters via Telematics or other network communicating devices.

The solutions of the present disclosure are to be clearly described in the following with reference to the accompanying drawing figures. The flowchart mentioned herein in the specification is exemplary with respect to indicating the function of the units in said system and it is obvious that the embodiments to be described are only a part rather than all the embodiments of the present disclosure.

All other embodiments obtained by persons skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the present disclosure without creative efforts shall fall within the protection scope of the present disclosure.
Brief Description of Drawings
Figure 1 shows a flow diagram illustrating different components of smart control system.
Figure 2 shows a flow diagram illustrating various units of the smart control system driven by drive control unit.

Detailed Description of the Invention
The following is a detailed description of embodiments of the disclosure depicted in the accompanying drawings. The embodiments are in such detail as to clearly communicate the disclosure. However, the amount of detail offered is not intended to limit the anticipated variations of embodiments; on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.

Various terms as used herein are shown below. To the extent a term used in a disclosure is not defined below, it should be given the broadest definition persons in the pertinent art have given that term as reflected in printed publications and issued patents at the time of filing.

The vehicle according to the present invention is defined as any two-wheeler vehicle, preferably an electric vehicle.

In accordance with preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a smart electronic control system comprising input power protection unit, powering the sub-power unit connected with all the digital components, a Micro Electronic controller capable of monitoring, diagnosis and controlling the vehicle by interacting with several units of the vehicle, a Communication unit interacting with various components of the vehicle irrespective of any communication protocol and directing the same to MEC to enabling the MEC to control the functioning of other units of the vehicle, a Switch control unit capable of interacting with MEC and the all physical switches of the vehicle, Power analyser unit capable of analysing the abnormal load conditions of auxiliary loads and informing to the MEC and wherein MEC is able to take decision to protect and guide to run the vehicle smoothly, wherein the auxiliary loads includes but not limited to capacitive loads, resistive loads, inductive loads or LED.

In accordance with preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a smart electronic control system comprising input power protection unit, powering the sub-power unit connected with all the digital components, a Micro Electronic controller capable of monitoring, diagnosis and controlling the vehicle by interacting with various units of the vehicle, a Communication unit interacting with various components of the vehicle irrespective of any communication protocol and directing the same to MEC to enabling the MEC to control the functioning of other units of the vehicle, a Switch control unit capable of interacting with MEC and the all physical switches of the vehicle, Power analyser unit capable of analysing the abnormal load conditions of auxiliary loads and informing to the MEC and wherein MEC is able to take decision to protect and guide to run the vehicle smoothly, wherein the Input power protection unit takes power by any DC source, preferably buck/boost converter or battery.

In accordance with present invention said Input power protection unit is powering the sub-power unit connected with all the digital components, wherein I/p power is passed to the filter circuit designed to eliminate ripples and bi-directional voltage spikes above 14V, the filtered voltage is passed to reverse polarity protection unit which is meant to protect the device against the reverse connections. The output is then passed to buck converter whose output is further filtered to power the on-board digital/analogue circuit requirements.

The Microelectronic controller unit capable of monitoring, diagnosis and controlling the vehicle by interacting with various units of the vehicle, wherein the microelectronic controller unit is the main brain comprising a clock generation unit for execution, A processing unit to perform the decision, arithmetical and logical operation along with a controlling unit to monitor and give the control command/information via external extensive input/output port which interacts with other peripheral interfaces. It has on-board memory unit to keep a copy of vehicle information. The function has been extended for over the air update (OTA) to enable a wireless control over the future updates on the configuration parameters of the on-board central electronic control system of the vehicle via Telematics or any network operated devices.

The Communication unit is interacting with various components of the vehicle irrespective of any communication protocol and directing the same to MEC, to enable the MEC to control the functioning of other units of the vehicle, wherein the communication unit is meant to receive the information from available units on vehicle and interpret the protocol that can be understood by Microelectronic controller unit and responds to the units for feedback and control.

The Switch control unit is capable of interacting with MEC and the all physical switches of the vehicle, wherein said Switch control unit is meant to receive the control input signals from the available switches on the vehicle in terms of signal or information and send it to MEC for action, the input is passed to the isolation circuit which protects the MEC hardware against unwanted input from the switches.

The Power analyser unit is capable of analysing abnormal load conditions and informing to the MEC and wherein MEC is able to take decision to protect and guide to run the vehicle smoothly, wherein said Power analyser unit is meant to power the auxiliary load with feedback upon over load, short-circuit, cycle usage, wire off detection, open circuit, over temperature and other diagnostic features with proportional current sense, contributing a smart control and monitoring feature.

In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided Electronic control system which comprises a power protection unit to power the sub-power unit connected with all the digital components, wherein said unit further comprises of Micro Electronic controller capable of monitoring, diagnosis and controlling the vehicle by interacting with various units of the vehicle. Further, the Communication unit is interacting with various components of the vehicle irrespective of any communication protocol and directing the same to MEC, to enabling the MEC to control the functioning of other units of the vehicle, the Switch control unit is capable of interacting with MEC and the all physical switches of the vehicle and Power analyser unit is capable of analysing abnormal load conditions and informing to the MEC and wherein MEC is able to take decision to protect and guide to run the vehicle safely and smoothly.

Referring to Figure 1, a smart electronic control system is illustrated that comprises of an input power protection unit capable of powering the sub-power unit connected with all digital component and adapted to protect the unit by any power fluctuation and reverse polarity issues, a Micro Electronic Controller (MEC) capable of monitoring, diagnosing and controlling the vehicle by interacting with several units of the vehicle, a communication unit capable of interacting with various components of the vehicle irrespective of any communication protocol and directing the same to MEC thus enabling the MEC to control the functioning of other units of the vehicle, a switch control unit comprises of an isolation unit adapted to save the MEC from any external undesired signal inputs and is capable of monitoring the frequent uses of switches and communicate with MEC by receiving inputs from MEC every time when switches are being pressed thus enabling the MEC to take any required decision or action and is capable of interacting with MEC and all the physical switches of the vehicle, wherein physical switches includes but not limited to High Beam, Low Beam, Indicator left, Indicator right, Holiday mode, Kill Switch, Horn switch, Positioning switch Ignition switch, drive selection switch , Reverse switch, other combination switches and side stand switch, a power analyser unit capable of analysing abnormal load conditions of auxiliary loads, informing the MEC, wherein the MEC is able to take decisions to protect and guide to run the vehicle smoothly, a drive control unit capable of performing the execution of instructions received from various units of the vehicle, wherein, said various units are battery management system, vehicle charger, motor inverter/controller, Telematics Unit, Instrument Cluster, micro control unit , Sub-master units and other vehicle interface. The MEC is adapted to gather historical information of the vehicle in the form of data, store the same employing an on-board memory unit, adapted of doing on-board data computation and take the judgement based on the results of the data analysis and is also capable of predicting the life expectancy of the units and their different components based on their number of uses and kind of uses of the same and is capable of live updating the operational parameters over the air, wherein said operational parameters are the parameters controlling the vehicle health and those parameters are based on information communicated via MEC and to be uploaded further on cloud server via Telematics or any Network operated devices.

Referring to Figure 2, a flow diagram of the On-Board Central Electronic System has been illustrated that shows a Smart Electronic Control System which is adapted to gather historical information of the vehicle in the form of data, store the same employing an on-board memory unit, adapted of doing on-board data computation and take the judgement based on the results of the data analysis, a battery management system helps in controlling the health of battery by monitoring the temperature of embedded battery cells or occurrence of any other abnormal conditions or malfunctions, each of such occurrences is communicated to Smart Electronic Control System from battery management system and further abnormal conditions are brought into control on receiving instructions from Smart Electronic Control System by either decreasing the supplied power or by switching off the battery, wherein every parameter with regard to the vehicle’s movement are covered under the Events and is monitored by Inverter unit, wherein motor controller of the inverter unit respond to the issues with respect to the vehicle’s movement and transmits the information to Smart Electronic Control System via communication interface and revert back to the inverter unit after analysing, to which motor controller responds and take decision to resolve the issue by limiting the speed to align the vehicle’s movement intelligently in real time. When the charger is plugged into the charging unit of the vehicle, the Smart Electronic Control System quickly receives result and feedback based on the operational conditions of vehicle charger and also identifies whether the charging is off-board or on-board, and activates the charger, simultaneously charger receives information from Battery Management System to decide the amount of charging to be done and whether slow or fast charging has to be provided. Indirectly, Battery Management System controls the vehicle charger. A Sub-Master unit is provided in the system that comprises of other Sub-Electronic Control Unit systems to control additional incorporated functions of the vehicle by way of communication with Smart Electronic Control System. Simultaneously, a memory unit stores all the information communicated via Smart Electronic Control System to or from other units. A Telematics Unit is integrated into the On-board Central Electronic System that collects information from the Smart Electronic Control System, Memory Unit and upload the same on cloud server in real time over the air (OTA) for local remote monitoring of vehicle, information analysis and for receiving instructions commanded from the user controller, wherein, the collected information by the Telematics Unit is the information communicated via Smart Electronic Control System to other units of the vehicle. A dedicated power source is embedded inside the On-board Central Electronic System which is responsible for supplying power to Smart Electronic Control System and to vehicle instrument cluster of display, wherein a fuse-box is situated in between the power source and Smart Electronic Control System to avoid unfavourable current and voltage from reaching Smart Electronic Control System, wherein power source supplies power to other units via Smart Electronic Control System, wherein Display unit shows battery percentage left, temperature, Odometer reading, trip meter reading, speedometer, Riding Mode, Reverse Mode, Right and Left Indicator and Fault Indicator including Soft and Hard, wherein display unit is not limited to showing only the above mentioned vehicle information. Display Unit sends feedback including information being shown on display to Smart Electronic Control System, and from thereon, it is transferred to telematics unit for further analysis.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the foregoing 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 smart electronic control system comprises:
an input power protection unit capable of powering the sub-power unit connected with all digital components;
a Micro Electronic Controller (MEC) capable of monitoring, diagnosing and controlling the vehicle by interacting with several units of the vehicle;
a communication unit capable of interacting with various components of the vehicle irrespective of any communication protocol and directing the same to MEC thus enabling the MEC to control the functioning of other units of the vehicle;
a switch control unit capable of interacting with MEC and all the physical switches of the vehicle;
a power analyser unit capable of analysing abnormal load conditions of auxiliary loads, informing the MEC, wherein the MEC is able to take decisions to protect and guide to run the vehicle smoothly; and
a drive control unit capable of performing the execution of instructions received from various units of the vehicle.

2. The smart electronic control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said several units are communication unit, switch control unit, power analyser unit and drive control unit.

3. The smart electronic control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said various units are battery management system, vehicle charger, motor inverter/controller, Telematics Unit, Instrument Cluster, micro control unit and other vehicle interface.

4. The smart electronic control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said input power protection unit is adapted to protect the unit by any power fluctuation and reverse polarity issues.

5. The smart electronic control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said Micro Electronic Controller (MEC) is adapted to gather historical information of the vehicle in the form of data, store the same employing an on-board memory unit, adapted of doing on-board data computation and take the judgement based on the results of the data analysis.

6. The smart electronic control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said other units include but not limited to motor control unit, battery management unit, buck/boost converter unit and drive profile unit.

7. The smart electronic control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said switch control unit has an isolation unit adapted to save the MEC from any external undesired signal inputs and is capable of monitoring the frequent uses of switches and communicate with MEC by receiving inputs from MEC every time when switches are being pressed thus enabling the MEC to take any required decision or action.

8. The smart electronic control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said MEC is capable of predicting the life expectancy of the units and their different components based on their number of uses and kind of uses of the same.

9. The smart electronic control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said physical switches includes but not limited to High Beam, Low Beam, Indicator left, Indicator right, Holiday mode, Kill Switch, Horn switch, Positioning switch Ignition switch, drive selection switch and side stand switch.

10. The smart electronic control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said Micro Electronic Controller (MEC) is capable of live updating the operational parameters over the air (OTA).