Patent ID: 8076016

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a plurality of battery modules serially intercoupled together, each module including a housing with an anode connector and a cathode connector, wherein an anode connector of a first module is coupled to a cathode connector of a second module, and wherein each said module includes a reference developed from a static measurement of a reference positional attribute of said plurality of modules wherein said reference positional attribute of each particular module identifies a particular reference location of said particular module in said serially intercoupled plurality of battery modules relative to other battery modules of said plurality of modules; a processing system, coupled to each said module, for determining a plurality of current positional attributes for said plurality of battery modules, one current positional attribute associated with each said module of said plurality of modules wherein said current positional attribute of each particular module identifies a particular current location of said particular module in said serially intercoupled plurality of battery modules relative to other battery modules of said plurality of modules; a comparator, coupled to said processing system, for comparing a reference positional attribute for a particular reference associated with a particular one battery module to said current positional attribute of said particular one battery module; and a monitor, coupled to said comparator, for flagging said particular one battery module when a predetermined relationship exists between said reference positional attribute and said current positional attribute wherein existence of said predetermined relationship indicates that said particular current location of said particular one module is different from said particular reference location.