System and method for controlling and powering a vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9545854-B2
Application number	US-201213487057-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 1, 2012
Priority date	Jun 13, 2011
Publication date	Jan 17, 2017
Grant date	Jan 17, 2017

Abstract

A control system includes a controller and an energy management system. The controller is onboard a vehicle that includes motors and an onboard energy storage device that powers the motors. The energy management system calculates estimated electric loads of powering the motors over one or more segments of a trip according to designated operational settings of a trip plan. The energy management system also determines a demanded amount of electric energy for powering the vehicle based on the estimated electric loads. The demanded amount of electric energy is based on a stored amount of electric energy in the onboard storage device. The energy management system communicates the demanded amount of electric energy to one or more of plural wayside stations disposed along the route so that the wayside stations have sufficient electric energy to charge the onboard energy storage device with the electric energy to meet the estimated electric loads.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A control system comprising:
a controller configured to be disposed onboard a vehicle that includes one or more motors that propel the vehicle along a route during a trip and an onboard energy storage device for storing at least some of the electric energy used to power the one or more motors, the controller configured to control operations of the one or more motors according to a trip plan that designates operational settings of the one or more motors during the trip; and
an energy management system configured to be disposed onboard the vehicle and to:
calculate estimated electric loads of powering the one or more motors over one or more segments of the trip according to the designated operational settings of the trip plan;
determine a demanded amount of electric energy for powering the vehicle based on one or more of the estimated electric loads, the demanded amount of electric energy based on a stored amount of electric energy in the onboard energy storage device;
determine at least one of total energy storage capacities or available energy storage capacities of plural upcoming wayside stations disposed along the route;
for each of two or more of the wayside stations, determine an additional estimated electric load representative of an amount of the electric energy used to propel the vehicle to the wayside station;
compare the at least one of the total energy storage capacities or the available energy storage capacities of the wayside stations;
communicate a request to one or more of the wayside stations, the request designating the demanded amount of electric energy that the energy management system determined and that is to be provided to the vehicle when the vehicle arrives at the one or more of the wayside stations so that the one or more of the wayside stations has sufficient electric energy to charge the onboard energy storage device with the electric energy to meet the one or more of the estimated electric loads;
at least one of generate or modify the trip plan based on the additional estimated electric loads and the at least one of the total energy storage capacities or the available energy storage capacities of the wayside stations that are compared; and
determine whether there is sufficient electric energy stored onboard the vehicle to power the vehicle to at Least one of the wayside stations,

wherein, responsive to the energy management system determining that there is insufficient electric energy stored onboard the vehicle to power the vehicle to at least one of the wayside stations, the energy management system is configured to direct the controller to change how the vehicle is controlled to ensure that the vehicle can travel to the at least one of the wayside stations by one or more of changing which onboard energy source provides electric energy to the vehicle, reducing speed of the vehicle, or obtaining additional electric energy from one or more of the wayside stations,
wherein the vehicle is a rail vehicle configured to also be powered from electric current received through at least one of an electrified rail or a catenary, and wherein at least one of the estimated electric loads that is calculated by the energy management system represents an amount of electric energy that is calculated to be consumed to propel the rail vehicle through an unpowered segment of the route from a first powered segment to a second powered segment, the first and second powered segments representing portions of the route that have the at least one of the electrified rail or the catenary extending alongside the route for at least one of charging the onboard power source or powering the one or more motors, the unpowered segment of the route not having the at least one of the electrified rail or the catenary extending alongside the route for charging the onboard power source or powering the one or more motors.

2. The control system of claim 1 , wherein the energy management system is configured to compare the one or more of the estimated electric loads with the stored amount of electric energy in the onboard energy storage device and to change one or more of the operational settings of the trip plan based on a difference between the one or more estimated electric loads and the stored amount of electric energy.

3. The control system of claim 2 , wherein the energy management system is configured to change the one or more of the operational settings of the trip plan for an upcoming portion of the trip to reduce the estimated electric load for the upcoming portion of the trip when the estimated electric load exceeds the stored amount of electric energy for the upcoming portion of the trip.

4. The control system of claim 1 , wherein the estimated electric loads are associated with electric loads used to power the vehicle to different designated locations along the route, and the energy management system is configured to compare the estimated electric loads and to at least one of generate or modify the trip plan based on the estimated electric loads so that the vehicle has sufficient electric energy stored in the onboard power source to travel to the designated location associated with at least one of the estimated electric loads.

5. The control system of claim 1 , wherein the energy management system is configured to at least one of generate or modify the trip plan so that there is sufficient electric energy available to the vehicle to travel to the wayside stations having a lower cost of charging the onboard energy storage device relative to one or more other wayside stations.

6. The control system of claim 1 , wherein the energy management system is configured to calculate the estimated electric loads based on one or more of transportation network congestion that is representative of an amount of vehicular traffic in a transportation network that includes the route, a scheduled time of arrival of the vehicle at one or more designated locations, a grade of one or more segments of the route, a speed limit associated with one or more segments of the route, a size of the vehicle, a weight of the vehicle, a power output of the vehicle, or a rate of electric energy consumption of the vehicle.

7. The control system of claim 1 , wherein the energy management system is configured to calculate the estimated electric Loads based on charging restrictions that limit at least one of when the vehicle can obtain additional electric energy to charge the onboard energy storage device, where the vehicle can obtain additional electric energy to charge the onboard energy storage device, or how much additional electric energy the vehicle can obtain to charge the onboard energy storage device.

8. The control system of claim 7 , wherein the charging restrictions include one or more of a distance along the route to the wayside charging stations, amounts of reserve electric energy at the wayside stations that will be available for the vehicle to charge the onboard energy storage device when the vehicle arrives at the wayside stations, or financial costs of charging the onboard energy storage device at the wayside stations.

9. The control system of claim 1 , wherein the trip plan directs the vehicle to automatically switch between powering the one or more motors using the electric energy stored in the onboard energy storage device and powering the one or more motors using electric energy generated onboard the vehicle from a generator.

10. The control system of claim 1 , wherein the operational settings of the trip plan include at least one of throttle settings, power outputs, or speeds of the vehicle.

11. The control system of claim 1 , wherein the energy management system is configured to communicate an est

Assignees

• Daum Wolfgang
• Kumar Ajith Kuttannair
• Shaffer Glenn Robert
• Gen Electric

Inventors

• Daum Wolfgang
• Kumar Ajith Kuttannair
• Shaffer Glenn Robert

Classifications

• B60L2240/68

  Traffic data · CPC title

• B60L53/63

  in response to network capacity · CPC title

• B60L2260/52

  drive range estimation, e.g. of estimation of available travel distance · CPC title

• Y02T90/16

  Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles · CPC title

• B60L55/00

  Arrangements for supplying energy stored within a vehicle to a power network, i.e. vehicle-to-grid [V2G] arrangements · CPC title