Engine warm-up bypass control

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10982602-B2
Application number	US-201916580763-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 24, 2019
Priority date	Sep 24, 2019
Publication date	Apr 20, 2021
Grant date	Apr 20, 2021

Abstract

An engine controller to control a plurality of engines is disclosed. The engine controller may determine that power to a load is to be increased, wherein the load is configured to be powered by one or more of the plurality of engines; determine that an engine, of the plurality of engines, is configured to provide supplemental power to the load after a temperature of the engine satisfies a threshold, wherein the threshold corresponds to a warm-up operation of the engine being completed; determine that the temperature of the engine does not satisfy the threshold; obtain, via an operator interface, an authorization to bypass the warm-up operation of the engine; and bypass, based on obtaining the authorization, the warm-up operation for the engine to permit the engine to provide instantaneous power to the load.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
receiving, by a device, a request to increase power to a load,
wherein the load is configured to be powered by one or more of a plurality of engines;

identifying, by the device, an engine, of the plurality of engines, that is to provide supplemental power to the load;
determining, by the device, that an automatic control mode is enabled to control the engine to provide the supplemental power to the load,
wherein the automatic control mode, when enabled, causes the engine to perform a warm-up operation before the engine is capable of providing the supplemental power;

determining, by the device and based on an analysis of a load requirement of the load, that the warm-up operation for the engine is to be bypassed; and
causing, by the device, the automatic control mode to bypass the warm-up operation for the engine to permit the engine to provide instantaneous power to the load by bypassing the warm-up operation associated with the engine.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the warm-up operation is determined to be bypassed further based on receiving an operator input indicating that the warm-up operation is to be bypassed.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the operator input is received based on:
determining that a temperature of the engine satisfies a threshold;
prompting, via an operator interface, an operator to indicate whether the warm-up operation is to be bypassed; and
receiving, via the operator interface, the operator input.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the engine is identified based on the engine being selected to provide the supplemental power according to the automatic control mode.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that the automatic control mode can be overridden; and
determining that a temperature of the engine satisfies a threshold,
wherein the warm-up operation is determined to be bypassed further based on determining that the automatic control mode can be overridden and that the temperature of the engine satisfies the threshold.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the engine is identified based on being one of the plurality of engines that is not supplying power to the load when the request is received,
wherein causing the automatic control mode to bypass the warm-up operation causes the engine to provide power to the load before the engine is warmed-up.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein causing the automatic control mode to bypass the warm-up operation comprises:
causing the engine to perform a startup operation; and
enabling electrical coupling of an output of the engine to the load before the engine reaches a threshold temperature corresponding to the engine completing the startup operation.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of engines are generators of a power system and the power provided to the load is electrical power.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the analysis is of the load requirement and current power output from one or more engines providing power to the load.

10. A device, comprising:
one or more memories; and
one or more processors, communicatively coupled to the one or more memories, configured to:
receive a request to increase power to a load,
wherein the load is powered by a first engine of a plurality of engines;

identify a second engine, of the plurality of engines, to provide supplemental power to the load;
determine that a temperature of the second engine satisfies a threshold,
wherein the threshold indicates that the second engine is to undergo a warm-up operation before the second engine is to provide the supplemental power to the load;

determine, based on an analysis of a load requirement of the load, that the warm-up operation is to be bypassed to permit the second engine to instantaneously provide supplemental power to the load;
cause the second engine to perform a startup operation; and
cause, in association with the startup operation, an output of the second engine to be electrically coupled to the load to cause the second engine to provide the supplemental power to the load before the temperature of the second engine reaches the threshold.

11. The device of claim 10 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
enable, based on determining that the temperature of the second engine satisfies the threshold, an operator interface that can be used to indicate that the warm-up operation is to be bypassed; and
receive an operator input, via the operator interface, that indicates that the warm-up operation is to be bypassed,
wherein the warm-up operation is determined to be bypassed further based on receiving the operator input.

12. The device of claim 10 , wherein the second engine is identified based on an automatic control mode selecting the second engine to provide the supplemental power.

13. The device of claim 10 , wherein the engine is identified based on being one of the plurality of engines that is not supplying power to the load when the request is received.

14. The device of claim 10 , wherein the startup operation includes at least one of:
performing an ignition operation to engage an ignition of the second engine, or
controlling fuel to the second engine until the temperature of the second engine reaches the threshold.

15. A system comprising:
a plurality of engines;
a monitoring system configured to monitor the plurality of engines; and
an engine controller configured to:
determine that power to a load is to be increased,
wherein the load is configured to be powered by one or more of the plurality of engines;

determine that an engine, of the plurality of engines, is configured to provide supplemental power to the load after a temperature of the engine satisfies a threshold,
wherein the threshold corresponds to a warm-up operation of the engine being completed;

determine, from a measurement of the monitoring system, that the temperature of the engine does not satisfy the threshold;
obtain, via an operator interface, an authorization to bypass the warm-up operation of the engine; and
bypass, based on obtaining the authorization and based on an analysis of a load requirement of the load, the warm-up operation for the engine to permit the engine to provide instantaneous power to the load.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the engine controller is configured to determine that the power to the load is to be increased based on receiving, via the operator interface, a request to increase the power to the load.

17. The system of claim 15 , wherein the engine controller, when obtaining the authorization, is configured to:
prompt, via the operator interface, an operator to provide an operator input corresponding to the authorization.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein, when prompting the operator, the engine controller is configured to cause a dialog box to be presented via the operator interface,
wherein the dialog box requests the operator to indicate whether the engine is to provide the instantaneous power to the load.

19. The system of claim 15 , wherein the engine controller, when obtaining the authorization, is configured to:
enable the operator interface to permit the operator to provide the authorization.

20. The system of claim 15 , wherein the engine controller is configured to cause the engine to provide the instantaneous power to the load after causing the engine to perform an ignition operation to start the engine.

Assignees

• Caterpillar Inc

Inventors

• Folken Keith R
• Ochoa David
• Converse Perry
• Janardhan Vijay
• Herrera Hernandez Christian Andrés

Classifications

• H02J2105/10

  Local stationary networks having a local or delimited stationary reach · CPC title

• F02D2200/604

  Engine control mode selected by driver, e.g. to manually start particle filter regeneration or to select driving style · CPC title

• H02J3/466

  Scheduling or selectively controlling the operation of the generators or sources, e.g. connecting or disconnecting generators to meet a demand · CPC title

• H02J3/46

  Controlling the sharing of generated power between the generators, sources or networks · CPC title

• F02D25/04 Primary

  by cutting-out engines · CPC title