Managing power of electronic devices on a vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11535112-B2
Application number	US-202017017660-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 10, 2020
Priority date	Sep 10, 2020
Publication date	Dec 27, 2022
Grant date	Dec 27, 2022

Abstract

Among other things, techniques are described for managing power of electronic devices of a vehicle. For example, a vehicle includes a power source, a power distribution unit configured to control power to at least one electronic device from the power source, a first processor configured for communicating power commands to the power distribution unit, wherein the power distribution unit includes a second processor configured to execute the computer executable instructions stored in computer-readable medium for carrying out operations including adjusting a power distribution from the vehicle power source to the electronic device in accordance with policy data.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vehicle, comprising:
a power source;
a power distribution unit configured to control power to at least one electronic device from the power source; and
a first processor configured for communicating power commands to the power distribution unit;
wherein the power distribution unit comprises a second processor configured to execute computer executable instructions stored in computer-readable medium for carrying out operations including:
receiving, from the first processor, a power command and an identification of the at least one electronic device;
identifying a current operational state of the vehicle;
accessing policy data corresponding to the current operational state;
in accordance with the policy data, determining whether the first processor is authorized to issue the power command to the identified at least one electronic device during the current operational state; and
in accordance with the determination and the power command, adjusting a power distribution from the vehicle power source to the electronic device.

2. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the policy data represents sets of authorized actions for each of multiple power channels, the sets corresponding to respective host devices.

3. The vehicle of claim 2 , wherein the policy data comprises a set of words, each word corresponding to a host device, each word comprising a respective fixed length bitstring, and each bit of the respective bitstring corresponding to a respective power channel.

4. The vehicle of claim 2 , wherein the policy data corresponding to the current operational state comprises data representing a list of power channels and respective actions authorized for the power channels.

5. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the power distribution unit comprises a set of power channels corresponding to respective electronic devices.

6. The vehicle of claim 5 , wherein adjusting the power distribution from the vehicle power source to the electronic device comprises adjusting the power distribution of the power channel corresponding to the electronic device.

7. The vehicle of claim 5 , wherein adjusting the power distribution from the vehicle power source to the electronic device comprises actuating an electronic switch of the power channel.

8. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the power distribution unit comprises a memory device storing the policy data, and wherein the policy data is accessed on the memory device.

9. The vehicle of claim 8 , wherein the second processor comprises the memory device.

10. The vehicle of claim 1 , the operations comprising, in accordance with the determination and the power command, invoking detection of an abnormal event.

11. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the policy data comprises an identification of an operational condition of the vehicle, and determining whether the first processor is authorized to issue the power command to the identified at least one electronic device during the current operational state comprises determining whether the vehicle is experiencing the operational condition.

12. The vehicle of claim 1 , comprising receiving new policy data and replacing the policy data with the new policy data.

13. The vehicle of claim 1 , comprising, upon determining that the first processor is not authorized to issue the power command to the identified at least one electronic device during the current operational state, generating an indication of suspicious activity.

14. A method comprising:
on a power distribution unit configured to control power of at least one electronic device:
receiving, by the power distribution unit, a power command and an identification of the at least one electronic device, the power command received from a first processor external to the power distribution unit;
identifying, by the power distribution unit, a current operational state of a vehicle;
accessing, by the power distribution unit, policy data corresponding to the current operational state;
in accordance with the policy data, determining, by the power distribution unit, whether the first processor is authorized to issue the power command to the identified at least one electronic device during the current operational state; and
in accordance with the determination and the power command, adjusting, by the power distribution unit, a power distribution from a power source of the vehicle to the electronic device.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising at least one program for execution by at least one processor of a first device, the at least one program including instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first device to carry out operations comprising:
on a power distribution unit configured to control power of at least one electronic device:
receiving, by the power distribution unit, a power command and an identification of the at least one electronic device, the power command received from a first processor external to the power distribution unit;
identifying, by the power distribution unit, a current operational state of a vehicle;
accessing, by the power distribution unit, policy data corresponding to the current operational state;
in accordance with the policy data, determining, by the power distribution unit, whether the first processor is authorized to issue the power command to the identified at least one electronic device during the current operational state; and

in accordance with the determination and the power command, adjusting, by the power distribution unit, a power distribution from a power source of the vehicle to the electronic device.

Assignees

• Motional Ad Llc

Inventors

• Maass Michael
• Robinson Karl
• Abi-Antoun Marwan

Classifications

• B60W50/035

  Bringing the control units into a predefined state, e.g. giving priority to particular actuators · CPC title

• B60W60/0015

  specially adapted for safety · CPC title

• G01S13/931

  of land vehicles · CPC title

• G01S17/931

  of land vehicles · CPC title

• Y02T90/12

  Electric charging stations · CPC title