Actuation of HVAC systems in anticipation of a user's thermal needs based on remote smart device data

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10836234-B2
Application number	US-201816193586-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 16, 2018
Priority date	Nov 16, 2018
Publication date	Nov 17, 2020
Grant date	Nov 17, 2020

Abstract

A method of changing the climate of the interior of a vehicle comprises: accepting data from an electronic device of an anticipated passenger of a vehicle, the vehicle having an interior with a climate, and data from the vehicle; analyzing both the data from the electronic device and the vehicle pursuant to a thermal comfort model to determine whether the climate would be comfortable to the anticipated passenger; if the climate would not be comfortable, then controlling one or more systems of the vehicle to change the climate until the climate would be comfortable to the anticipated passenger pursuant to the thermal comfort model before the anticipated passenger enters the interior of the vehicle; and picking up the anticipated passenger. Analyzing the data from the electronic device includes estimating the amount of chemical energy that the anticipated passenger is transforming into heat.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of changing the climate of an interior of a vehicle comprising:
accepting data from an electronic device of an anticipated passenger of a vehicle, the vehicle having an interior with a climate, and data from the vehicle, analyzing both the data from the electronic device and the vehicle pursuant to a thermal comfort model to determine whether the climate would be comfortable to the anticipated passenger,
if the climate would not be comfortable, then controlling one or more systems of the vehicle to change the climate until the climate would be comfortable to the anticipated passenger pursuant to the thermal comfort model before the anticipated passenger enters the interior of the vehicle, and
picking up the anticipated passenger after the climate would be comfortable to the anticipated passenger pursuant to the thermal comfort model.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising: accepting data from an electronic device of a second anticipated passenger of the vehicle, the interior of the vehicle having a first zone and a second zone, each having a climate, and the data from the vehicle,
analyzing both the data from the electronic device of the anticipated passenger and the vehicle pursuant to the thermal comfort model to determine whether the climate at the first zone would be comfortable to the anticipated passenger,
analyzing both the data from the electronic device of the second anticipated passenger and the vehicle pursuant to the thermal comfort model to determine whether the climate at the second zone would be comfortable to the second anticipated passenger;
if the climate at the first zone would not be comfortable to the anticipated passenger, then controlling the one or more systems of the vehicle to change the climate of the first zone until the climate would be comfortable to the anticipated passenger pursuant to the thermal comfort model before the anticipated passenger enters the interior of the vehicle;
if the climate at the second zone would not be comfortable to the second anticipated passenger, then controlling the one or more systems of the vehicle to change the climate of the second zone until the climate would be comfortable to the second anticipated passenger pursuant to the thermal comfort model before the second anticipated passenger enters the interior of the vehicle, and
picking up the second anticipated passenger.

3. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein, analyzing the data from the electronic device includes estimating an amount of chemical energy that the anticipated passenger is transforming into heat.

4. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein, analyzing both the data from the electronic device and the vehicle includes estimating an amount of heat that the anticipated passenger would be losing if the anticipated passenger were in the interior of the vehicle and subject to the climate.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein, the thermal comfort model estimates the amount of heat that the anticipated passenger would be losing by estimating at least the amount of heat that the anticipated passenger would be losing through evaporation during breathing, through convection during breathing, through convection and radiation at the surface of the body of the anticipated passenger, and through evaporation of perspiration.

6. The model of claim 1 ,
wherein, the one or more systems of the vehicle to be controlled to change the climate until the climate would be comfortable to the anticipated passenger pursuant to the thermal comfort model include a heater, a vent, an air conditioner to change a temperature of air of the interior, and a temperature control device to change a temperature of a seat of the vehicle.

7. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein, the one or more systems of the vehicle to be controlled to change the climate until the climate would be comfortable to the anticipated passenger pursuant to the thermal comfort model include an air blower to alter a velocity of air in the interior.

8. The method of claim 4 ,
wherein, the amount of heat that the anticipated passenger would be losing if the anticipated passenger were in the interior of the vehicle and subject to the climate is estimated, at least in part from, a temperature of the air of the interior.

9. The method of claim 4 ,
wherein, the amount of heat that the anticipated passenger would be losing if the anticipated passenger were in the interior of the vehicle and subject to the climate is estimated, at least in part from, a relative humidity of the air of the interior.

10. The method of claim 4 ,
wherein, the amount of heat that the anticipated passenger would be losing if the anticipated passenger were in the interior of the vehicle and subject to the climate is estimated, at least in part from, a mean radiant temperature of the interior of the vehicle derived from a difference in temperature between a temperature of air of the interior and a temperature of air of an exterior to the vehicle.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
the anticipated passenger hailing the vehicle with the electronic device.

12. The method of claim 4 ,
the vehicle including an air blower to blow air into the interior of the vehicle, the air blower configured to blow the air at different levels of power;
wherein, the amount of heat that the anticipated passenger would be losing if the anticipated passenger were in the interior of the vehicle and subject to the climate is estimated, at least in part from, from the level of power at which the air blower is blowing the air into the interior.

13. The method of claim 3 ,
the electronic device including an accelerometer that generates acceleration data; and
wherein, the amount of chemical energy that the anticipated passenger is transforming into heat is estimated, at least in part, from the acceleration data.

14. The method of claim 3 ,
the electronic device including a global positioning system receiver, which generates location as a function of time data; and
the amount of chemical energy that the anticipated passenger is transforming into heat is estimated, at least in part, from the location as a function of time data by calculating a speed of the anticipated passenger.

15. The method of claim 3 ,
the electronic device generating heartrate data; and
the amount of chemical energy that the anticipated passenger is transforming into heat is estimated, at least in part, from the heartrate data.

16. The method of claim 4 ,
the electronic device generating image data of clothing that the anticipated passenger is wearing; and
estimating the amount of heat that the anticipated passenger would be losing if the anticipated passenger were in the interior of the vehicle and subject to the climate includes estimating thermal insulation of the clothing from the image data of the clothing.

17. A method of changing a climate of an interior of a vehicle comprising:
accepting data from an electronic device of an anticipated passenger that has hailed a vehicle with the electronic device, and data from the vehicle, the vehicle having an interior with a climate;
analyzing both the data from the electronic device and the data from the vehicle to estimate
metabolic heat production of the anticipated passenger, and
heat that the anticipated passenger would lose if the anticipated passenger were in the interior of the vehicle and subject to the climate; and

determining, from the estimated metabolic heat production and heat that the anticipated passenger would be losing, whether the climate is likely to be too hot or too cold

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Patil Sunil
• Herman david michael

Classifications

• B60H1/00742 Primary

  by detection of the vehicle occupants' presence; by detection of conditions relating to the body of occupants, e.g. using radiant heat detectors · CPC title

• B60H1/00785

  by the detection of humidity or frost · CPC title

• B60H1/00642

  Control systems or circuits; Control members or indication devices for heating, cooling or ventilating devices (B60H1/3201 - B60H1/3208, B60H1/3225 take precedence) · CPC title

• B60H1/00892 Primary

  Devices specially adapted for avoiding uncomfortable feeling, e.g. sudden temperature changes (B60H1/00885 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B60H1/00807

  the input being a specific way of measuring or calculating an air or coolant temperature · CPC title