Patent Application
20200238847
An electric vehicle charging infrastructure may receive power (e.g., from a power grid, renewable resources, a battery, a distribution substation, etc.) and provide power to charge electric vehicles. Note that many different types of vehicles may be charged by a charging station at any given point in time. For example, the charging station might be simultaneously providing power to regular vehicles (e.g., motorcycles and passenger vehicles), ambulances, police vehicles, etc. Also note that the total amount of power received by a charging station (and/or that the charging station is able to deliver) might be limited. For example, a local battery and/or distribution substation might only be able to provide a fixed maximum amount of power.
In some cases, however, it might be more important to provide power to certain types of electric vehicles as compared to other types of vehicles. For example, it might be more important to quickly charge an ambulance using maximum power (e.g., so that the vehicle can return to serving patients as soon as possible) as compared to a regular vehicle or even a service vehicle (e.g., a tow truck or street sweeper). Determining what type of function a particular vehicle performs, however, can be a difficult and error prone task. Simply asking a vehicle or driver, for example, what type of vehicle is being charged might lead to false and inaccurate decisions (e.g., as people attempt to speed up the charging process). It would therefore be desirable to prioritize power delivery from a charging station in an automatic, efficient, and accurate manner.
Some embodiments described herein provide a system to prioritize power delivery from a charging station to electric vehicles. The charging station may include a communication port to receive a charge request from an electric vehicle associated with a delta platform certificate. The charging station may evaluate the delta platform certificate to determine if the electric vehicle is associated with a prioritized charging category (e.g., if the vehicle is an ambulance, police care, fire truck, etc.). A constrained optimizer may allocate power to the electric vehicle, relative to other electric vehicles being charged at the charging station, based at least in part on said determination. A charge pump may then provide power to the electric vehicle in accordance with a result from the constrained optimizer.
Some embodiments comprise: means for receiving, at an electric vehicle service point, a service request from an electric vehicle associated with a delta platform certificate; means for evaluating the delta platform certificate to determine if the electric vehicle is associated with a prioritized service category; means for executing a constrained optimizer to allocate service to the electric vehicle, relative to other electric vehicles being serviced by the service point, based at least in part on said determination; and means for providing service to the electric vehicle in accordance with a result of the constrained optimizer.
Some technical advantages of some embodiments disclosed herein are improved systems and methods using delta platform certificates to allocate service, such as charging, to electric vehicles in an automatic and accurate manner.
In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments. However, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, components and circuits have not been described in detail so as not to obscure the embodiments.
Some embodiments described herein prioritize power delivery from a charging station in an automatic, efficient, and accurate manner. For example,
The charging station 150 and/or the other elements of the system 100 might be, for example, associated with a Personal Computer (“PC”), laptop computer, smartphone, an enterprise server, a server farm, and/or a database or similar storage devices. According to some embodiments, an “automated” charging station 150 (and/or other elements of the system 100) may facilitate the prioritization of power delivery in accordance with the electronic records in the prioritization data store 120. As used herein, the term “automated” may refer to, for example, actions that can be performed with little (or no) intervention by a human.
As used herein, devices, including those associated with the charging station 150 and any other device described herein may exchange information via any communication network which may be one or more of a Local Area Network (“LAN”), a Metropolitan Area Network (“MAN”), a Wide Area Network (“WAN”), a proprietary network, a Public Switched Telephone Network (“PSTN”), a Wireless Application Protocol (“WAP”) network, a Bluetooth network, a wireless LAN network, and/or an Internet Protocol (“IP”) network such as the Internet, an intranet, or an extranet. Note that any devices described herein may communicate via one or more such communication networks.
The charging station 150 may store information into and/or retrieve information from the prioritization data store 120. Other data stores may contain information about prior and current interactions with entities, including those associated with various sales transactions. The prioritization data store 120 might be locally stored or reside remote from the charging station 150. As will be described further below, the prioritization data store 120 may be used by the charging station 150 in connection with allocating power to electric vehicles 110. Although a single charging station 150 is shown in
According to some embodiments, an electric vehicle 110 may transmit a charge request via the communication port 152 of the charging station 150 at (A). At (B), a delta certificate (described in more detail with respect to
Thus, according to some embodiments, the elements of the system 100 automatically prioritize the delivery of power to electric vehicles 110. Note, however, that embodiments might be associated with providing other types of service to vehicles. For example,
At S210, the system may receive, at an electric vehicle service point, a service request from an “electric vehicle” associated with a delta platform certificate. As used herein, the term electric vehicle may be associated with any type of vehicle, including, for example, a governmental vehicle, an ambulance, a fire truck, a police vehicle, a postal vehicle, a service vehicle (e.g., a tow truck or street sweeper), an autonomous vehicle, a drone, a military vehicle, etc. Moreover, although some embodiments are described with respect to the allocation of power from a charging station, note that embodiments might be associated with other types of vehicle service points. For example, a service point might be a vehicle maintenance or repair location (e.g., and a fire truck might have a flat tire fixed before a regular vehicle). Other examples might include a route access point (e.g., only ambulances are allowed through a tunnel at certain times of the day), a toll booth (e.g., cars associated with a city agency might be not be charged a toll), etc.
At S220, the system may evaluate the delta platform certificate to determine if the electric vehicle is associated with a prioritized service category. In some cases, this may be performed by accessing a prioritization data store containing a plurality of different vehicle category types, each type being associated with a prioritization weight. For example, a delivery truck for a particular enterprise may receive a higher prioritization (because the enterprise has agreed to pay a higher price for power).
At S230, the system may execute a constrained optimizer to allocate service to the electric vehicle, relative to other electric vehicles being serviced by the service point, based at least in part on the determination. The constrained optimizer might be associated with, for example, a time available to charge, a demand of charge, an amount of energy available at the charging station, a maximum power associated with a distribution transformer, etc. According to some embodiments, the constrained optimizer is associated with voltage, current, a charging rate limit, a duty ratio, a transformer temperature, a load, a visit date, a driver preference, a radio frequency identifier tag, a demand response command, weather data (e.g., a snow plow might receive a higher priority during a snow storm), pricing data, a firewall log file, a location of a public service facility (e.g., how far away is the nearest hospital or fire station?).
At S240, the system may provide service to the electric vehicle in accordance with a result of the constrained optimizer. According to some embodiments, a transaction data store may contain information about the charge request, including, for example, billing information, an agency identifier, etc. Note that some or all of the transaction data store might be stored in a secure, distributed transaction ledger (e.g., associated with blockchain technology).
The ensure that the electric vehicles 310 are receiving appropriate amounts of power, the charging station computer platform 350 may use various techniques to verify the identity and appropriate category for each vehicle 310. In general, much of a component's security properties may depend on the details of its hardware implementation. Authenticity of the hardware may be critical when deciding whether or not to trust a component. As both an electric vehicle 310 and charging station computer platform 350 may be associated with a diverse set of manufacturers (that may be privately owned), there is a possibility that counterfeit components may be encountered. Determining that a particular component is authentic (i.e., not counterfeit) may be critical when deciding whether or not it should be trusted. Relying on software to provide the hardware's identity may be insufficient because software has a proven record of being vulnerable to attacks that lead to identity forging.
Thus, a system may require proof that an electric vehicle 310 made for a general purpose (e.g., a FORD® truck) is currently being operated as a special category of vehicle (e.g., an emergency vehicle) before providing priority charging. To facilitate this determination, an authorized agency (e.g., a police department) might add a “delta” platform certificate cryptographically to an original vehicle manufacturer's platform certificate. This delta certificate may provide proof to Electric Vehicle Supplier Equipment (“EVSE”) that the vehicle is a member of the agency. This may allow the EVSE to prioritize charging or otherwise enhance the vehicle's charging capabilities. A prioritized charging process might be associated with, according to some embodiments, a regular and/or Extreme Fast Charging (“XFC”) station (with or without renewable energy resource such as a solar panel or wind turbine).
As used herein, a “platform certificate” may refer to an element that is cryptographically bound to a unique key (e.g., a Trusted Platform Module's (“TPM's”) Endorsement Key (“EK”)). The Trusted Computing Group (“TCG”) has defined a format for a platform certificate and a set of protocols to prove that the platform certificate is bound to the TPM's EK and therefore bound to a particular platform. While an EK is normally used as it is persistent and produced and signed by the TPM manufacturer which is typically trusted, anyone skilled in the art would know that any TPM key which is “fixed” to the TPM and is trusted may be used. Such a key would have similar security properties, and the term “EK” will be used herein for brevity.
The TCG is also defining a “delta” platform certificate which provides proof of a chain of custody for the platform to enable a Trusted Supply Chain (“TSC”) for a complex manufacturing chain. For example, a platform manufacturer might create a “basic” motherboard. This motherboard may be sent to a Value-Added Reseller (“VAR”) who adds to or otherwise enhances the platform (perhaps even re-branding the motherboard). However, an end user may want proof of the original motherboard manufacturer and proof of the VAR's changes. A delta platform certificate contains a unique cryptographic binding back to the original platform certificate. The delta platform certificate is signed by the agency using the electric vehicle (e.g., the police department or an authorized agent). According to some embodiments, the delta platform certificate is used to prioritize vehicle charging (instead of being used to provide a TSC. The delta platform certificate may contain other information (such as billing information) as well to provide financial information to the EVSE. Alternatively, an agency might issue a billing certificate but add to that billing certificate a unique cryptographic value binding to the billing certificate to the agency's delta platform certificate.
When an EVSE gets the appropriate classification for each connected vehicle, an overall charging site Energy Management System (“EMS”) may execute a prioritized algorithm to decide the prioritized charging rate for each vehicle. The charging site EMS might formulate this prioritization problem, for example, through a constrained optimizer. The optimizer's objective function might comprise maximizing customer demand satisfaction while also maximizing a charging station profit. According to some embodiments, constraints might include some or all of:
When a prioritized vehicle and a regular vehicle are both requesting charging by a charging station, the EMS may check the constraint, such as a transformer maximum power limit. If the power demand exceeds the power limit, the EMS may initiate the optimizer (using information from a prioritization data store) to determine the optimal charging rate for each vehicle.
Note that platform certificates provide cryptographic binding between a platform's hardware and the platform's manufacturer. A platform certificates is typically a X.509 certificate signed by the hardware platform's manufacturer (e.g., to provide proof of the hardware manufacturer). If used on an electric vehicle, for example, this may let EVSE determine that the vehicle's platforms are authentic (i.e., not counterfeit) before allowing communication.
Today, EVSE supplies maximum power to all electric vehicles. However, as electric vehicles become more prevalent, some EVSE might not be able to provide full power to all connected vehicles. Methods for electric vehicles to communicate with EVSE are defined (e.g., ISO 15118) and are being deployed to make the systems more intelligent. While financial and other information about the vehicle's owner may be conveyed via some form of certificate exchange in this connection, however, the information is bound to the individual and doesn't necessarily convey anything about how a vehicle is being used.
One example of such usage would be emergency vehicles. Many of these vehicles are general purpose vehicles which can be purchased by the public but are customized for a special purpose (such as a police vehicle). A police vehicle may require higher charging rates to perform their duties. In this case, the police vehicle may convey to the EVSE that it is a police vehicle and the EVSE should prioritize charging to that particular vehicle. If other vehicles are connected, this prioritization may case other non-emergency vehicles to have their charging rates reduced.
To avoid someone with the same make and model vehicle being mistaken for the emergency vehicle, the police department may issue as delta platform certificate proving that this particular vehicle (even though it is the same make and model as available to the general public) is actually an authorized emergency vehicle. This can apply to other categories of emergency vehicle such as ambulances, fire trucks, etc.
Rather than issue delta platform certificates, an agency might provide all EVSE within an area with a simple list of their vehicles (but such a list would need to be constantly updated). Similarly, billing certificates that are not bound to the platform certificate may be used. These approaches lack assurance that the billing certificate is associated with an authorized vehicle. By using delta platform certificates, some embodiments described herein may let an agency “revoke” a delta platform certificate when a vehicle is sold (and is no longer being used as an emergency vehicle) without having the vehicle's manufacturer revoke the vehicle's platform certificate. Another benefit of using revocation of delta certificates would be to have short-lived delta certificates that automatically expire (e.g., every 30 days). A benefit of short-lived delta certificates over distributing “valid” platform certificates as a prioritized database requires the electric vehicle stations to be online to keep the database current. Delta certificates might be renewed automatically when the vehicle is at the station allowing the electric vehicle station to be remote and disconnected.
An energy storage device, such as the battery 428, may connect to the DC bus to reduce the grid stress, accommodate distributed power generation, and/or reduce cost through demand response. An AC/DC grid-interface inverter 424 may transfer power between the shared DC bus and the AC grid feeder. Together with a transformer 426 and switchgear, the inverter 424 and shared DC bus forms one charging site 420. Using one or multiple points-of-interconnect, charging sites 420 may interface with the power grid 440 at a location downstream from a distribution substation 430 operated and controlled by a Distribution Substation Energy Management System (“EMS-DS”) 470 via a communication network 460. The EMS-DS 470 may communicate with a Charging Network Operator Controller (“EMS-CO”) 480. The EMS-CO 480 may manage each XFC directly or through an on-site EMS 450 (e.g., “EMS-s1” through EMS-sN). As will be described, the architecture 400 may include a secure, distributed transaction ledger 490 (e.g., an attestation blockchain) to record transaction information. According to some embodiments, the charging site 420 may inspect delta platform certificates submitted by EVs 410 and use that information to prioritize the provision of power from charge pumps 422.
According to some embodiments, bi-directional authentication of the electric vehicle 410 and the electric vehicle charging site 420 may be performed in connection with a charge request (and before the provision of power is prioritized). The TPM specification is published both as a TCG Specification and as International Standards Organization (“ISO”) document 11889. The TPM's capabilities include: an advanced key manager with sophisticated policies, a means to authenticate the identity of the platform's components (both physical and firmware/software), a hardware-based Random Number Generator (“RNG”), time and monotonic counters, and the ability to store relatively small amounts of policy protected critical data. The TPM's architecture supports multitenancy allowing dedicated keys, etc. owned by an Original Equipment Manufacturer (“OEM”) (e.g., the EV or EVSE) to be inaccessible to a user. This supports use cases such as an OEM using TPM feature to manage its own assets (e.g., firmware updates) without providing users access (or even visibility) to those OEM TPM assets.
The TPM has specific keys and features which enable platform identity. Note that a platform's identity is a composite of both a “hardware” identity (immutable components) and a software identity (including firmware, which is mutable, changeable, and updatable). The hardware identity may be provided by platform certificates authenticated using specific TPM keys. TPMs are widely deployed in Personal Computer (“PC”) clients, servers and many infrastructure components such as network routers and switches. TCG has a workgroup defining TPMs for industrial controllers. Operating System (“OS”) drivers and application libraries (e.g., Application Programming Interfaces (“APIs”)) are available for Windows, Linux, and other environments. Note that TCG has defined a set of TPM specifications for automotive applications. Some automotive suppliers have already added TPMs to automobile based on these specifications.
The TCG Trusted Network Connect (“TNC”) architecture (adopted by many network equipment operators) defines a set of actors to a query and evaluates and acts on a platform's claimed identity and integrity. Specifically, the architecture includes:
Note that the evaluation can work both ways such as with mutual attestation (e.g., a client can be the AR and a server can be the PDP/PEP to start the connection but before continuing the client may require identity and/or attestation of the server. In this case, the server may be the AR and the client may be the PDP/PEP. Both steps may be required to be successful before communications continue.
Each decision by the SA-PDP 550 should preservice a part of a set of permanent transactions. Each audit transaction may include the set of inputs into the decision and the resulting actions. These transactions may be used to as an input into malware containment, anomaly detection, forensics, etc. As these systems are distributed, blockchain attestation (e.g., using the secure, distributed transaction ledger 490 of
Note that the PDP 552 depicted in
The embodiments described herein may be implemented using any number of different hardware configurations. For example,
The processor 710 also communicates with a storage device 730. The storage device 730 may comprise any appropriate information storage device, including combinations of magnetic storage devices (e.g., a hard disk drive), optical storage devices, mobile telephones, and/or semiconductor memory devices. The storage device 730 stores a program 712 and/or modules 714 (e.g., modules associated with an evaluation unit, a constrained optimizer, and a charge allocator) for controlling the processor 710. The processor 710 performs instructions of the programs and modules 712, 714, and thereby operates in accordance with any of the embodiments described herein. For example, the processor 710 may provide a system to prioritize power delivery from a charging station to electric vehicles. The processor 710 may receive a charge request from an electric vehicle associated with a delta platform certificate. The processor 710 may evaluate the delta platform certificate to determine if the electric vehicle is associated with a prioritized charging category (e.g., if the vehicle is an ambulance, police care, fire truck, etc.). The processor 710 may allocate power to the electric vehicle, relative to other electric vehicles being charged at the charging station, based at least in part on said determination. The processor 710 may then provide power to the electric vehicle in accordance with a result from the constrained optimizer.
The programs 712, 714 may be stored in a compressed, uncompiled and/or encrypted format. The programs 712, 714 may furthermore include other program elements, such as an operating system, clipboard application, a database management system, and/or device drivers used by the processor 710 to interface with peripheral devices.
As used herein, information may be “received” by or “transmitted” to, for example: (i) the electric vehicle charging station platform 700 from another device; or (ii) a software application or module within the electric vehicle charging station platform 700 from another software application, module, or any other source.
In some embodiments (such as the one shown in
Referring to
The vehicle category identifier 802 might comprise a unique alphanumeric code and the vehicle category description 804 may identify a particular usage or reason associated with vehicle operation (e.g., ambulance, fire truck). The priority weight 806 might comprise a category (e.g., high or low), rank, rule or logic, or any other information that might be used to prioritize allocation of a service in connection with a vehicle. The delta certificates indicate information that may be used to verify that a particular vehicle is, in fact, being used for the associated public purpose. The payment identifier 810 might comprise a credit card number, bank account, or any other information that can be used to facilitate a transaction with a particular class of vehicle.
Referring to
The transaction identifier 902 might comprise a unique alphanumeric code associated with a transaction between an electric vehicle and a charging stations. The charging station identifier 902, transaction description 904, and EV identifier 906 may reflect a particular transaction. The date and time 910 might indicate when the transaction occurred, and the amount 912 might indicate how much the owner of the EV paid for the electric charge. The status 914 might indicate that the transaction has been complement, is currently in process, was canceled, etc.
Thus, if there are any government requirements (or voluntary decision) to prioritize charging rates for emergency or “first responder” vehicles embodiments described herein might be licensed to help implement such a system. Although platform certificates are a relatively new method for establishing a TSC, embodiments described herein use platform certificates and delta platform certificates to provide prioritization of services (such as charge rate) for electric vehicles.
The following illustrates various additional embodiments of the invention. These do not constitute a definition of all possible embodiments, and those skilled in the art will understand that the present invention is applicable to many other embodiments. Further, although the following embodiments are briefly described for clarity, those skilled in the art will understand how to make any changes, if necessary, to the above-described apparatus and methods to accommodate these and other embodiments and applications.
Although specific hardware and data configurations have been described herein, note that any number of other configurations may be provided in accordance with embodiments of the present invention (e.g., some of the information associated with the databases described herein may be combined or stored in external systems). Moreover, the display described here are merely exemplary and other types of displays and display devices might be used instead. For example,
The present invention has been described in terms of several embodiments solely for the purpose of illustration. Persons skilled in the art will recognize from this description that the invention is not limited to the embodiments described, but may be practiced with modifications and alterations limited only by the spirit and scope of the appended claims.
