System for controlling charge/discharge of secondary battery, battery controller, and computer-readable medium

Abstract

In a charging/discharging control system for controlling an allowable power level of a secondary battery at the time of charging/discharging operations, excessive discharging or recharging of the secondary battery is prevented, and excessive suppression of the charging/discharging of the secondary battery is prevented. A vehicle ECU controls charging/discharging of the secondary battery in accordance with a predetermined allowable power level. A battery ECU detects an actual loading power level of a secondary battery; calculates a differential power level between the detected actual loading power level and an allowable power level; measures the number of times the calculated differential power level has become equal to or lower than a predetermined threshold value; and downwardly revises the allowable power level when the count has become equal to or greater than a predetermined upper-limit level.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail based on the following figures, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a view showing a general configuration of a hybrid vehicle according to a first modification of an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a view showing an example reference map to which a reference is made when a battery ECU determines an allowable power level from the temperature of a battery;

FIG. 3 is a view showing another example reference map to which a reference is made when the battery ECU determines an allowable power level from the temperature of the battery and an SOC;

FIG. 4 is a view showing still another example reference map to which a reference is made when the battery ECU determines an allowable power level from the voltage of the battery;

FIG. 5 is a view showing a functional block for describing the battery ECU and a secondary battery;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing processing procedures employed when the battery ECU of the present embodiment makes downward revision on the allowable battery level;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing processing procedures employed when the battery ECU of a first modification makes downward revision on the allowable battery level;

FIG. 8 shows an example reference map to which the battery ECU makes a reference when determining a short-term allowable power level Ps and a long-term allowable power level Pl from the temperature of the battery;

FIG. 9 is a view showing a circuit configuration of a voltage measurement apparatus capable of determining an actual loading power level Prn on a per-block basis;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing processing procedures employed when the battery ECU measures the number of times a differential power level ΔP has assumed a threshold value α or less during a predetermined count period of time and makes a downward revision; and

FIG. 11 is a view for describing temporal variations in charging/discharging power of the secondary battery that is mounted in an electric vehicle, a hybrid vehicle, or the like, and iterates charging/discharging operation within a short period of time.

Claims

1. A system for controlling charging/discharging of a secondary battery comprising: a power level calculating section for calculating an actual loading power level of a secondary battery;a differential calculating section for calculating a differential power level between the calculated actual loading power level and an allowable power level achieved during charging/discharging of the secondary battery; andan allowable power level control section for measuring a number of times the calculated differential power level has become equal to or lower than a predetermined threshold value and downwardly revising the allowable power level when a count has become equal to or greater than a predetermined upper-limit value.

2. The system for controlling charging/discharging of a secondary battery according to claim 1, wherein the allowable power level control section measures a number of times the calculated differential power level has continually become equal to or lower than the predetermined threshold value.

3. The system for controlling charging/discharging of a secondary battery according to claim 1, wherein the allowable power level control section measures the number of times the calculated differential power level has become equal to or lower than the predetermined threshold value within a predetermined period.

4. The system for controlling charging/discharging of a secondary battery according to claim 1, wherein the allowable power level control section increases an amount of downward revision to the allowable power level as the count is greater.

5. The system for controlling charging/discharging of a secondary battery according to claim 1, wherein the allowable power level control section increases an amount of downward revision to the allowable power level as the differential power level is greater when the actual loading power level surpasses the allowable power level.

6. The system for controlling charging/discharging of a secondary battery according to claim 1, further comprising: cutoff means for cutting off charging/discharging of the secondary battery, whereinthe allowable power level control section downwardly revises the allowable power level to zero and requests the cutoff means to cut charging/discharging of the secondary battery when the count has reached a predetermined highest-limit value.

7. The system for controlling charging/discharging of a secondary battery according to claim 1, wherein the allowable power control section downwardly revises the allowable power level having reached the upper-limit value by an amount of downward revision determined for each allowable power level each time the count reaches the upper-limit value determined for each allowable power level when there are a plurality of allowable power levels whose power levels differ from each other.

8. The system for controlling charging/discharging of a secondary battery according to claim 1, wherein the secondary battery is formed by combination of a plurality of battery modules; the allowable power level is determined for each of blocks into which battery modules constituting the secondary battery are divided on a predetermined unit;the power level calculating section calculates an actual loading power level of the secondary battery on a per-block basis; andthe allowable power level control section measures the number of times a differential power level calculated on a per-block basis has become equal to or lower than a predetermined threshold value and downwardly revises each of the allowable power levels determined for each block when the count has become equal to or greater than a predetermined upper-limit value.

9. The system for controlling charging/discharging of a secondary battery according to claim 1, wherein the power level calculating section calculates the actual loading power level at a shorter interval as a load on the secondary battery is greater.

10. A battery controller for adaptively setting an allowable power level of a secondary battery subjected to charging/discharging control within a range of charging/discharging capability in accordance with the allowable power level set according to at least a temperature, the controller comprising: a power level calculating section for calculating an actual loading power level of the secondary battery;a differential calculating section for calculating a differential power level between a calculated actual loading power level and the allowable power level; andan allowable power level control section for measuring the number of times the calculated differential power level has become equal to or lower than a predetermined threshold level and downwardly revising the allowable power level when a count has become equal to or greater than a predetermined upper-limit level.

11. A system for controlling charging/discharging of a secondary battery comprising: a power level calculating section for calculating an actual loading power level of a secondary battery;a differential calculating section for calculating a differential power level between the calculated actual loading power level and an allowable power level achieved during charging/discharging of the secondary battery; andan allowable power level control section for, when the calculated differential power level has become equal to or lower than a predetermined threshold level and also the actual loading power level surpasses the allowable power level, downwardly revising the allowable power level by a greater amount of downward revision as the differential power level is greater.

12. A battery controller for adaptively setting an allowable power level of a secondary battery subjected to charging/discharging control within a range of charging/discharging capability in accordance with the allowable power level set according to at least a temperature, the controller comprising: a power level calculating section for calculating an actual loading power level of the secondary battery;a differential calculating section for calculating a differential power level between a calculated actual loading power level and the allowable power level; and,an allowable power level control section for, when the calculated differential power level has become equal to or lower than a predetermined threshold value level and also the actual loading power level surpasses the allowable power level, downwardly revising the allowable power level by a greater amount of downward revision as the differential power level is greater.

13. A system for controlling charging/discharging of a secondary battery comprising: an allowable level setting section for setting an allowable power level of the secondary battery according to at least one of a battery temperature, a state of charge, and a battery voltage of the secondary battery; anda charging/discharging control section for controlling charging/discharging of the secondary battery according to the allowable power level, the section allowing charging/discharging operations exceeding the allowable power level before the number of times an actual loading power level of the secondary battery has exceeded the allowable power level reaches a predetermined number of times, and controlling charging/discharging of the secondary battery in accordance with a second allowable power level which is lower than the allowable power level when the number of times has reached the predetermined number of times.

14. The charging/discharging control system according to claim 13, wherein the secondary allowable power level becomes lower as the number of times becomes greater within a predetermined period.

15. The charging/discharging control system according to claim 14, wherein the secondary allowable power level becomes essentially zero when the number of times has reached an upper-limit number of times greater than the predetermined number of times within a predetermined period of time, and the control section stops charging/discharging of the secondary battery.

16. A computer-readable medium into which is stored a program for causing a computer to perform processing for adaptively setting an allowable power level of a secondary battery subjected to charging/discharging control within a range of charging/discharging capability, the processing comprising: calculating an actual loading power level of the secondary battery;calculating a differential power level between a calculated actual loading power level and the allowable power level; andmeasuring the number of times the calculated differential power level has become equal to or lower than a predetermined threshold level and downwardly revising the allowable power level when a count has become equal to or greater than a predetermined upper-limit level.

17. A computer-readable medium into which is stored a program for causing a computer to perform processing for controlling charging/discharging of a secondary battery within a range of charging/discharging capability in accordance with an allowable power level, the processing comprising: setting an allowable power level of the secondary battery according to at least one of a battery temperature, a state of charge, and a battery voltage of the secondary battery; andallowing charging/discharging operations exceeding the allowable power level before the number of times an actual loading power level of the secondary battery has exceeded the allowable power level reaches a predetermined number of times, and controlling charging/discharging of the secondary battery in accordance with a second allowable power level which is lower than the allowable power level when the number of times has reached the predetermined number of times.