Method for determining an arrangement of an electric vehicle and arrangement determination unit

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10406928-B2
Application number	US-201514871581-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 30, 2015
Priority date	Sep 30, 2014
Publication date	Sep 10, 2019
Grant date	Sep 10, 2019

Abstract

A method for determining an arrangement of an electric vehicle relative to a charging point is provided. An alternating magnetic field is transmitted by a transmitting device arranged on the electric vehicle. The alternating magnetic field is received at a location of the charging point, and the arrangement is inferred based on the received alternating field. An arrangement determination unit is configured for use in a method of this type to determine the arrangement of the electric vehicle relative to the charging point using the received alternating field.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for determining an arrangement of an electric vehicle relative to a charging point in which an alternating magnetic field is transmitted by a transmitting device arranged on or fixed in relation to the electric vehicle, the method comprising:
receiving the alternating magnetic field at a location of the charging point;
inferring the arrangement based on the received alternating field; and
activating a charging field to charge the electric vehicle when the arrangement is inferred to be within a tolerance range,
wherein the inferring comprises determining an x-coordinate and a y-coordinate of the electric vehicle from an origin located at the charging point.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transmitting device is fixed in relation to the electric vehicle.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transmitting device comprises at least two transmit antennas, by which a time-division multiplex signal is transmitted.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least two transmit antennas comprise coil antennas.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the alternating magnetic field is received by receive antennas.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the receive antennas comprise coil antennas.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein at least pairs of at least two coil antennas distanced by less than a largest coil dimension and arranged with corresponding coil planes oblique to one another are used as the receive antenna.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the corresponding coil planes are perpendicular to one another.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the alternating field has a frequency of at least 1 MHz.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein a directional characteristic of the received alternating field is used.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining a yaw angle of the electric vehicle or of a secondary charging coil of the electric vehicle.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein a power amount of an alternating field received by a pair of coil antennas or a variable derived therefrom is used.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining a distance between the electric vehicle and the charging point.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein a physical vehicle model is used.

15. An arrangement determination unit configured to determine an arrangement of an electric vehicle relative to a charging point in which an alternating magnetic field is transmitted by a transmitting device arranged on or fixed in relation to the electric vehicle, the arrangement determining unit comprising:
a receive antenna configured to receive the alternating magnetic field at a location of the charging point; and
a processor configured to infer the arrangement based on the received alternating field and activate a charging field to charge the electric vehicle when the arrangement is inferred to be within a tolerance range,
wherein the inferring comprises determining an x-coordinate and a y-coordinate of the electric vehicle from an origin located at the charging point.

16. The arrangement determination unit of claim 15 , wherein the processor is configured to use signals received by the receive antenna.

Assignees

• Glaenzer Martin
• Glaenzer Ulrike
• Schwarzer Stefan
• Seisenberger Claus
• Zerb Marcus
• Siemens Ag

Inventors

• Glänzer Martin
• Glänzer Ulrike
• Schwarzer Stefan
• Seisenberger Claus
• Zerb Marcus

Classifications

• H02J50/90 Primary

  involving detection or optimisation of position, e.g. alignment · 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

• Y02T90/14

  Plug-in electric vehicles · CPC title

• B60L53/38

  specially adapted for charging by inductive energy transfer · CPC title

• G01S5/0284 Primary

  Relative positioning · CPC title