Method for controlling a hybrid drive of a vehicle and a computer program for controlling a hybrid drive of a vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9849872-B2
Application number	US-201415100624-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 24, 2014
Priority date	Nov 28, 2013
Publication date	Dec 26, 2017
Grant date	Dec 26, 2017

Abstract

A method for controlling a hybrid drive of a vehicle includes detecting a traffic and/or street situation ahead of the vehicle, and based on the detected situation, determining an upcoming increase of a performance requirement to be expected from the hybrid drive and increasing a withdrawal rate of an electrical energy source of the hybrid drive. This increase occurs before the performance requirement is realized. The performance requirement may be realized according to the increase of the withdrawal rate, e.g., in conformity with a performance requirement which may be entered via an interface, for example an accelerator pedal.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for controlling a hybrid drive of a vehicle, the method comprising:
detecting a driving situation ahead of the vehicle, the driving situation including at least one of a traffic situation and a road situation;
determining an upcoming expected increase in a power request of the hybrid drive based on the detected driving situation;
increasing an energy extraction rate that is extracted from an electrical energy source of the hybrid drive before the power request is implemented according to the determined increase; and
implementing the power request of the hybrid drive after the energy extraction rate has been increased.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
determining the increase in the power request comprises determining at least one of a point in time or a point on a route at which the increase is expected to occur; and
increasing the energy extraction rate comprises the increase in the energy extraction rate for a minimum time period or for a minimum distance before the determined time or before the determined point on a route.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein increasing the energy extraction rate comprises increasing the energy extraction rate to a level that matches or exceeds an absolute value of the increase in the power request.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein increasing the energy extraction rate comprises increasing a power of an electrical load of the vehicle while:
the power of an electrical drive component of the hybrid drive is provided in accordance with the power request, or
the overall power of the drive of the vehicle is provided in accordance with the power request.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein increasing the power of the electrical load comprises increasing a power of at least one of a battery charging device, an electric heater, an electrical resistance that is also used to discharge excess recuperation energy, or an electrically operated compressor of an air conditioning system.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein implementing the power request comprises increasing the power of an electrical drive component of the hybrid drive in accordance with an increase in the power request if the power request is increased after the increasing of the energy extraction rate.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein detecting the driving situation ahead of the vehicle comprises at least one of:
detecting a distance from a vehicle participant using radar, LIDAR, ultrasound, or based on a distance signal of an adaptive cruise controller or of a collision warning device or another driver assistance system of the vehicle;
detecting an increase in a maximum permissible speed in a route ahead of the vehicle using a navigation device or an optical image capturing device of the vehicle;
detecting an end of a traffic jam ahead of the vehicle using a traffic data service or receiver of a multi-vehicle communication network;
detecting an upcoming intersection or beginning of a straight route section using a navigation device; and
detecting an imminent overtaking maneuver based on an activation signal of a travel direction indicator.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
transmitting the detected driving situation and an actual following increase in power request to a learning unit,
generating relationships, by the learning unit, between the detected driving situation and the actual following increase in power request;
wherein determining the upcoming expected increase in the power request comprises:
detecting a current upcoming driving situation, and
determining the upcoming expected increase in power request by applying the generated relationships to the current upcoming driving situation.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein increasing the energy extraction rate comprises:
increasing the energy extraction rate immediately or after a predetermined time delay after the determination of the upcoming, expected increase, or
increasing the energy extraction rate a predetermined time period or a predetermined distance along a route before a point in time or before a point on a route for which the increase in the power request is determined.

10. A computer program product for controlling a hybrid drive, the computer program product comprising computer instructions stored in non-transitory computer-readable media and executable by a processor to:
detect an upcoming driving situation, the upcoming driving situation including at least one of an upcoming traffic situation and an upcoming road situation;
based on the detected upcoming driving situation, determine an upcoming expected increase in a power request of the hybrid drive;
increase an energy extraction rate based on the determined upcoming expected increase in power request of the hybrid drive; and
implement the power request of the hybrid drive after the energy extraction rate has been increased.

Assignees

• Continental Automotive Gmbh

Inventors

• Jehle Martin
• Maiterth Johannes Moritz
• Semsey Akos

Classifications

• B60L15/20

  for control of the vehicle or its driving motor to achieve a desired performance, e.g. speed, torque, programmed variation of speed · CPC title

• B60W2554/801

  Lateral distance · CPC title

• B60L58/15

  Preventing overcharging · CPC title

• B60W2754/30

  Longitudinal distance · CPC title

• B60W20/12

  using control strategies taking into account route information {(estimation or calculation of non-directly measurable driving parameters B60W40/00)} · CPC title