Non-contact power supply control system for controlling power supply by living body detection

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10128681-B2
Application number	US-201415033032-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 29, 2014
Priority date	Oct 30, 2013
Publication date	Nov 13, 2018
Grant date	Nov 13, 2018

Abstract

A non-contact power supply control system includes: an electric transmission pad connected to a power source unit; a control unit controlling current supply to the electric transmission pad; a living body detecting means detecting a living body present around the electric transmission pad; a power receiving pad magnetically coupled to the electric transmission pad to excite power, when current is supplied from the power source unit to the electric transmission pad; and a power storage unit storing power excited by the power receiving pad. The living body detecting means are arranged on the road surface side, and the control unit, when determining that no living body is present around the electric transmission pad on the basis of a result from the living body detecting means, controls the power supply unit to supply power to the power storage unit.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A non-contact power supply control system, comprising:
an electric transmission pad arranged on a road surface side and connected to an external power supply unit;
a control unit controlling current supply to the electric transmission pad by controlling the power supply unit;
a living body detecting means detecting a living body present around the electric transmission pad;
a power receiving pad mounted to a vehicle and magnetically coupled to the electric transmission pad to excite power when current is supplied from the power supply unit to the electric transmission pad;
a power storage unit mounted to the vehicle to store power excited by the power receiving pad; and
a metal detecting means arranged on the road surface side to detect metal present around the electric transmission pad, wherein
the living body detecting means is arranged on the road surface side,
the control unit, when determining that no living body is present around the electric transmission pad on the basis of a result from the living body detecting means, controls the power supply unit to supply current to the electric transmission pad, thereby exciting power in the power receiving pad to store the power in the power storage unit,
the control unit, when determining that no living body is present around the electric transmission pad on the basis of a result from the living body detecting means and when determining that no metal is present around the electric transmission pad on the basis of a result from the metal detecting means, controls the power supply unit to store power in the power storage unit,
the living body detecting means and the metal detecting means are configured with common heat flux sensors that output sensor signals according to heat flux,
the heat flux sensors includes, when viewed from a direction normal to the road surface, inner heat flux sensors arranged inside the electric transmission pad and outer heat flux sensors arranged around the electric transmission pad, and
the control unit compares a measured value based on the sensor signals outputted from the outer heat flux sensors with a predetermined threshold, while supplying current to the electric transmission pad to cause the power storage unit to store power, and when the measured value is more than the predetermined threshold, determines that at least either one of the living body and the metal is present around the electric transmission pad and stops current supply to the electric transmission pad.

2. The non-contact power supply control system according to claim 1 , wherein
the control unit compares a measured value based on the sensor signals with a predetermined threshold before current is supplied to the electric transmission pad to cause the power storage unit to store power,
determines that no living body is present around the electric transmission pad when the measured value is not more than the predetermined threshold,
supplies current to the electric transmission pad for a predetermined period to heat the metal when it is determined that no living body is present but metal is present around the electric transmission pad, followed by comparing the measured value based on the sensor signals with a predetermined threshold, and
determines that no metal is present around the electric transmission pad when the measured value is not more than the predetermined threshold, to start current supply to the electric transmission pad and cause the power storage unit to store power.

3. The non-contact power supply control system according to claim 1 , wherein
the heat flux sensors are arranged, when viewed from a direction normal to the road surface, inside the electric transmission pad, and
the control unit supplies current to the electric transmission pad for a predetermined period to cause the power storage unit to store power, followed by comparing a measured value based on the sensor signals outputted from the heat flux sensors with the predetermined threshold, and, when the measured value is more than the predetermined threshold, determines that at least either one of the living body and the metal is present around the electric transmission pad.

4. The non-contact power supply control system according to claim 1 , wherein
each of the heat flux sensors is configured to include an insulating substrate made of a thermoplastic resin where a plurality of first and second via holes penetrating in a thickness direction are formed, the first and second via holes being filled with first and second interlayer connection members made of metals different from each other, the first and second interlayer connection members being alternately connected in series, and
at least one of the metals forming the first and second interlayer connection members is a sintered alloy where a plurality of metal atoms are sintered in a state of maintaining a crystal structure of the metal atoms.

5. A non-contact power supply control system, comprising:
an electric transmission pad arranged on a road surface side and connected to an external power supply unit;
a control unit controlling current supply to the electric transmission pad by controlling the power supply unit;
a living body detecting means detecting a living body present around the electric transmission pad;
a power receiving pad mounted to a vehicle and magnetically coupled to the electric transmission pad to excite power when current is supplied from the power supply unit to the electric transmission pad;
a power storage unit mounted to the vehicle to store power excited by the power receiving pad; and
a metal detecting means arranged on the road surface side to detect metal present around the electric transmission pad, wherein
the living body detecting means is arranged on the road surface side,
the control unit, when determining that no living body is present around the electric transmission pad on the basis of a result from the living body detecting means, controls the power supply unit to supply current to the electric transmission pad, thereby exciting power in the power receiving pad to store the power in the power storage unit,
the control unit, when determining that no living body is present around the electric transmission pad on the basis of a result from the living body detecting means and when determining that no metal is present around the electric transmission pad on the basis of a result from the metal detecting means, controls the power supply unit to store power in the power storage unit,
the living body detecting means and the metal detecting means are configured with common heat flux sensors that output sensor signals according to heat flux,
the heat flux sensors are arranged, when viewed from a direction normal to the road surface, inside the electric transmission pad, and
the control unit supplies current to the electric transmission pad for a predetermined period to cause the power storage unit to store power, followed by comparing a measured value based on the sensor signals outputted from the heat flux sensors with the predetermined threshold, and, when the measured value is more than the predetermined threshold, determines that at least either one of the living body and the metal is present around the electric transmission pad.

6. A non-contact power supply control system, comprising:
an electric transmission pad arranged on a road surface side and connected to an external power supply unit;
a control unit controlling current supply to the electric transmission pad by controlling the power supply unit;
a living body detecting means detecting a living body present around the electric transmission pad;
a power receiving pad mounted to a vehicle and magnetically coupled to the electric transmission pad to excite power when curr

Assignees

• Denso Corp

Inventors

• Tanaka Yasuhiro
• Sakaida Atusi
• Taniguchi Toshihisa
• Gouko Norio
• Yazaki Yoshitaro
• Shiraishi Yoshihiko
• Harada Toshikazu
• Saitou Keita

Classifications

• B60L53/124

  Detection or removal of foreign bodies · CPC title

• B60L53/122

  Circuits or methods for driving the primary coil, e.g. supplying electric power to the coil · CPC title

• B60L53/126

  Methods for pairing a vehicle and a charging station, e.g. establishing a one-to-one relation between a wireless power transmitter and a wireless power receiver · CPC title

• H02J2105/37

  exchanging power with electric vehicles [EV] or with hybrid electric vehicles [HEV] · CPC title

• H02J7/82

  Control of state of charge [SOC] · CPC title