Patent Application
20190009681
This application claims benefit to German Patent Application No. DE 10 2017 115 327.6, filed Jul. 10, 2017, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
The present invention relates to a method for positioning a motor vehicle above a ground plate. The present invention also relates to a corresponding apparatus in the form of a ground plate.
Inductive power transfer (IPT) between a first coil arranged in a ground unit and a second coil placed on the underbody of a vehicle is known. If the second coil—and therefore the vehicle itself—is positioned above the first coil, electrical power can be transferred to the vehicle in order to charge its battery. The practice of monitoring the air gap remaining between the ground unit and the vehicle when the vehicle is stationary during the power transfer operation by means of radar is also already known.
US20160025821A1 discloses guidance and alignment systems for wireless charging systems in order to support the alignment of the transmitter and receiver IPT couplers. These systems carry out the positioning and alignment in order to ensure adequate coupling between the transmitter and receiver IPT couplers. Exemplary systems provide a magnetic field sensor, a magnetic field generator and magnetic vectoring in order to determine a position of an electric vehicle or a wireless charging base. In such a magnetic guidance system, an alignment system comprising at least three coils (or similar circuits) on a magnetically permeable substrate receives a positioning magnetic field with modulated information signals and processes the received signal in order to generate an output signal for determining a position of the positioning magnetic field source relative to the magnetic field sensor position. The alignment system may also have a similar structure which generates the positioning magnetic field which may contain modulated information signals on the basis of input signals.
DE102015210314A1 discloses a method for determining the position of a motor vehicle relative to a primary coil of an inductive charging station by means of at least one distance sensor system of the motor vehicle. In this case, the distance sensor system has at least one transmitting part and one receiving part, the receiving part capturing at least the signals emitted by the transmitting part and capturing at least one distinguished point therefrom at a defined position with respect to the primary coil. A relative position of the motor vehicle with respect to the primary coil is then determined therefrom in an evaluation unit.
DE102013209235A1 relates to methods and apparatuses for position determination. Here, in the case of a relatively large distance between a vehicle and a charging station, use is made of a measuring method which determines a distance by means of absolute propagation time determination. A relative propagation time measurement is carried out between a plurality of received signals when the charging station and the vehicle are in a close range.
FR2936996B1 also describes a relevant method.
In an embodiment, the present invention provides a method for positioning a motor vehicle above a ground plate. The method includes determining, by ultrasonic sensors of the ground plate, data dependent on a location of the motor vehicle; transmitting the data from the ground plate to the motor vehicle by a radio connection; and carrying out positioning of the motor vehicle on the basis of the data until the location is above the ground plate.
The present invention will be described in even greater detail below based on the exemplary figures. The invention is not limited to the exemplary embodiments. All features described and/or illustrated herein can be used alone or combined in different combinations in embodiments of the invention. The features and advantages of various embodiments of the present invention will become apparent by reading the following detailed description with reference to the attached drawings which illustrate the following:
One or more embodiments of the invention provide a method for positioning a motor vehicle above a ground plate and a ground plate.
In comparison with known methods which evaluate only the power transferred to the vehicle by the magnetic field of the ground plate, one or more embodiments of the present invention provide for improved and early positioning of the vehicle above the ground plate. In this case, embodiments of the invention are favorable in comparison with the conceivable fitting of additional field coils for positioning. A combination of additional field coils and an additional system, for example on the basis of ultrasound, is also conceivable.
According to one option which is now explained on the basis of
Overall, there are three options. Option 1: positioning using a fixed frequency. Evaluation of the reflection. GA (Ground Assembly; ground plate) transmits; VA (vehicle plate, inductive) reflects. Option 2: like option 1 with the addition of the parking sensors in the automobile. Option 3: use of the vehicle parking sensors and calculation of the position using propagation time differences, for example. Or the vehicle ultrasonic sensors transmit in signals coded in a defined manner (for example using frequency or “transmission code similar to Morse code”) in order to only ever address one defined ultrasonic sensor of the ground plate in order to thus calculate the unknown variables of processing time, X position and Y position.
The vehicle is then the master of the positioning and the location position of the ground plate is then calculated in the vehicle.
The same could also be carried out in the reverse direction: the ultrasonic sensor of the ground plate transmits in signals coded in a defined manner. The ground plate can then calculate the location position. However, this information must then be transmitted in the direction of the vehicle.
On the basis of all these measurement data, the motor vehicle (10) is moved manually or automatically until its location is substantially above the ground plate (20). If the optimum position has been reached, the motor vehicle (10) can be coupled to the ground plate (20) in an inductive or resonantly inductive manner by means of the magnetic field in order to electrically charge its traction battery. The air gap remaining in this case between the underbody (11) of the motor vehicle (10) and the ground plate (20) is monitored during charging, for example by means of radar.
While the invention has been illustrated and described in detail in the drawings and foregoing description, such illustration and description are to be considered illustrative or exemplary and not restrictive. It will be understood that changes and modifications may be made by those of ordinary skill within the scope of the following claims. In particular, the present invention covers further embodiments with any combination of features from different embodiments described above and below.
The terms used in the claims should be construed to have the broadest reasonable interpretation consistent with the foregoing description. For example, the use of the article “a” or “the” in introducing an element should not be interpreted as being exclusive of a plurality of elements. Likewise, the recitation of “or” should be interpreted as being inclusive, such that the recitation of “A or B” is not exclusive of “A and B,” unless it is clear from the context or the foregoing description that only one of A and B is intended. Further, the recitation of “at least one of A, B and C” should be interpreted as one or more of a group of elements consisting of A, B and C, and should not be interpreted as requiring at least one of each of the listed elements A, B and C, regardless of whether A, B and C are related as categories or otherwise. Moreover, the recitation of “A, B and/or C” or “at least one of A, B or C” should be interpreted as including any singular entity from the listed elements, e.g., A, any subset from the listed elements, e.g., A and B, or the entire list of elements A, B and C.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 2017 115 327.6 | Jul 2017 | DE | national |
