Patent Publication Number: US-2023159015-A1

Title: Pre-conditioning system for battery of vehicle and operating method thereof

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     The present application claims priority to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2021- 0160084, filed Nov. 19, 2021, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein for all purposes by this reference. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT DISCLOSURE 
     Field of the Present Disclosure 
     The present disclosure relates to a pre-conditioning system for improving charging performance of a battery, and more particularly, to a pre-conditioning system for a battery of an eco-friendly vehicle. 
     Description of Related Art 
     Driven by motors, eco-friendly vehicles, such as electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, and the like, have been increasingly supplied in recent years. A drive motor of an eco-friendly vehicle is driven by electrical energy stored in a high-voltage battery mounted on the vehicle. The battery needs to be periodically charged to restore power consumed according to the operation of the vehicle. 
     Accordingly, it is essential to improve charging performance, such as shortening the charging time of batteries in the eco-friendly vehicles. In general, lithium-ion batteries mounted in vehicles have temperature-sensitive charging and discharging characteristics, so a charging current map is constructed in consideration of battery performance and durability for each temperature condition. Accordingly, charging performance varies by conditions of battery temperature and voltage based on the charging current map. For example, the battery is charged with a low current at a low temperature, so that the charging time becomes relatively longer than when the battery is not under the low-temperature condition. 
     Accordingly, there is a demand for a battery charging control strategy capable of shortening the charging time of the battery and improving the charging performance even under low-temperature conditions. 
     The information included in this Background of the present disclosure is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the present disclosure and may not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY 
     Various aspects of the present disclosure are directed to providing a battery pre-conditioning system configured for improving charging performance of a battery under low-temperature conditions. 
     Objectives of the present disclosure are not limited to the objective mentioned above, and other objectives not mentioned may be clearly understood by those of ordinary skill in the art (hereinafter referred to as “persons of ordinary skill”) from the description below. 
     To achieve the objective of the present disclosure as described above and perform the characteristic functions of the present disclosure to be described later, there may be provided a pre-conditioning system for a battery and an operating method thereof, and the features of the present disclosure are as follows. 
     According to various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, the method may include: receiving an input of a destination of the vehicle; generating and outputting a destination route to the destination; searching for information on one or more battery charging stations located within a predetermined range on or around the destination route; determining whether each of the searched battery charging stations satisfies a preset environmental condition; adding to the destination route a charging station path, wherein the charging station is a path to a battery charging station selected among the battery charging stations satisfying the environmental condition; determining whether the battery of the vehicle satisfies a preset state condition; and warming the battery at a preset time point when the preset state condition is satisfied. 
     According to various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, the system for a battery may include: an input unit configured to receive input information of a user of the vehicle and to receive charging infrastructure information including charging station location information of the battery transmitted from an outside of the vehicle; a battery management system configured to detect state information of the battery of the vehicle and drive a battery heater for heating the battery; and a controller configured to communicate with the input unit and the battery management system and generate one or more commands based on information received from the input unit and the battery management system, wherein the controller is configured to: based on the information received at the input unit, receive a request for activation of the pre-conditioning mode of the battery of the vehicle and select a charging station for charging the battery; based on the information of the battery management system, confirm that a temperature of the battery is less than a predetermined temperature; and operate the battery heater at a predetermined time period before arriving at the selected charging station. 
     As described above, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, a pre-conditioning system for a battery capable of improving charging performance of the battery may be provided. 
     According to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the pre-conditioning system for a battery capable of shortening a charging time of the battery may be provided. 
     The methods and apparatuses of the present disclosure have other features and advantages which will be apparent from or are set forth in more detail in the accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein, and the following Detailed Description, which together serve to explain certain principles of the present disclosure. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG.  1    is a block diagram of a pre-conditioning system for a battery according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure; 
         FIG.  2    is a flowchart of an operating method of the pre-conditioning system for a battery according to various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure; 
         FIG.  3    is a flowchart for determining whether environmental conditions are provided according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure; 
         FIG.  4    is a view showing an exemplary display window of an output unit of the present disclosure; and 
         FIG.  5    is a flowchart for determining whether state conditions are provided according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. 
     
    
    
     It may be understood that the appended drawings are not necessarily to scale, presenting a somewhat simplified representation of various features illustrative of the basic principles of the present disclosure. The specific design features of the present disclosure as included herein, including, for example, specific dimensions, orientations, locations, and shapes will be determined in part by the particularly intended application and use environment. 
     In the figures, reference numbers refer to a same or equivalent parts of the present disclosure throughout the several figures of the drawing. 
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Reference will now be made in detail to various embodiments of the present disclosure(s), examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and described below. While the present disclosure(s) will be described in conjunction with exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, it will be understood that the present description is not intended to limit the present disclosure(s) to those exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. On the other hand, the present disclosure(s) is/are intended to cover not only the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, but also various alternatives, modifications, equivalents and other embodiments, which may be included within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims. 
     Specific structural or functional descriptions presented in the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are only exemplified for describing the exemplary embodiments according to the concept of the present disclosure, and the exemplary embodiments according to the concept of the present disclosure may be implemented in various forms. Furthermore, present disclosure should not be construed as being limited to the exemplary embodiments described herein and should be understood to include all modifications, equivalents, and substitutes included in the spirit and scope thereof. 
     Meanwhile, in the present disclosure, terms such as first and/or second may be used to describe various components, but the components are not limited to the terms. The above terms are used only for distinguishing one component from other components, for example, within the scope of not departing from the scope of the rights according to the concept of the present disclosure, a first component may be referred to as a second component, and similarly, the second component may also be referred to as the first component. 
     When a component is referred to as being “connected to” or “accessed by” another component, it should be understood that another component may be directly connected to or accessed by another component, but other component s may exist in between. On the other hand, when a component is referred to as being “directly connected to” or “directly accessed by” another component, it should be understood that no other component is present in the middle. Other expressions for describing the relationship between components, that is, “between” and “immediately between” or “adjacent to” and “directly adjacent to” should be interpreted similarly. 
     Like reference numerals refer to like components throughout the specification. On the other hand, terms used herein are for describing the exemplary embodiments and are not intended to limit the present disclosure. In the present specification, a singular form also includes plural forms unless otherwise specified in the phrase. As used herein, “comprises” and/or “comprising” means that the stated component, step, operation and/or element does not exclude the presence or addition of one or more other components, steps, operations and/or elements. 
     As described above, charging performance of a lithium-ion battery currently provided in a vehicle is affected by a temperature to which the battery is exposed. For example, when comparing high-power charging at a room temperature of 25° C. and a low temperature of about -7° C., it has been confirmed that a charging time takes about three times longer at the low temperature. 
     Accordingly, when the temperature of the battery is increased before charging to shorten the charging time, charging performance may be improved. There are several temperature-raising functions that currently exist in eco-friendly vehicles. The first is a technology that raises the temperature of the battery before charging for securing “driving performance” at low temperatures. This technology is to secure “driving performance” but is not designed to improve the “charging performance” of the battery, so that the temperature-raising function is configured to operate only at extremely low temperatures of about not greater than -10° C. As an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, when an air conditioning reservation is set during parking, there is a technology in which the temperature inside the vehicle is raised according to the set departure time. However, the temperature of the battery is unable to be controlled under the present technology. 
     Accordingly, an objective of the present disclosure is to provide a pre-conditioning system for a battery capable of improving the charging performance of the battery based on information, such as charging infrastructure information, a satellite navigation system (GPS), and the like, received by the vehicle. The charging infrastructure information includes fast charging station information, whether the charger to be used is faulty, whether the charger is in use, information on the waiting list of the charger, and the like. The pre-conditioning system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure provides the most suitable fast charging station information to the user by use of the charging infrastructure information. Furthermore, the present disclosure may maximize the charging performance by operating the temperature-raising function of the battery before a preset specific time from the expected arrival time of the vehicle in consideration of factors, such as expected arrival time information from vehicle navigation, battery temperature, outside temperature, and the like. 
     Hereinafter, the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
     As shown in  FIG.  1   , a pre-conditioning system  1  for a battery according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure includes a controller  10 , an input unit  30 , a battery management system  50 , a battery heater  70 , and an output unit  90 . 
     The controller  10  oversees control of the pre-conditioning system  1  for a battery. The controller  10  may be a vehicle controller or may be configured as a separate controller for the present system  1 . 
     The controller  10  receives various information input from the input unit  30 . The input unit  30  is configured to receive vehicle location information, traffic information, location-related surrounding information, and the like, and to receive a request from a driver or vehicle user. 
     The input unit  30  is configured to receive the request from the driver or the user of the vehicle. In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the input unit  30  is an Audio, Video &amp; Navigation (AVN) system of a vehicle. The driver may request activation of a pre-conditioning mode according to the present system  1  through the input unit  30 . Also, information on a destination and/or waypoint of the vehicle may be input through the input unit  30 . 
     The input unit  30  may collect vehicle location information, traffic information, location-related surrounding information, and the like. In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the information may be obtained based on the AVN system, that is, a GPS-based navigation system provided in the vehicle. In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the input unit  30  receives charging infrastructure information. As a non-limiting example, the input unit  30  may receive location information of a battery charging station. As one non-limiting example, the input unit  30  may receive information regarding whether the battery charging station is a charging station that provides fast charging or super-fast charging. As another non-limiting example, the input unit  30  may receive information on whether each fast charging station or super-fast charging station normally provides a charging function. That is, it is possible to collect failure information of the charging device of each charging station. As another non-limiting example, the input unit  30  may receive usage information of each charging station. In other words, it collects information related to whether the charging device of each charging station is being used by other vehicles. As another non-limiting example, the input unit  30  may collect wait line information of each charging station. For example, it is possible to collect information related to how many vehicles are waiting to be charged at each charging station, how long it takes for the waiting vehicles to complete charging, and the like. In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the charging infrastructure information may be accessible through an open source, cloud service, or the like. 
     The controller  10  is also configured to be communicable with the vehicle’s battery management system (BMS)  50 . In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the BMS  50  sends real-time temperature information of the battery to the controller  10 . In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, BMS  50  transmits state of charge (SoC) information of the battery to the controller  10 . In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the BMS  50  is configured to transmit operation state information of the battery heater  70  for increasing the temperature of the battery to the controller  10 . 
     The controller  10  receives the information and the like about the battery from the BMS  50 . Furthermore, the controller  10  may transmit a request regarding the operation of the battery heater  70  to the BMS  50  as necessary. The controller  10  may transmit an ON or OFF operation command of the battery heater  70  to the BMS  50  based on an environmental condition including user input information, vehicle route information, and charging infrastructure information, and a state condition including battery condition information transmitted from the BMS  50 . 
     Furthermore, the controller  10  is configured to be communicable with the output unit  90 . In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the output unit  90  may output information through the AVN system. In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the output unit  90  may output information to a cluster of vehicles. In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the output unit  90  may output information to an application provided in a smart device, such as a smartphone, paired with the vehicle. 
     The output unit  90  may output status information of the pre-conditioning system  1 . In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the output unit  90  may display request information for activation of pre-conditioning mode of the pre-conditioning system  1  transmitted from the input unit  30  to the controller  10 . When there is no request for activation of the pre-conditioning mode, the pre-conditioning system  1  may be controlled not to operate. When a request for activation of the pre-conditioning mode is received through the input unit  30 , the output unit  90  may display a state of being activated. In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the output unit  90  may visually provide an operating state of the pre-conditioning system  1  to note the driver. 
     Furthermore, the output unit  90  may provide the driver with route information related to the destination and/or waypoint based on the destination and/or waypoint input through the input unit  30 . 
     Hereinafter, an operating method of a pre-conditioning system for a battery according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to  FIG.  2   ,  FIG.  3   ,  FIG.  4    and  FIG.  5   . 
     As shown in  FIG.  2   , in step S 100 , the controller  10  receives starting up ON information of the vehicle. The pre-conditioning system  1  according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure may be configured to operate while the vehicle is running. 
     Destination and/or waypoint information of the vehicle is collected through the input unit  30 , and route information to the destination and/or waypoint is obtained based on the received information in S 110 . The route information to the destination and/or waypoint may be determined by the navigation controller or may be obtained by the controller  10 . The obtained path information is displayed on the output unit  90 . 
     The input unit  30  collects information of the battery charging station within a predetermined range from the route to the previously determined destination, and transmits the collected information to the controller  10  in S 120 . The controller  10  determines whether the environmental conditions are satisfied based on the collected information of the charging stations in S 130 . Satisfaction of the environmental conditions may be determined to select a charging station optimized in terms of time, convenience, and the like among the identified charging stations. 
     As in the flowchart of  FIG.  3   , it may be determined whether the environmental conditions are satisfied. The controller  10  determines whether each searched charging station provides fast or super-fast charging in S 131 . Furthermore, when each charging station provides fast or super-fast charging, the controller  10  checks whether the charger of each charging station is operating normally in S 132 . Furthermore, when it is confirmed that the charger of each charging station is operating normally, the controller  10  determines usage information of the corresponding charging station in S 133 . That is, whether another vehicle is being charged through the charger is checked. This is to minimize the waiting time so that quick charging is possible. When the charger of the charging station is in use, the controller  10  predicts the time that will take to charge at the corresponding charging station in S 134 . As a non-limiting example, the controller  10  determines a difference between the remaining charging time required for another vehicle being charged to complete charging and the expected necessary time required to arrive at the corresponding charging station based on the vehicle’s route information. When the difference is smaller than a preset time value α, it is predicted that charging at the corresponding charging station is sufficiently rapidly accomplished. For example, α may be a preset value such as 5 minutes or 10 minutes. When the difference is greater than α, charging at the corresponding charging station is deemed undesirable, and another charging station that will provide faster charging may be searched for. Furthermore, when the difference is smaller than α, the controller  10  checks information on the number of vehicles waiting for charging at the corresponding charging station in S 135 . When the number of waiting vehicles is smaller than a preset value β, the corresponding charging station is also determined as a suitable charging station where charging is possible. When the number of waiting vehicles is greater than β, the corresponding charging station may be excluded from the selection. As a non-limiting example, β may mean that the number of waiting vehicles is one, two, and the like. On the other hand, as for the number of waiting vehicles, wait line according to reservation information for the corresponding charger collected by the input unit  30  may be utilized. 
     With reference back to  FIG.  2   , when the environmental conditions are satisfied, the controller  10  outputs the selected fast charging stations that satisfy the environmental conditions through the output unit  90  in S 140 . For example, charging station information satisfying the environmental conditions may be displayed on the path information displayed on the output unit  90 . As shown in  FIG.  4   , information on the fast charging stations that satisfy the environmental conditions and a remaining distance to each of the fast charging stations, an expected charging cost and expected charging time at each of the corresponding fast charging stations may be displayed on the route information from a point of departure to the destination. 
     Furthermore, the driver may select a desired charging station through touch or key manipulation of the output unit  90  in S 150 . When the desired charging station is selected by the driver, a pop-up window asking whether to add the selected charging station to the current route may be displayed. When the desired charging station is selected, the controller  10  adds the location information of the corresponding charging station to the current route information in S 160 . 
     Furthermore, the controller  10  determines whether the state condition for performing the function of the pre-conditioning system  1  is satisfied in S 170 . The state condition may be determined based on state information of the battery. Furthermore, the state condition may be determined based on user input information of the input unit  30  (for example, an activation request of the pre-conditioning mode) and battery state information from the BMS  50 . 
     With reference to  FIG.  5   , the controller  10  determines whether activation of the pre-conditioning mode has been requested through the input unit  30  in S 171 . Then it is determined whether the state of charge (SOC) value of the battery is a state in which the battery may be charged in S 172 . Furthermore, the controller  10  determines whether the temperature of the battery is low in temperature S 173 . Here, a reference value of the low temperature may be preset. In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the order of steps S 172  and S 173  may be reversed. When all of the state conditions of steps S 171  to S 173  are satisfied, the process proceeds to step S 180 , and an operation for increasing the temperature of the battery is prepared. When the state condition is not provided, the battery temperature-raising operation is not performed in S 500 . 
     When the state condition is satisfied, the controller  10  is configured to perform a battery warming operation. The controller  10  determines an expected arrival time to arrive at the selected charging station and determines a battery warming start time based on this in S 180 . 
     Furthermore, the controller  10  monitors whether the current time has reached the determined warming start time in S 190 . When the current time has not reached the warming start time, the battery temperature-raising operation is on standby in S 600 . When it is determined that the current time has reached the warming start point, the controller  10  performs an operation for increasing the temperature of the battery. The controller  10  instructs the BMS  50  to operate the battery heater  70  and may display on the output unit  90  that the battery temperature-raising operation is in progress in S 200 . The controller  10  continuously receives the temperature information of the battery from the BMS  50  while the battery heater  70  is operating. When the temperature of the battery reaches a temperature-raising target temperature, the controller  10  is configured to control the battery heater  70  by repeating the ON/OFF operation so that the temperature is maintained until reaching the charging station in S 210 . 
     According to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, even in a low-temperature environment, it is possible to maximize the charging performance of the vehicle through the battery conditioning function. The system and method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure can provide far superior charging performance to vehicles arrived at charging stations compared to a case where the present system and the method is not applied. 
     According to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, charging infrastructure information, such as charging station failure information, charging station usage information, charging station wait line information, and the like, information, is maximally utilized. Such information is provided to the driver, and the battery temperature-raising function operates in connection with the information. Accordingly, not only can charging capability be secured, but also the product value of a vehicle, specifically defined by waiting time for fast charging or convenience, may be maximized. 
     Furthermore, the term related to a control device such as “controller”, “control apparatus”, “control unit”, “control device”, “control module”, or “server”, etc refers to a hardware device including a memory and a processor configured to execute one or more steps interpreted as an algorithm structure. The memory stores algorithm steps, and the processor executes the algorithm steps to perform one or more processes of a method in accordance with various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. The control device according to exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented through a nonvolatile memory configured to store algorithms for controlling operation of various components of a vehicle or data about software commands for executing the algorithms, and a processor configured to perform operation to be described above using the data stored in the memory. The memory and the processor may be individual chips. Alternatively, the memory and the processor may be integrated in a single chip. The processor may be implemented as one or more processors. The processor may include various logic circuits and operation circuits, may process data according to a program provided from the memory, and may generate a control signal according to the processing result. 
     The control device may be at least one microprocessor operated by a predetermined program which may include a series of commands for carrying out the method included in the aforementioned various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. 
     The aforementioned invention can also be embodied as computer readable codes on a computer readable recording medium. The computer readable recording medium is any data storage device that can store data which may be thereafter read by a computer system and store and execute program instructions which may be thereafter read by a computer system. Examples of the computer readable recording medium include Hard Disk Drive (HDD), solid state disk (SSD), silicon disk drive (SDD), read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), CD-ROMs, magnetic tapes, floppy discs, optical data storage devices, etc and implementation as carrier waves (e.g., transmission over the Internet). Examples of the program instruction include machine language code such as those generated by a compiler, as well as high-level language code which may be executed by a computer using an interpreter or the like. 
     In various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, each operation described above may be performed by a control device, and the control device may be configured by multiple control devices, or an integrated single control device. 
     In various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, the control device may be implemented in a form of hardware or software, or may be implemented in a combination of hardware and software. 
     Furthermore, the terms such as “unit”, “module”, etc. included in the specification mean units for processing at least one function or operation, which may be implemented by hardware, software, or a combination thereof. 
     For convenience in explanation and accurate definition in the appended claims, the terms “upper”, “lower”, “inner”, “outer”, “up”, “down”, “upwards”, “downwards”, “front”, “rear”, “back”, “inside”, “outside”, “inwardly”, “outwardly”, “interior”, “exterior”, “internal”, “external”, “forwards”, and “backwards” are used to describe features of the exemplary embodiments with reference to the positions of such features as displayed in the figures. It will be further understood that the term “connect” or its derivatives refer both to direct and indirect connection. 
     The foregoing descriptions of specific exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure have been presented for purposes of illustration and description. They are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the present disclosure to the precise forms disclosed, and obviously many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings. The exemplary embodiments were chosen and described in order to explain certain principles of the invention and their practical application, to enable others skilled in the art to make and utilize various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, as well as various alternatives and modifications thereof. It is intended that the scope of the present disclosure be defined by the Claims appended hereto and their equivalents.