Management system with supervisory control for rechargeable energy storage device in electric vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11225169-B2
Application number	US-201916675725-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 6, 2019
Priority date	Nov 6, 2019
Publication date	Jan 18, 2022
Grant date	Jan 18, 2022

Abstract

Management system for a rechargeable energy storage device in an electric vehicle and corresponding method is disclosed. The rechargeable energy storage device has one or more battery packs each having a plurality of modules with one or more respective cells. A respective module management unit is embedded in each of the plurality of modules through respective microcircuits and configured to determine one or more local parameters. A supervisory controller is configured for two-way communication with the respective module management unit. The supervisory controller is configured to receive the local parameters, determine one or more global pack parameters based in part on the local parameters and transmit the global pack parameters back to the respective management unit. The supervisory controller is configured to control operation of the rechargeable energy storage device based in part on the global pack parameters and the local parameters.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A management system for an electric vehicle, the management system comprising:
a rechargeable energy storage device having one or more battery packs, the one or more battery packs respectively having a plurality of modules with one or more respective cells;
respective module management units embedded in each of the plurality of modules through respective microcircuits, the respective module management units being configured to determine one or more local parameters;
a supervisory controller configured to engage in two-way communications with the respective module management units;
wherein the supervisory controller is configured to receive the one or more local parameters, determine one or more global pack parameters based in part on the one or more local parameters and transmit the one or more global pack parameters to the respective module management units; and
wherein the supervisory controller is configured to control operation of the rechargeable energy storage device based in part on the one or more global pack parameters.

2. The management system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a pack communicator configured to interface wirelessly with the respective module management units for respective data transmission; and
wherein the pack communicator is directly connected to the supervisory controller via at least one communication BUS.

3. The management system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more battery packs include a first battery pack and a second battery pack and further comprising:
a first pack communicator configured to interface wirelessly with the respective module management units in the first battery pack, the first pack communicator being connected to the supervisory controller via a first communication BUS; and
a second pack communicator configured to interface wirelessly with the respective module management units in the second battery pack, the second pack communicator being connected to the supervisory controller via a second communication BUS.

4. The management system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more battery packs include a first battery pack and a second battery pack and further comprising:
a shared communication BUS configured to enable direct communication between the supervisory controller, the respective module management units in the first battery pack and the respective module management units in the second battery pack.

5. The management system of claim 1 , further comprising:
at least two pack sensors configured to respectively measure and transmit a pack voltage and a pack current of the one or more battery packs to the supervisory controller;
a fault detection module selectively executable by the supervisory controller;
wherein the respective module management units are configured to determine respective module voltages and communicate the respective module voltages to the supervisory controller, the supervisory controller being configured to calculate a sum of the respective module voltages; and
wherein the supervisory controller is configured to, when a difference between the sum of the respective module voltages and the pack voltage is above a predetermined threshold, determine whether an irregularity exists in the pack voltage via the fault detection module.

6. The management system of claim 5 , wherein:
the supervisory controller is configured to, when the difference between the sum of the respective module voltages and the pack voltage is above the predetermined threshold and the irregularity is in the pack voltage, reset a value of the pack voltage as the sum of the respective module voltages.

7. The management system of claim 6 , wherein:
when the difference between the sum of the respective module voltages and the pack voltage is above the predetermined threshold and the irregularity is not in the pack voltage, the supervisory controller is configured to at least one of transmit an alert and derate a respective power rating of the one or more battery packs.

8. The management system of claim 1 , wherein:
the one or more local parameters include an array of cell voltages, a respective cell state of charge, a respective cell state of health, an allowable module voltage limit, an allowable module temperature limit and an allowable module current limit; and
the one or more global pack parameters include a power estimation for the one or more battery packs and a cell balancing target.

9. The management system of claim 1 , wherein:
the one or more local parameters include a respective cell state of charge, a respective cell state of health when at least one of the respective cells meets a predefined weak cell threshold, an allowable module voltage limit and an allowable module current limit;
the one or more global pack parameters include a pack state of charge, a pack capacity and a weak cell state of health monitoring function; and
the weak cell state of health monitoring function is configured to estimate an amount of energy remaining in the at least one battery pack.

10. The management system of claim 1 , wherein:
the one or more local parameters include respective current limits (I mi ) for the plurality of modules, i being a module index and n being a quantity of the plurality of modules in each of the one or more battery packs;
the one or more global pack parameters include an allowable pack current limit (I pL ) determined as a minimum of respective current limits [I pL =min (I m1 , I m2 , . . . I mn )]; and
the supervisory controller is configured to determine or predict a total power (P wp ) at one or more time horizons for the one or more battery packs as a summation of respective module powers (P mi ) such that [P wp =P m1 +P m2 + . . . P mn ], the respective module powers (P mi ) being determined by the respective module management units based on the pack current limit.

11. The management system of claim 1 , wherein:
the one or more local parameters include a respective module maximum state of charge (SOC(M i )_max=max(SOC(C j ), j=1,2 . . . k), with i being a module index and k being a quantity of the respective cells;
the one or more local parameters include a respective module minimum state of charge (SOC(M i )_min=min(SOC(C j )), j=1,2 . . . k);
the one or more global pack parameters include a pack maximum state of charge (SOC max =max (SOC(M i )_max),),i=1,2 . . . n), n being a quantity of the respective modules, a pack minimum state of charge (SOC min =min (SOC(M i )_min), i=1,2 . . . n), and a targeted pack state of charge for the at least one battery pack; and
the targeted pack state of charge (SOC target ) is determined as:
SOC target =½(SOC max −SOC min ).

12. The management system of claim 1 , wherein:
the plurality of modules includes at least four modules;
the one or more local parameters include a module state of charge; and
the one or more global pack parameters include a real-time pack state of charge;
the real-time pack state of charge is defined as at least one of a minimum module state of charge among the plurality of modules and a moving average of three lowest values of the respective module state of charge, the three lowest values being within a predetermined range.

13. The management system of claim 1 , wherein:
the plurality of modules includes at least four modules;
the one or more local parameters include a respective module capacity; and
the one or more global pack parameters include a pack capacity defined as at least one of a minimum module capacity among the plurality of modules and a mean of three lowest values of the respective module capacity, the three lowest values being within a predetermined range.

Assignees

• Gm Global Tech Operations Llc

Inventors

• Wang Yue-Yun
• Hao Lei
• Koch Brian J
• Piasecki Jeffrey S
• Seeman Garrett M

Classifications

• H02J7/485

  with provisions for charging different types of batteries · CPC title

• H02J7/52

  for charge balancing, e.g. equalisation of charge between batteries · CPC title

• B60L58/22 Primary

  Balancing the charge of battery modules · CPC title

• B60L50/64 Primary

  Constructional details of batteries specially adapted for electric vehicles · CPC title

• H02J7/44

  between battery management systems and power sources · CPC title