Electronic control system for electric refuse vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11724621-B2
Application number	US-202117306539-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 3, 2021
Priority date	May 3, 2019
Publication date	Aug 15, 2023
Grant date	Aug 15, 2023

Abstract

A refuse vehicle includes a lift assembly configured to engage and lift a refuse receptacle, an electrical energy system configured to store power and supply power to the refuse vehicle, and a controller configured to determine an amount of power required to move the refuse vehicle to a charging location, measure one or more electrical attributes of the refuse vehicle to determine an amount of length of time the refuse vehicle can operate based on a remaining power of the electrical energy system, and limit operations of one or more components of the refuse vehicle based on a comparison of the amount of power required to move the refuse vehicle to the charging location and the amount of length of time the refuse vehicle can operate.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A refuse vehicle comprising:
a lift assembly configured to engage and lift refuse receptacles;
an electrical energy system configured to store power and supply power to the refuse vehicle; and
a controller configured to:
determine (a) a first amount of power to move the refuse vehicle from a current location to a charging location and (b) a second amount of power to collect a remaining number of the refuse receptacles to be collected between the current location and the charging location;
determine a remaining amount of power of the electrical energy system; and
limit operations of one or more components of the refuse vehicle based on a comparison of (a) the first amount of power and the second amount of power and (b) the remaining amount of power.

2. The refuse vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to:
perform an operation using the remaining amount of power of the electrical energy system; and
alert an operator of the refuse vehicle when the remaining amount of power falls below a threshold, the threshold defined based on the first amount of power.

3. The refuse vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the lift assembly includes an electric actuator powered by the electrical energy system, and wherein the controller is configured to determine a weight of contents of a respective refuse receptacle based on a power draw of the electric actuator of the lift assembly to perform a lift operation with the respective refuse receptacle.

4. The refuse vehicle of claim 3 , wherein the controller is configured to determine the weight of the contents of the respective refuse receptacle based on a first power draw of the electric actuator of the lift assembly when the respective refuse receptacle includes the contents and a second power draw of the electric actuator of the lift assembly when the respective refuse receptacle does not include the contents.

5. The refuse vehicle of claim 4 , wherein the first power draw of the electric actuator is determined when lifting the respective receptacle with the contents from a ground position to a dump position, and the second power draw is determined when (a) returning the refuse container without the contents from the dump position to the ground position or (b) lifting the refuse container without the contents from the ground position to the dump position.

6. The refuse vehicle of claim 1 , the controller further configured to determine a clearance of the refuse vehicle based on positional data for the lift assembly of the refuse vehicle.

7. The refuse vehicle of claim 1 , the controller further configured to calculate a distance that the refuse vehicle can traverse based on the remaining amount power of the electrical energy system.

8. The refuse vehicle of claim 1 , wherein limiting operations of one or more components of the refuse vehicle comprises at least one of (a) disabling operation the lift assembly of the refuse vehicle or (b) disabling operation of non-essential functions of the refuse vehicle.

9. A system for controlling power consumption of a refuse vehicle, the system comprising:
one or more memory devices having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
determining (a) a first amount of power to move the refuse vehicle from a current location to a charging location and (b) a second amount of power to collect a remaining number of refuse receptacles to be collected between the current location and the charging location;
determining a remaining amount of power of an electrical energy system of the refuse vehicle; and
limiting operations of one or more components of the refuse vehicle based on a comparison of (a) the first amount of power and the second amount of power and (b) the remaining amount of power.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the instructions cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
performing an operation of one or more components of the refuse vehicle using the remaining amount of power of the electrical energy system; and
alerting an operator of the refuse vehicle when the remaining amount of power falls below a threshold, the threshold defined based on the first amount of power.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein the instructions cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising determining a weight of contents of a respective refuse receptacle engaged by a lift assembly of the refuse vehicle based on a power draw of an electric actuator of the lift assembly to perform a lift operation with the respective refuse receptacle.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the instructions cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising determining the weight of the contents of the respective refuse receptacle based on a first power draw of the electric actuator of the lift assembly when the respective refuse receptacle includes the contents and a second power draw of the electric actuator of the lift assembly when the respective refuse receptacle does not include the contents.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the first power draw of the electric actuator is determined when lifting the respective receptacle with the contents from a ground position to a dump position, and the second power draw is determined when (a) returning the refuse container without the contents from the dump position to the ground position or (b) lifting the refuse container without the contents from the ground position to the dump position.

14. The system of claim 9 , wherein the instructions cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising determining a clearance of the refuse vehicle based on positional data for a lift assembly of the refuse vehicle.

15. The system of claim 9 , wherein the instructions cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising calculating a distance that the refuse vehicle can traverse based on the remaining amount of power of the electrical energy system.

16. The system of claim 9 , wherein limiting operations of one or more components of the refuse vehicle comprises at least one of (a) disabling operation of a lift assembly of the refuse vehicle or (b) disabling operation of non-essential functions of the refuse vehicle.

17. A method of operating a refuse vehicle, the method comprising:
determining (a) a first amount of power to move the refuse vehicle from a current location to a charging location and (b) a second amount of power to collect a remaining number of refuse receptacles to be collected between the current location and the charging location;
determining a remaining amount of power of an electrical energy system of the refuse vehicle; and
limiting operations of one or more components of the refuse vehicle based on a comparison of (a) the first amount of power and the second amount of power and (b) the remaining amount of power.

18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising determining a weight of contents of a respective refuse receptacle based on a power draw of an electric actuator of a lift assembly of the refuse vehicle to perform a lift operation with the respective refuse receptacle.

19. The method of claim 17 , further comprising:
performing an operation of one or more components of the refuse vehicle using the remaining amount of power of the electrical energy system; and
alerting an operator of the refuse vehicle when the remaining amount of power falls below a threshold, the threshold defined based on the first amount of p

Assignees

• Oshkosh Corp

Inventors

• Rocholl Joshua D
• Wente Derek A
• Kellander John T
• Clifton Cody D
• Hoover Vincent
• Klein Zachary L
• Weckwerth Clinton T
• Wachter Skylar A

Classifications

• B60L2260/54

  Energy consumption estimation · CPC title

• B65F2003/0216

  the discharging means comprising a device for determining the volume of the content of refuse receptacles · CPC title

• B60D1/00

  Traction couplings; Hitches; Draw-gear; Towing devices (fifth-wheel traction couplings B62D53/08) · CPC title

• B65F2003/022

  the discharging means comprising a device for determining the weight of the content of refuse receptacles · CPC title

• B60L58/13 Primary

  Maintaining the SoC within a determined range · CPC title