Onboard engine control for vehicles

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11654889-B2
Application number	US-202217663512-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 16, 2022
Priority date	Jun 30, 2019
Publication date	May 23, 2023
Grant date	May 23, 2023

Abstract

Onboard engine control for vehicles is disclosed herein. An example method includes determining a moving average of duty cycle periods for a power component of a vehicle for recent power load events, each of the duty cycle periods having both on-time portions and off-time portions; and when the on-time portions of the moving average are above a predetermined percentage, an engine of the vehicle remains in an on-state condition, further wherein when a current off-time period of the power component exceeds a value equal to a predetermined multiplier applied to the off-time portions, the engine is placed in an off-state condition.

First claim

That which is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
determining a power level that is output by an inverter of a vehicle relative to a first power load event for the vehicle;
determining a duty cycle of the inverter relative to the first power load event, the duty cycle comprising on-time portions and off-time portions;
updating a moving average with the duty cycle, the moving average comprising a plurality of recent duty cycles;
determining when the power level has dropped below a trigger level threshold; and
determining when a second power load event or a boundary condition occurs, wherein an engine of the vehicle remains in an on-state condition when the second power load event occurs, further wherein when the second power load event does not occur and a predetermined time frame has elapsed since a last off-state event for the inverter, the engine of the vehicle is placed in an off-state condition.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
maintaining the engine of the vehicle in the on-state condition when the boundary condition occurs.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the boundary condition comprises a battery temperature that is lower than a lower limit threshold or higher than an upper limit threshold.

4. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the boundary condition comprises a battery voltage that is below a lower voltage limit threshold.

5. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the boundary condition comprises a battery state of charge value that is below a lower state of charge threshold.

6. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the boundary condition comprises a direct current and alternating current usage that is greater than a usage threshold.

7. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting when a usage condition exists, the usage condition comprising at least one of an occupied state of the vehicle, climate control operation, lighting operation, radio operation, or exterior lighting operation; and
maintaining the engine of the vehicle in the on-state condition until the usage condition exists.

8. A system, comprising:
a battery;
an inverter coupled to the battery;
a controller comprising a processor and a memory for storing executable instructions, the processor executing the instructions to:
determine a power level that is output by the inverter of a vehicle relative to a first power load event for the vehicle;
determine a duty cycle of the inverter relative to the first power load event, the duty cycle comprising on-time portions and off-time portions;
update a moving average with the duty cycle, the moving average comprising a plurality of recent duty cycles;
determine when the power level has dropped below a trigger level threshold; and
determine when a second power load event or a boundary condition occurs, wherein an engine of the vehicle remains in an on-state condition when the second power load event occurs, further wherein when the second power load event does not occur and a predetermined time frame has elapsed since a last off-state event for the inverter, the engine of the vehicle is placed in an off-state condition.

9. The system according to claim 8 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
maintain the engine of the vehicle in the on-state condition when the boundary condition occurs.

10. The system according to claim 9 , wherein the boundary condition comprises a battery temperature that is lower than a lower limit threshold or higher than an upper limit threshold.

11. The system according to claim 9 , wherein the boundary condition comprises a battery voltage that is below a lower voltage limit threshold.

12. The system according to claim 9 , wherein the boundary condition comprises a battery state of charge value that is below a lower state of charge threshold.

13. The system according to claim 9 , wherein the boundary condition comprises a direct current and alternating current usage that is greater than a usage threshold.

14. The system according to claim 8 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
detect when a usage condition exists, the usage condition comprising at least one of an occupied state of the vehicle, climate control operation, lighting operation, radio operation, or exterior lighting operation; and
maintain the engine of the vehicle in the on-state condition until the usage condition exists.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
determining a power level that is output by an inverter of a vehicle relative to a first power load event for the vehicle;
determining a duty cycle of the inverter relative to the first power load event, the duty cycle comprising on-time portions and off-time portions;
updating a moving average with the duty cycle, the moving average comprising a plurality of recent duty cycles;
determining when the power level has dropped below a trigger level threshold; and
determining when a second power load event or a boundary condition occurs, wherein an engine of the vehicle remains in an on-state condition when the second power load event occurs, further wherein when the second power load event does not occur and a predetermined time frame has elapsed since a last off-state event for the inverter, the engine of the vehicle is placed in an off-state condition.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise:
maintaining the engine of the vehicle in the on-state condition when the boundary condition occurs.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 16 , wherein the boundary condition comprises a battery temperature that is lower than a lower limit threshold or higher than an upper limit threshold.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 16 , wherein the boundary condition comprises a battery voltage that is below a lower voltage limit threshold.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 16 , wherein the boundary condition comprises a battery state of charge value that is below a lower state of charge threshold.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise:
detecting when a usage condition exists, the usage condition comprising at least one of an occupied state of the vehicle, climate control operation, lighting operation, radio operation, or exterior lighting operation; and
maintaining the engine of the vehicle in the on-state condition until the usage condition exists.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Salter Stuart
• Deljevic Zeljko
• Spoto Anthony
• Irby Michael
• Chen Ben

Classifications

• Y02T10/40

  Engine management systems · CPC title

• H02J7/1423

  with multiple batteries · CPC title

• B60W20/13

  in order to stay within battery power input or output limits; in order to prevent overcharging or battery depletion · CPC title

• F02N11/0825 Primary

  related to prevention of engine restart failure, e.g. disabling automatic stop at low battery state · CPC title

• B60W20/20 Primary

  Control strategies involving selection of hybrid configuration, e.g. selection between series or parallel configuration · CPC title