FIELD OF THE INVENTION:

The present invention generally relates to an electric vehicle battery recharging system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a smart and secure electric vehicle battery recharging system that uses two way alternating current power dispenser with pluggable power injection from vehicle to grid module and vice versa.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION:

An electric vehicle (EV) uses a driving system which was powered by various energy sources. These electric vehicles are majorly classified into two types (i.e.) hybrid electric vehicle and fully electric vehicle. The hybrid electric vehicles use internal combustion engines and electric batteries to power electric motors. Whereas the fully electric vehicles are solely receiving electricity for charging their batteries from various resources. The batteries used in these type of electric vehicles stores the energy in the form of electric energy which is obtained from the conversion of kinetic energy of the vehicle recovered during braking.

In electric vehicles, there is an obstacle in overcoming “range hindrance” i.e. the battery will run out of charge before it reaches the required destination. Also, the vehicle varies in actual range based on driver operation which has been found to be worryingly less than expected range, especially in heavily populated areas where traffic speed is variable, the non-motive peripherals (air conditioning, music system and lighting system etc.) of vehicle demands more from batteries during this traffic scenario.

This varying range prevents electric vehicle users from accurately planning the actual transportation range with their vehicle. In order to reduce range hindrance, several attempts have been made by increasing the energy density of battery energy per vehicle. The increasing of energy density in batteries have certain limitations since it is a slow progress for large number of electric vehicle batteries. Also, the hybrid electric vehicles reduce range hindrance, however the use of electric and combustion drive systems together increases the cost and does not prevent the air pollution and petroleum consumption.

In addition, the mass and weight of batteries required to power the electric vehicle as well as the cost of the batteries limits the consideration of removable batteries. Also, those vehicles are extremely inefficient and the mileage is lesser than the fossil fueled vehicles. Moreover, if electric vehicles use heavy batteries then it may cause limitations in overall capacity of it. A research is carried to develop new batteries which have much higher power per unit weight and higher capacity, so as to allow faster and more long-ranging vehicles to be developed.

A good adoption rate of electric vehicles is evident in recent years, as well it increases the demand to recharge the batteries of electric vehicle. Thus, the source for recharging batteries mainly depend on grid. On-board charger of electric vehicles is associated with the battery which is slow charging battery. Few electric vehicles have removable battery which are taken from the vehicle and are charged. Charging stations are relatively new in current scenario to overcome the few adoption hindrances.

The charging stations are used to charge these vehicles from the power grid at home or using a street or shop charging station, in which power is generated from a variety of domestic resources such as coal, hydroelectricity, nuclear and others. In this station, a user plug-in his vehicle battery into a socket for charging and remove the battery plug-in after the completion of charging. The charging of a battery is done at considerable duration periodically. The charging stations are in a stage of standalone, unmanaged or semi-managed from a central control system perspective. Hence in a stressed grid scenario, these charging stations keeps drawing power from grid with a little control from central control system and thereby putting grids into risk of blackout.

Currently, the availability of number of charging stations is not as common as petrol refilling stations. Further, the charging stations are not capable to reverse power from vehicle to grid under grid stress scenarios. Also, it lacks in integrated cloud server where, individual, community, apartment or organizations can control, monitor, alert or do billing seamlessly. The charging station have single power outlet from a single input source for electric vehicles. Hence, an electric vehicle could occupy one charging station completely for long period. Other disadvantages in the charging stations are recovery scenarios while power failure or power shutdown and lacks in emergency shutdown option during natural or manmade hazards.

Since the charging station is relatively in developing stage, it should support the ability to charge different batteries having different capacities and even different terminal voltages. It must be having sufficient control either within the charging station or associated with the batteries to be charged, to permit such charging conditions. As well, the charging station must be equipped in such a manner as to be compatible with the electric vehicles. Apparently, for commercial installations, it must be provided with a means to measure the amount of power being delivered and also to arrive at a monetary charge to be paid by the consumer.

To overcome these disadvantages and also to meet the requirements needed in the existing charging stations, the present invention has been proposed to enable battery recharging system that uses two way alternating current power dispenser to recharge the electric vehicle batteries in a smart and secure manner. This system also helps to stabilize the grid by drawing power as configured and inject power to grid from vehicles when required.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION:

The main objective of the proposed invention is to provide a smart and secure system to recharge electric vehicle batteries that uses two way alternating current dispenser with pluggable power injection from vehicle to grid module and vice versa.

In accordance with the above objective, the system of the present invention helps to stabilize the grid by drawing the power to supply electric vehicles as configured. Further, the system reverses the process of injecting power to grid from vehicles under required circumstances. The power injected from vehicle to grid is done with the help of inversion module in the system during few circumstances like power failure scenarios, power fluctuations, etc. The smart charging system gives secure, stable and automated system for the much-needed intelligence to charge the high power electric vehicle and seamlessly charge them in any charging station in the network and thereby manages the account details easily.

According to the present invention, the smart battery recharging system for electric vehicles has an integrated full fledge microcomputer with network module to communicate with central cloud server and a RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) module to make user authentication. The system also comprises relays to turn on charging, sensors and detectors for unexpected interruption management during emergency situations. Further, the system includes a grid inversion module for power inversion from DC to AC in order to manage grid stress scenarios (i.e.) power demand / peak hours.

In accordance to the present invention, when a user swipes identification card basically a RFID card on the RFID sensor, the RFID module reads the card and sends information to onboard computer of the charging station. The onboard computer accesses cloud server via network module, the server authenticates the corresponding card details against database and checks financials via payment service. If user is not authenticated, the system does not allow the user to charge electric vehicle. If authenticated, the system indicates the available socket to the user for charging. Then, the system detects the socket plugged with the battery by means of IR (Infrared) detector from which the plugged-in instructions are sent to the onboard computer. The onboard computer instructs the corresponding relay to turn ON to start the charging of batteries.

The major advantage of the present invention is the ability to recharge the batteries of different types, different capacity, and different terminal voltages. Also, it provides the flexibility in recharging the batteries in any charging station in the network and allows to operate the system easily with minimal effort as it offers just swipe and charge the batteries.

The objective and advantages of the present invention will become more evident from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS:

The objective of the present invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates the enlarged view of charging station with communication flow between full fledge microcomputer and cloud server; and

FIG. 2 illustrates the front view of the charging stations.

REFERENCE NUMERALS:

100: Charging Station
200: Main controller
1: Microcomputer / onboard computer
2: Network module
3: Central cloud server
4: Isolated relay / AC to DC converter
5: Power drawn detecting sensor
6: Infrared sensor
7: RFID module
8: Water detector
9: Heat sensor
10: Kill switch
11: LCD touch screen
12: Server push
13: Master-slave service
14: Power splitting
15: Recovery module
16: Grid inversion module (DC to AC power inversion)
17: Grid synchronization module
18: Mini battery charger
19: Database
20: Payment service
21: Backup battery
30: Heat sensor data
31: Isolated relay control unit
P: Socket out

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION:

The proposed invention provides a smart and secure system to recharge the electric vehicle batteries. The system has number of charging stations connected in a network where the charging station comprises a main controller to control the recharging operation in charging station by using two way alternating current dispenser with pluggable power injection from vehicle to grid module and vice versa.

The present invention discloses the smart battery charging station that permits to recharge the batteries of electric vehicles by authenticating the user and seamlessly allows the user to recharge any kind of batteries in any charging station in the network. Also, it has a central cloud server to manage all the account and payment details of authenticated users in the large much-needed intelligence network.

In the present invention, the smart battery charging station comprises: an integrated full fledge microcomputer (1), network module (2), a central cloud server (3), relays (4), sensors (5, 6), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) module (7), water detector (8), heat sensor (9), kill switch (10), LCD touch screen (11), server push (12), master slave service (13), database (19), payment service (20), power splitter (14), recovery module (15), grid inversion module (DC to AC) (16), grid synchronization module (17) and a backup battery (21).

FIG. 1 illustrates the enlarged view of battery charging station (100) and FIG. 2 illustrates the front view of charging station of the present invention. According to FIG. 1, it includes a main controller (200) for controlling the operations of charging station (100); a central cloud server (3) having data such as server push (12) for software updates; master slave service (13) for remote command execution from server (3), heat sensor data (30), database (19), payment service (20) and mini battery charger (18). The main controller includes an integrated full fledge microcomputer (1), a network module (2) to communicate with central cloud server (3), an isolated relay control unit (31) to control the high current at relays, heat sensor (9) to protect from overheating and fire, recovery module (15) for power failure and recovery scenarios, grid inversion module (16) for DC to AC power inversion, grid sync module (17) for frequency synchronizing with grid to inject power and a backup battery (21).

The system of the present invention includes a user authentication module (7) for authorizing the user in the charging station. The authorization of user is done by any of the following methods such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), barcode detection, Quick Response (QR) code detection, magnetic code detection and biometric authentication but not limiting to it. In the present invention, the preferred method used for authorization is RFID. Also, a display screen is used for displaying the user details and financial transactions in the system. The display screen used in the present invention can be a LCD screen, LED screen, portable or handheld device, kiosk display but not limiting to it.

By referring to FIG. 1, the charging station (100) of the present invention further includes Radio Frequency Identification module (7) to identify authorized RFID cards, infrared based sensors (6) to detect plugin of electric vehicles, sensors (5) to measure power drawn, isolated relays (4) to control the high current, water detector (8) for protection from flooding, power splitting (14) to socket out (P) and LCD touch screen (11) to view account details and financials.

The working of the present invention according to a preferred embodiment involves the user authentication by swiping RFID card on the RFID sensor (7) to recharge the battery in charging station. The RFID sensor (7) reads the card ID and sends the information to onboard computer (1). The onboard computer (1) accesses the cloud server (3) via network module (2). The cloud server (3) authenticates the user against database (19) and checks financials via payment service (20). If the user is authenticated, then the system asks the user to insert the plug to any of the available socket and if the user is not authenticated, the system does not allow the user to proceed further. After authentication, the IR detector (6) detects the plugged-in battery into the socket (P) and sends instructions to corresponding relay (4) to turn ON via onboard computer (1). Once the relay (4) gets turned ON, the charging of batteries gets started. The onboard computer (1) notes all transactions by the users and uploads the data to cloud server (3) for storing, processing and payment services (20). Further, the transaction history, payment details and account details are displayed on the LCD touch screen (11) in the onboard computer (1).

Advantageously, the network of smart charging system of present invention brings secure, stable and automated system to recharge the high power requiring electric vehicle. This helps to stabilize the grid by drawing power as configured and inject power to grid from vehicles when required circumstances. Under certain circumstance like power failure scenarios or power fluctuations, the power from the vehicle is injected into the grid by means of grid inversion module (16) which inverts the power from DC to AC power. The grid sync module (17) synchronizes the frequency with grid to inject power.

With reference to above, the present invention does not require a person to have knowledge to operate it. It just offers the process of swiping and thereby resulting in charging of the electric vehicle batteries on the go.

Further, the present invention has few advantages during the occurrence of few unexpected interruptions which are explained and are not limited to those described below:

i. User unplugs the battery while charging:

a. The IR detectors (6) detect plug removal and sends instructions to microcomputer (1);
b. Microcomputer (1) instructs corresponding relay (4) to turn OFF and terminates the session from server (3) connection.

ii. Power failure:

a. The system’s electronics components are backed up by a battery (21) with the help of mini battery charger (18);
b. Main supply goes OFF. Hence, the power sensors (5) detects and instructs the microcomputer (1); and
c. Microcomputer (1) writes all users data, charging time, power consumed and state information to a local file and waits for power to come back.

iii. Physical damage:

a. Every component is continuously synchronized with microcomputer (1);
b. When the system gets damaged intentionally or unintentionally, these synchronization breaks, the microcomputer (1) will shut down the output socket (P) first; and
c. Sends the information to cloud server (3) and then, it shutdown itself.

iv. Hacking attempt:

a. The charging station (100) runs on highly secure 2-way SSL certificate-based communication with server (3);
b. Every instruction from server (3) to client or vice versa is verified against digital signatures;
c. If any tampering with communication alters the signature, then the system will not acknowledge the instructions and raises an alarm to central server (3).

While the foregoing written description of the invention enables one of ordinary skill to make and use what is considered presently to be the best mode thereof, those of ordinary skill will understand and appreciate the existence of variations, combinations, and equivalents of the specific embodiment, method, and examples herein. The invention should therefore not be limited by the above described embodiment, method, and examples, but by all embodiments and methods within the scope of the invention as claimed.

Claims:

1. A smart and secure battery recharging system with pluggable power injection to heterogenous batteries comprising:
a. a user authentication module (7) to identify authorized users;
b. a main controller to control the operations of a charging station (100);
c. a central cloud server (3) to access data through a network module (2);
d. an IR detector (6) to detect the plugged-in of said battery to a socket out (P);
e. one or more sensors (5) to measure power drawn,
f. one or more isolated relays (4) to control the high current;
g. a power splitter (14) to split power in said socket out (P) via said relays (4);
h. a display screen (11) to view account details and financials;
i. a water detector (8) to protect from flooding; and
j. a kill switch (10) to shut down in emergency circumstances.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said main controller (200) comprises:
a. an integrated full fledge microcomputer (1) to communicate with said central cloud server (3);
b. an isolated relay control unit (31) to control the high current at said relays (4);
c. a heat sensor (9) to protect from overheating and fire;
d. a recovery module (15) for power failure and recovery scenarios;
e. a grid inversion module (16) to invert DC power to AC power;
f. a grid sync module (17) to synchronize the frequency synchronizing with grid to inject power; and
g. a backup battery (21).

3. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said central cloud server (3) maintains data from:
a. said heat sensor data (30);
b. a server push (12) for software updates;
c. a master slave service (13) for remote command execution from server;
d. a database (19) to store user information;
e. a payment service (20) for transactions and financials; and
f. a mini battery charger (18) to control the charging operation of said backup battery (21).

4. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said grid sync module (17) is used for synchronizing power frequency from battery to grid to inject power during power demand or peak hours.

5. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said system injects the power using two way alternating current dispensing from vehicle to grid and vice versa.

6. A method for charging battery of an electric vehicle from charging station comprising the steps of:
a. swiping a user’s ID card (RFID based) on RFID sensor (7);
b. reading said card ID information and sending said information to microcomputer (1);
c. accessing said information with cloud server (3) via network module (2) for ensuring the user authentication;
d. authenticating said user against database (19) and checking financials via payment service (20);
e. verifying said authorized user for accessing said charging station (100);
f. allowing said authorized user to plug-in said battery into said charging station (100);
g. detecting the battery plugged-in to the socket using IR detector (6);
h. instructing corresponding relay (4) to turn ON based on said IR detector (6) via microcomputer (1); and
i. turning ON said relay and starting the charging of battery.