Visual positioning system, battery swapping device, and battery swapping control method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12377550-B2
Application number	US-202117925305-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 17, 2021
Priority date	May 15, 2020
Publication date	Aug 5, 2025
Grant date	Aug 5, 2025

Abstract

A visual positioning system, comprising a first visual sensor ( 501 ), a second visual sensor ( 502 ), and a position obtaining unit ( 503 ), wherein the first visual sensor ( 501 ) is used for obtaining a first image (G 11 ) of a first position (A) of a target apparatus ( 7 ), a second visual sensor ( 502 ) is used for obtaining a second image of a second position (B) of the target apparatus ( 7 ), and the position obtaining unit ( 503 ) is used for obtaining position information of the target apparatus ( 7 ) according to the first image (G 11 ) and the second image. Further disclosed are a battery swapping device and a battery swapping control method. Relatively high positioning accuracy is obtained in a visual manner, and accurate positioning between the battery swapping device and a vehicle for battery swap is implemented.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A visual positioning system, is applied to a battery swapping device, wherein the visual positioning system comprising a first visual sensor, a second visual sensor and a position obtaining unit, and a position adjustment mechanism comprising a vertical movement unit;
the first visual sensor is used for obtaining a first image of a first position of a target apparatus;
the second visual sensor is used for obtaining a second image of a second position of the target apparatus;
the position obtaining unit is used for obtaining a position information of the target apparatus according to the first image and the second image, and further obtains a position adjustment amount based on the position information and a reference position information of the target apparatus,
the position adjustment amount comprises a first vertical displacement amount and a second vertical displacement amount; and
the position adjustment mechanism configured to use the first vertical displacement amount and the second vertical displacement amount to independently adjust two ends of the battery swapping device until the battery swapping device is aligned with the target apparatus,
wherein the target apparatus comprises a battery bracket.

2. The visual positioning system according to claim 1 , wherein the position adjustment amount comprises a horizontal displacement amount;
the position obtaining unit obtains the horizontal displacement amount according to the first image and a first reference image, or the position obtaining unit obtains the horizontal displacement amount according to the second image and a second reference image; and the first reference image is a reference image comprising the first position and the second reference image is a reference image comprising the second position.

3. The visual positioning system according to claim 1 , wherein the position obtaining unit obtains the first vertical displacement amount according to the first image and a first reference image, and the position obtaining unit obtains the second vertical displacement amount according to the second image and a second reference image; and the first reference image is a reference image comprising the first position and the second reference image is a reference image comprising the second position.

4. The visual positioning system according to claim 1 , wherein the position adjustment amount comprises a rotation angle amount;
the position obtaining unit obtains the rotation angle amount according to a first depth of field value and a second depth of field value; the first depth of field value a depth of field value of the first position in the first image, and the second depth of field value a depth of field value of the second position in the second image.

5. The visual positioning system according to claim 1 , wherein the first position and the second position have a preset space therebetween, the first visual sensor is provided at a position corresponding to the first position, and the second visual sensor is provided at a position corresponding to the second position.

6. The visual positioning system according to claim 1 , wherein the position adjustment amount further comprises a horizontal displacement amount;
the position obtaining unit obtains the horizontal displacement amount according to the first image and a first reference image, or the position obtaining unit obtains the horizontal displacement amount according to the second image and a second reference image; and the first reference image is a reference image comprising the first position and the second reference image is a reference image comprising the second position;
and
the position adjustment amount further comprises a rotation angle amount;
the position obtaining unit obtains the rotation angle amount according to a first depth of field value and a second depth of field value; the first depth of field value a depth of field value of the first position in the first image, and the second depth of field value a depth of field value of the second position in the second image.

7. The visual positioning system according to claim 1 , wherein further comprising at least two distance sensors;
the at least two distance sensors are respectively used for acquiring a distance between a battery swapping device and the target apparatus and at least obtaining a first distance and a second distance;
the position adjustment amount comprises a rotation angle amount, and the position obtaining unit is further used for obtaining the rotation angle amount according to at least the first distance and the second distance;
the target apparatus is a battery swapping vehicle; and
the position obtaining unit is an image processing module.

8. A battery swapping device, wherein the battery swapping device is the same as the battery swapping device in claim 1 , comprising the visual positioning system according to claim 1 for positioning to align the battery swapping device with the battery bracket on which the battery pack is locked.

9. The battery swapping device according to claim 8 , wherein the battery swapping device is configured to move from a side of the electric vehicle and along the length direction of the body of the electric vehicle, and to remove and install the battery from the side of the electric vehicle after the positioning is completed.

10. The battery swapping device according to claim 8 , wherein further comprising an unlocking mechanism for unlocking the battery pack locked on the battery bracket.

11. The battery swapping device according to claim 10 , wherein the position adjustment mechanism is used for adjusting a position of the unlocking mechanism according to at least one of a horizontal displacement amount, a vertical displacement amount and a rotation angle amount obtained by the visual positioning system until the unlocking mechanism completes positioning with an unlocking member on the battery bracket.

12. The battery swapping device according to claim 11 , wherein the position adjustment mechanism comprises a control unit, a horizontal movement unit, and a rotation unit, the control unit is communicatively connected to the visual positioning system to correspondingly control the horizontal movement unit, the vertical movement unit, or the rotation unit to move to an adjustment position according to at least one of the horizontal displacement amount, the vertical displacement amount, and the rotation angle amount.

13. The battery swapping device according to claim 12 , wherein the vertical displacement amount comprises a first vertical displacement amount and a second vertical displacement amount;
the vertical movement unit comprises a first lifting mechanism and a second lifting mechanism; and
the first lifting mechanism is used for lifting according to the first vertical displacement amount, and the second lifting mechanism is used for lifting according to the second vertical displacement amount.

14. The battery swapping device according to claim 12 , wherein the vertical displacement amount comprises a first vertical displacement amount and a second vertical displacement amount;
the vertical movement unit comprises a first vertical driver, a second vertical driver, a first lifting mechanism, a second lifting mechanism and a battery swapping actuating mechanism, the first vertical driver is connected to the first lifting mechanism, the second vertical driver is connected to the second lifting mechanism, the first lifting mechanism and the second lifting mechanism are respectively connected to two ends of the battery swapping actuating mechanism to drive the two ends o

Assignees

• Aulton New Energy Autom Tech Group
• Shanghai Dianba New Energy Tech Co Ltd

Inventors

• Zhang Jianping
• Chen Zhimin

Classifications

• G06T2207/30108

  Industrial image inspection · CPC title

• B60S5/06

  Supplying batteries to, or removing batteries from, vehicles (exchanging batteries for electric propulsion of vehicles B60L53/80) · CPC title

• B60L53/80 Primary

  Exchanging energy storage elements, e.g. removable batteries · CPC title

• G06T7/74

  involving reference images or patches · CPC title

• G01B11/002

  for measuring two or more coordinates · CPC title