Charging infrastructure and remote computing system for electric vehicle computing node

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11869025-B2
Application number	US-202217741546-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 11, 2022
Priority date	May 11, 2022
Publication date	Jan 9, 2024
Grant date	Jan 9, 2024

Abstract

A method for using idle computing power of an electric vehicle includes sending the computing tasks and the task rates for performing the computing tasks to a vehicle controller of the electric vehicle and receiving an acceptance signal from the vehicle controller. The acceptance signal is indicative that the vehicle controller accepted to perform the computing tasks. The method further includes commanding a charging infrastructure to supply electrical power the electric vehicle while the vehicle controller performs the computing tasks.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for using idle computing power of an electric vehicle, comprising:
determining, by a vehicle controller of the electric vehicle, whether the electric vehicle is in motion;
in response to determining that the electric vehicle is in motion, searching for a plurality of charging infrastructures that are located within a predetermined distance from the electric vehicle while the electric vehicle is in motion;
determining that the vehicle controller of the electric vehicle has idling computing power;
in response to determining that the vehicle controller of the electric vehicle has idling computing power, receiving, by the vehicle controller, task rates for performing computing tasks from each of the plurality of charging infrastructures that is located within the predetermined distance from the electric vehicle;
selecting one of the plurality of charging infrastructures to determine a selected charging infrastructure;
in response to selecting one of the plurality of charging infrastructures, sending, by the vehicle controller, an acceptance signal to a remote server, wherein the acceptance signal is indicative that the vehicle controller accepted to perform the computing tasks at the selected charging infrastructure; and
in response to receiving the acceptance signal from the vehicle controller, commanding the selected charging infrastructure to supply electrical power the electric vehicle while the vehicle controller performs the computing tasks once the electric vehicle is electrically connected to the selected charging infrastructure.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle controller sends the acceptance signal to a station controller of the charging infrastructure based on the task rates for performing the computing tasks.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising communicating charge rates for electrically charging the vehicle controller to the vehicle controller.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising communicating advertisements to the vehicle controller, wherein the advertisements include at least one chosen from discounts, promotions, and seasonal adjustments.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the discounts include charge rate discounts in exchange for using the idle computing power of the vehicle controller, wherein the predetermined distance is two miles, and the method further comprises:
in response to determining that the electric vehicle is in motion, determining that a battery of the electric vehicle needs to be charged based on a state of charge of the battery while the electric vehicle is in motion;
in response to determining that the battery of the electric vehicle needs to be charged, receiving charging rates for charging the electric vehicle from each of the plurality of charging infrastructures that is located within the predetermined distance from the electric vehicle;
in response to receiving the task rates for performing the computing task and the charging rates for charging the electric vehicle, determining a net profit for each of the plurality of charging infrastructure that is located within the predetermined distance from the electric vehicle using the task rates for performing the computing tasks and the charging rates for charging the electric vehicle;
comparing the net profit of each of the plurality of charging infrastructures with a predetermined profit threshold to determine whether the net profit of each of the plurality of charging infrastructures is equal to or greater than the predetermined profit threshold, thereby determining at least one profitable charging infrastructure, wherein the net profit of the at least one profitable charging infrastructure is equal to or greater than the predetermined profit threshold; and
selecting the at least one profitable charging infrastructure to determine the selected charging infrastructure.

6. A method for using idle computing power of an electric vehicle, comprising:
creating task packets, wherein each of the task packets includes a plurality of computing tasks and corresponding task rates for each of the plurality of computing tasks;
determining, by a vehicle controller of the electric vehicle, whether the electric vehicle is in motion;
in response to determining that the electric vehicle is in motion, searching for a plurality of charging infrastructures that are located within a predetermined distance from the electric vehicle while the electric vehicle is in motion;
determining that the vehicle controller of the electric vehicle has idling computing power;
selecting one of the plurality of charging infrastructures to determine a selected charging infrastructure;
sending the computing tasks to the vehicle controller of the electric vehicle; and
in response to sending the computing tasks to the vehicle controller of the electric vehicle, receiving results of a performance of the computing tasks by the vehicle controller while a charging infrastructure supplies electrical power to the electric vehicle.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising billing a vehicle operator of the electric vehicle for supplying electrical power to the electric vehicle while providing a discount for using a computing power of the vehicle controller to perform the computing tasks.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising scheduling the performance of the computing tasks by the vehicle controller.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
determining that the computing tasks of at least one of the task packets have been completed by the vehicle controller; and
purging the computing tasks that have been completed from the task packets.

10. The method of claim 5 , wherein the method comprises receiving results of the performance of the computing tasks, and the net profit is calculated with the following equations:
Cost Overhead =( C devSetup +C Infra +( C elec ×ToDC/(60*60))); and

Net Profit (per session, per sec) =(Revenue EdevEarnPot −Cost Overhead )

where
C elec is the electricity cost in kilowatts per hour;
ToDC stands for Time Of Day Charge and is the electricity;
C devSetup is a device setup fee;
C infra is an infrastructure fee per second;
Cost Overhead is the cost of charging the electric vehicle 10 per second;
Revenue EdevEarnPot is the revenue for performing the computing tasks per second; and
Net Profit (per session, per sec) is the net profit for computing the tasks per session per second.

11. A system for using idle computing power of an electric vehicle, comprising:
a charging infrastructure including a station controller, wherein the station controller is programmed to:
receive computing tasks from a remote server;
send the computing tasks to a vehicle controller of the electric vehicle;
receive an acceptance signal from the vehicle controller, wherein the acceptance signal is indicative that the vehicle controller accepted to perform the computing tasks; and
in response to receiving the acceptance signal from the vehicle controller, command the charging infrastructure to supply electrical power to the electric vehicle while the vehicle controller performs the computing tasks;
wherein the electric vehicle includes a vehicle controller, and the vehicle controller is programmed to:
determine whether the electric vehicle is in motion;
in response to determining that the electric vehicle is in motion, search for a plurality of charging infrastructures that are located within a predetermined distance from the electric vehicle while the electric vehicle is in motion;
determine that the vehicle controller of the electric vehicle has idling computing power;
in response to determining that the vehi

Assignees

• Gm Global Tech Operations Llc

Inventors

• Gangumalla Aravind
• Sachdev Anil K
• Bika Anil
• Thompson Nathan
• Sethu Ramesh

Classifications

• G06Q30/0208 Primary

  Trade or exchange of goods or services in exchange for incentives or rewards · CPC title

• B60L53/64

  Optimising energy costs, e.g. responding to electricity rates · CPC title

• B60L53/665

  Methods related to measuring, billing or payment · CPC title

• G06Q30/0265 Primary

  Vehicular advertisement · CPC title

• Y02T10/70

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