Fuel fill control systems and methods for anticipating vehicle refueling events

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11124408-B2
Application number	US-201916574454-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 18, 2019
Priority date	Sep 18, 2019
Publication date	Sep 21, 2021
Grant date	Sep 21, 2021

Abstract

This disclosure is directed to vehicle fuel fill control systems for anticipating vehicle refueling events in order to control the timing of fuel tank depressurization sequences. In a first embodiment, a global positioning system (GPS) is utilized to anticipate the vehicle refueling event prior to initializing the depressurization sequence. In another embodiment, a camera system is utilized to anticipate the refueling event prior to initializing the depressurization sequence. In yet another embodiment, both the GPS and the camera system may be utilized to anticipate the refueling event. By anticipating refueling events, customer wait time for gaining refueling access may be reduced.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A fuel fill control system for a vehicle, comprising:
a fuel tank;
a global positioning system configured to identify a nearby fuel station; a sensor system configured to detect when the vehicle is in park;
a camera system configured to capture an image of a fuel pump of the nearby fuel station; and
a controller configured to initialize a depressurization sequence of the fuel tank in response to receiving: a first input signal from the global positioning system and a second input signal from the sensor system, and a third signal from the camera system,
wherein the first input signal and the second input signal indicate that a vehicle refueling event is likely.

2. The fuel fill control system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the global positioning system includes a road database that includes geographic coordinates of the nearby fuel station.

3. The fuel fill control system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the first input signal indicates that the vehicle is within a predefined distance from the nearby fuel station.

4. The fuel fill control system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the second input signal indicates that a shift device of the vehicle is positioned in a park position.

5. The fuel fill control system as recited in claim 1 , comprising a fuel door movable to fluidly access the fuel tank, and a door biasing assembly configured to control movement of the fuel door.

6. The fuel fill control system as recited in claim 5 , wherein the door biasing assembly includes an actuator configured to hold the fuel door closed during the depressurization sequence of the fuel tank.

7. The fuel fill control system as recited in claim 6 , wherein the actuator is a solenoid.

8. The fuel fill control system as recited in claim 7 , wherein a piston of the solenoid is controllable by the controller to either lock or unlock the fuel door.

9. The fuel fill control system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the fuel fill control system is part of a Non-Integrated Refueling Canister Only System (NIRCOS) of the vehicle.

10. The fuel fill control system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the third input signal indicates that the camera system has detected the fuel pump by capturing the image.

11. The fuel fill control system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the camera system includes a plurality of cameras that are adapted to capture a near 360 degree view of an environment surrounding the vehicle.

12. The fuel fill control system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to initiate the depressurization sequence without requiring a user of the vehicle to press a fuel door opening button.

13. The fuel fill control system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the sensor system is configured to sense a current positioning of a shift device of the vehicle to detect when the vehicle is in park.

14. The fuel fill control system as recited in claim 8 , wherein the piston is positionable within a detent of a pivot pin of the door biasing assembly to lock the fuel door.

15. The fuel fill control system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to command a fuel door to be locked in response to receiving the first input signal and the second input signal.

16. The fuel fill control system as recited in claim 15 , wherein the controller is configured to command the fuel door to be unlocked once a pressure within the fuel tank is within a predefined pressure range.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Martin David
• Sealy Brent Edward
• Venkatesh Roshini

Classifications

• B60K15/03

  Fuel tanks · CPC title

• B60K2015/0584

  the locking bolt is linearly moved to lock or unlock · CPC title

• F02D2200/0602

  Fuel pressure · CPC title

• B60W2710/0616

  Position of fuel or air injector · CPC title

• F02D2200/701

  Information about vehicle position, e.g. from navigation system or GPS signal · CPC title