Apparatus and method for controlling battery state of charge in hybrid electric vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016167641-A1
Application number	US-201514960346-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 5, 2015
Priority date	Dec 11, 2014
Publication date	Jun 16, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method and apparatus for controlling battery state of charge (SOC) in a hybrid electric vehicle are provided to enable the efficient use of energy, the maximization of energy recovery, and the improvement of fuel efficiency and operability without the improvement of capacity and performance of electrical equipment or a main battery in a hybrid electric vehicle. The apparatus includes a collecting device that collects information regarding the slope or the road type and information regarding the vehicle speed. A controller determines charge and discharge modes based on the driving information and determines a charging upper and lower limit SOC based on the road slope or road type information a road section on which the vehicle is traveling and the vehicle speed information in the road section. A charge or discharge command is output based on the charging upper limit SOC and the charging lower limit SOC.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An apparatus for controlling battery state of charge (SOC) in a hybrid electric vehicle, comprising:
a driving information or road information collecting device configured to detect driving information and road information including information regarding a slope or a road type and information regarding a speed of the vehicle; and a vehicle controller configured to determine a charge mode and a discharge mode based on the driving information and determine a charging upper limit SOC and a charging lower limit SOC based on the road slope information or the road type information of a road section on which the vehicle is traveling and the vehicle speed information in the road section, to output a charge command or a discharge command with respect to a drive motor and a hybrid starter and generator (HSG) based on the charging upper limit SOC where battery charging stops in the charge mode and the charging lower limit SOC where battery charging starts in the discharge mode.

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the driving information or road information collecting device includes:
a global positioning system (GPS) receiver configured to receive a GPS signal; a data storage unit configured to store map information; and an information receiver configured to receive traffic information from an external traffic information providing system, wherein the vehicle controller is configured to: detect a location of the vehicle from the GPS signal received by the GPS receiver; acquire information regarding the road slope or the road type of the road section on which a vehicle is currently traveling, based on the location of the vehicle detected from the map information; and acquire, as information regarding the vehicle speed of the road section, a traffic speed determined based on a real-time traffic of the road section on which the vehicle is currently traveling, based on the detected location of the vehicle.

3 . The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the vehicle controller is configured to use a current mean effective road slope that is a mean slope value of the road section on which a vehicle is currently traveling as the road slope information to calculate the charging upper limit SOC and the charging lower limit SOC.

4 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle controller is configured to determine the charging upper limit SOC and the charging lower limit SOC from the road slope or the road type of the road section and the vehicle speed of the road section, using a map for each road section.

5 . The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the vehicle controller is configured to acquire a limited speed of the road section on which the vehicle is currently traveling as the vehicle speed in the road section when the traffic information is not received from the external traffic information providing system.

6 . The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the limited speed is obtained as a limited speed set on a road that corresponds to the location of the vehicle from the map information.

7 . The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the driving information or road information collecting device further includes:
an imaging device sensor configured to photograph a traffic sign marked with the limited speed while the vehicle is traveling; and a sensor controller configured to extract the limited speed from an image photographed by the imaging device sensor using character recognition, wherein the vehicle controller is configured to acquire the limited speed delivered from the sensor controller as the vehicle speed information.

8 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein when a driving path to a destination is generated using a navigation device in a vehicle, the vehicle controller is further configured to:
acquire information regarding the road slope or the road type of a front road section adjacent to the current road section and information regarding a residual distance to the front road section through the driving information or road information collecting device; acquire a correction factor determined based on the road slope or the road type and the residual distance of the front road section; and use a final charging upper limit SOC and a final charging lower limit SOC obtained by correcting the charging upper limit SOC and the charging lower limit SOC using the correction factor.

9 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the road type information includes at least two road types of a downtown road, a local road, an expressway, and a highway.

10 . A method for controlling battery state of charge (SOC) in a hybrid electric vehicle, comprising:
acquiring, by a controller, from data delivered from a driving information or road information collecting device, driving information and road information including information regarding a slope or a road type and information regarding a speed of the vehicle; determining, by the controller, a charge mode and a discharge mode based on the driving information; determining, by the controller, in a charge mode, a charging upper limit SOC based on the road slope information and road type information of a road section on which a vehicle is currently traveling and the vehicle speed information in the road section; determining, by the controller, in a discharge mode, a charging lower limit SOC based on the road slope information and the road type information of the road section and the vehicle speed information in the road section; and outputting, by the controller, a charge command or a discharge command with respect to a drive motor and a hybrid starter and generator (HSG) based on the charging upper limit SOC where battery charging stops in the charge mode or the charging lower limit SOC where battery charging starts in the discharge mode.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the acquiring of the driving information or road information includes:
detecting, by the controller, a location of the vehicle from a global positioning system (GPS) signal received by a GPS receiver; receiving, by the controller, traffic information from an external traffic information providing system; acquiring, by the controller, information regarding the road slope or the road type of the road section on which a vehicle is currently traveling, based on the location of the vehicle detected from map information of a data storage unit; and acquiring, by the controller, as information regarding the vehicle speed of the road section, a traffic speed determined based on a real-time traffic of the road section on which the vehicle is currently traveling, based on the location of the vehicle detected from the traffic information.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein a current mean effective road slope that is a mean slope value of the road section on which the vehicle is currently traveling as the road slope information is used to calculate a charging upper limit SOC and a charging lower limit SOC.

13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the charging upper limit SOC and the charging lower limit SOC are determined using a map for each road section from the road slope or the road type of the road section and the vehicle speed of the road section.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein a limited speed of the road section on which the vehicle is currently traveling is acquired as the vehicle speed in the road section when the traffic information is not received from the external traffic information providing system.

15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein when an actual current running speed is different from a limited speed by a certain degree or more, all of the traffic information and

Assignees

• Kia Motors Corp
• Hyundai Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Yoon Dong Pil

Classifications

• G08G1/09623

  Systems involving the acquisition of information from passive traffic signs by means mounted on the vehicle (G08G1/0967 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B60W2556/50

  of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data · CPC title

• B60W40/02

  related to ambient conditions · CPC title

• B60L2240/68

  Traffic data · CPC title

• B60W20/00 Primary

  Control systems specially adapted for hybrid vehicles {(hybrid vehicle design, B60K6/00; electric vehicles B60L)} · CPC title