Inductive power transfer for transferring electric energy to a vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10351006-B2
Application number	US-201415101596-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 5, 2014
Priority date	Dec 6, 2013
Publication date	Jul 16, 2019
Grant date	Jul 16, 2019

Abstract

An inductive power transfer system for transferring electric energy to a vehicle. The system includes a wayside electric conductor arrangement and a vehicle side receiving device. The wayside electric conductor arrangement is combined with an array of a plurality of sensor coils, placed side by side to form the array. The array extends in directions transverse to a field direction of the electromagnetic field, which field direction extends from the wayside electric conductor arrangement to the vehicle side receiving device during transfer of the energy to the vehicle. A detector arrangement is connected to the plurality of the sensor coils and adapted to detect an effect of any magnetic and/or electrically conducting body, that is possibly located in the field direction on at least one electrical property of at least one of the sensor coils. At least one marker body is combined with the vehicle side receiving device. A position determining device is connected to the detector arrangement and adapted to determine a position of the vehicle side receiving device. The invention also relates to a method of operating and of manufacturing an inductive power transfer system.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An inductive power transfer system for transferring electric energy to a vehicle, wherein the system comprises
a wayside electric conductor arrangement for producing an alternating electromagnetic field and for thereby transferring the energy to the vehicle; and
a vehicle side receiving device for receiving the alternating electromagnetic field and for producing electric energy by magnetic induction,
wherein:
the wayside electric conductor arrangement is combined with an array of a plurality of sensor coils, the sensor coils being placed side by side to form the array,
the array extends in directions transverse to a field direction of the electromagnetic field, which field direction extends from the wayside electric conductor arrangement to the vehicle side receiving device during transfer of the energy to the vehicle,
a detector arrangement is connected to the plurality of the sensor coils, the detector arrangement being adapted to detect an effect of any magnetic and/or electrically conducting body, that is possibly located in the field direction, on at least one electrical property of at least one of the sensor coils,
the vehicle side receiving device is combined with a communication transmitter adapted to transmit communication signals to the array of the plurality of sensor coils, wherein the detector arrangement and/or a communication receiver, that is connected to the plurality of the sensor coils, is/are adapted to receive the communication signals via at least one of the plurality of sensor coils, and
the system is adapted to use a communication signal received via at least one of the plurality of sensor coils to detect a position of the vehicle side receiving device.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein a position determining device of the system is adapted to determine a position of the communication transmitter and, thereby, of the vehicle side receiving device by detecting a sensor coil of the array of the plurality of sensor coils or by detecting sensor coils of the array of the plurality of sensor coils which is/are nearest to the communication transmitter.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the detector arrangement and/or a position determining device of the system is adapted to determine whether and near which of the plurality of the sensor coils there is a magnetic and/or electrically conducting body.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is adapted to operate the wayside electric conductor arrangement only if an alignment of the vehicle side receiving device, which is determined from at least two determined positions, fulfils a predetermined condition, wherein the at least two determined positions comprise a determined position of the communication transmitter.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is adapted to operate the wayside electric conductor arrangement only if the determined position of the vehicle side receiving device fulfils a predetermined condition.

6. An arrangement for transferring electric energy to a vehicle, comprising
a wayside electric conductor arrangement for producing an alternating electromagnetic field and for thereby transferring the energy to a vehicle,
an array of a plurality of sensor coils,
a detector arrangement that is connected to the plurality of the sensor coils, the detector arrangement being adapted to detect an effect of any magnetic and/or electrically conducting body, that is possibly located in the field direction of the alternating electromagnetic field, on at least one electrical property of at least one of the sensor coils,
wherein the detector arrangement and/or a communication receiver, that is connected to the plurality of the sensor coils, is/are adapted to receive communication signals from a vehicle side communication transmitter via at least one of the plurality of sensor coils and
wherein the arrangement is adapted to use a communication signal received via at least one of the plurality of sensor coils to detect a position of a vehicle side receiving device for receiving the alternating electromagnetic field and for producing electric energy by magnetic induction.

7. The arrangement of claim 6 , wherein a position determining device of the arrangement is adapted to determine a position of a vehicle side communication transmitter by detecting a sensor coil of the array of the plurality of sensor coils or by detecting sensor coils of the array of the plurality of sensor coils which is/are nearest to the communication transmitter.

8. A method of operating an inductive power transfer system for transferring electric energy to a vehicle, the method comprising:
producing, by a wayside electric conductor arrangement, an alternating electromagnetic field that thereby transfers the energy to the vehicle,
receiving, by a vehicle side receiving device, the alternating electromagnetic field and producing from the received alternating electromagnetic field electric energy by magnetic induction,
wherein:
the wayside electric conductor arrangement is operated in combination with an array of a plurality of sensor coils, the sensor coils being placed side by side to form the array,
the array extends in directions transverse to a field direction of the electromagnetic field, which field direction extends from the wayside electric conductor arrangement to the vehicle side receiving device during transfer of the energy to the vehicle,
a detector arrangement, which is connected to the plurality of the sensor coils, detects an effect of any magnetic and/or electrically conducting body, that is possibly located in the field direction, on at least one electrical property of at least one of the sensor coils,
a communication transmitter that is combined with the vehicle side receiving device transmits a communication signal to the array of the sensor coils,
the detector arrangement and/or a communication receiver, that is connected to the plurality of the sensor coils, receive(s) the communication signal via at least one of the plurality sensor coils,
a communication signal received via at least one of the plurality of sensor coils is used to determine a position of the vehicle side receiving device.

9. The method of claim 8 , further including a position determining device determining a position of the communication transmitter and, thereby, of the vehicle side receiving device by detecting a sensor coil of the array of the plurality of sensor coils or by detecting sensor coils of the array of the plurality of sensor coils which is/are nearest to the communication transmitter.

10. The method of claim 9 , further including the position determining device determining that a body between the wayside electric conductor arrangement and the vehicle side receiving device, which body is detected by the detector arrangement, is a foreign body.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the position determining device uses information about the position of the communication transmitter when the position determining device determines that the body detected by the detector arrangement is a foreign body.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the position determining device has stored information about the relative positions of a plurality of positions, being the positions of the communication transmitter on the vehicle side, and the position determining device compares the stored information with current information about positions determined for the object.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the system operates the wayside electric conductor arrangement only if the determined position of the vehicle side receiving device fulfils a predetermined condition.

Assignees

• Bombardier Primove Gmbh

Inventors

• Lannoije Marnix
• Czainski Robert
• Anders Dominik

Classifications

• B60L53/66

  Data transfer between charging stations and vehicles · 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

• B60L53/12

  Inductive energy transfer · CPC title

• B60L53/38

  specially adapted for charging by inductive energy transfer · CPC title

• Y04S30/14

  Details associated with the interoperability, e.g. vehicle recognition, authentication, identification or billing · CPC title