Vehicular charging control system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11198368-B2
Application number	US-201916672607-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 4, 2019
Priority date	Dec 25, 2018
Publication date	Dec 14, 2021
Grant date	Dec 14, 2021

Abstract

A vehicular charging control system using a solar panel includes: a first battery; a calculation unit that calculates a chargeable electric power amount (an amount of electric power with which the first battery can be charged until the SOC of the first battery reaches a predetermined value); a determination unit that determines whether regenerative electric power is being generated; and a control unit that controls charging of the first battery with electric power generated by the solar panel. The control unit allows the first battery to be charged with the electric power generated by the solar panel up to an upper limit set to the chargeable electric power amount when regenerative electric power is not being generated, and up to an upper limit set to an electric power amount obtained by subtracting the regenerative electric power amount from the chargeable electric power amount when regenerative electric power is being generated.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vehicular charging control system using a solar panel, the vehicular charging control system comprising:
a first battery;
a second battery having a rated voltage that is lower than a rated voltage of the first battery, the second battery being able to be charged with the electric power generated by the solar panel;
a third battery that is a battery for temporary charging;
a calculation unit programmed to calculate a chargeable electric power amount that is an amount of electric power to charge the first battery until a state of charge of the first battery reaches a predetermined value;
a determination unit programmed to determine whether electric power is being generated through regeneration; and
a control unit programmed to:
control charging of the first battery with electric power generated by the solar panel,
allow the first battery to be charged with the electric power generated by the solar panel in an amount up to an upper limit that is set to the chargeable electric power amount, in response to the determination unit determining that electric power is not being generated through regeneration,
allow the first battery to be charged with the electric power generated by the solar panel in an amount up to an upper limit that is set to an electric power amount obtained by subtracting an amount of electric power generated through regeneration from the chargeable electric power amount, in response to the determination unit determining that electric power is being generated through regeneration,
charge the second battery with all of the electric power generated by the solar panel, in response to an amount of electric power generated by the solar panel being equal to or less than an amount of electric power that is consumed by an in-vehicle device connected to the second battery,
allow the first battery and the second battery to be charged with the electric power generated by the solar panel, in response to an amount of electric power obtained by subtracting the amount of electric power that is consumed by the in-vehicle device connected to the second battery from the amount of electric power generated by the solar panel being equal to or less than the chargeable electric power amount, and
allow the first battery, the second battery, and the third battery to be charged with the electric power generated by the solar panel, in response to the electric power amount obtained by subtracting the amount of electric power consumed by the in-vehicle device connected to the second battery from the amount of electric power generated by the solar panel being greater than the chargeable electric power amount.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Shizuka Satoshi

Classifications

• B60L58/15

  Preventing overcharging · CPC title

• B60L58/18

  of two or more battery modules · CPC title

• B60K16/00

  Arrangements in connection with power supply of propulsion units in vehicles from forces of nature, e.g. sun or wind (electric propulsion with power supply from forces of nature, e.g. sun or wind, B60L8/00; wind motors specially adapted for installation on vehicles F03D9/32) · CPC title

• Y02T10/70

  Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries · CPC title

• B60L8/003 Primary

  Converting light into electric energy, e.g. by using photo-voltaic systems · CPC title