METHOD FOR PERFORMING AN ELECTRICAL CHARGING PROCESS

Abstract

A method for performing an electrical charging process for a vehicle in a charging park, the vehicle having at least one charging interface, while the charging park has at least one electrical charging station with at least one charging interface, comprises situating the vehicle in an actual physical location on the grounds of the charging park, and checking to see whether the actual physical location does or does not fulfill a physical access requirement to the at least one charging interface of the at least one charging station, and in the event that the access requirement is not fulfilled the driver is asked to place the vehicle in a nominal physical location, and in the event that the physical access requirement is fulfilled the vehicle is moved automatically from the actual physical location to a selected charging station among the at least one charging station and automatically arranged in a charging position.

Claims

1. A method for performing an electrical charging process for a vehicle in a charging park, the vehicle having at least one charging interface, while the charging park has at least one electrical charging station with at least one charging interface, the method comprising: situating the vehicle in an actual physical location on the grounds of the charging park, and checking to see whether the actual physical location does or does not fulfill a physical access requirement to the at least one charging interface of the at least one charging station, and in the event that the access requirement is not fulfilled, asking the driver to place the vehicle in a nominal physical location, and in the event that the physical access requirement is fulfilled, automatically moving the vehicle from the actual physical location to a selected charging station among the at least one charging station and automatically arranging the vehicle in a charging position.

2. The method according to claim 1, in which in the event that the vehicle is situated in the charging position the at least one charging interface of the vehicle is connected to the at least one charging interface of the selected charging station and the charging process is carried out.

3. The method according to claim 1, in which in the event that the vehicle needs to be arranged in the at least one nominal position based on a demand, the vehicle is moved by the driver from a current actual physical location to a new updated actual physical location, and for the resulting updated actual physical location of the vehicle a check is done to see whether or not it fulfills the physical access requirement.

4. The method according to claim 1, in which the actual physical location of the vehicle is dependent on an actual physical location of the vehicle on the grounds of the charging park and a current actual physical orientation of the vehicle within the grounds of the charging park and/or in which for the at least one nominal physical location of the vehicle there is provided at least one nominal physical position of the vehicle on the grounds of the charging park and at least one nominal physical orientation of the vehicle within the grounds of the charging park.

5. The method according to claim 1, in which the at least one charging interface of the vehicle is situated in at least one interface position on an outer wall of the vehicle, the respective actual physical location of the vehicle being dependent on the at least one interface position of the at least one charging interface of the vehicle, and/or the at least one nominal physical location of the vehicle being dependent on the at least one interface position of the at least one charging interface of the vehicle and/or at least one interface position of the at least one charging interface of the at least one charging station.

6. The method according to claim 1, in which the at least one nominal location and/or the charging position is provided depending on a power transmission element, wherein the at least one charging interface of the vehicle and the at least one charging interface of the selected charging station are connected to the at least one power transmission element.

7. The method according to claim 1, in which the vehicle is situated at first in an original position outside the grounds of the charging park, and the performance of the charging process is initiated, the charging park being selected from among at least one charging park, and the vehicle is navigated from the original position to the charging park, and the vehicle is placed in the actual location on the grounds of the charging park.

8. A system for performing an electrical charging process for a vehicle in a charging park, wherein the vehicle has at least one charging interface, while the charging park has at least one electrical charging station with at least one charging interface, wherein the vehicle is situated in an actual physical location on the grounds of the charging park, wherein the system comprises: at least one sensor, at least one computing unit, and at least one output module, wherein the at least one sensor is adapted to detect the actual physical location of the vehicle, wherein the at least one computing unit is adapted to check and see whether the actual physical location does or does not fulfill a physical access requirement to the at least one charging interface of the at least one charging station, and in the event that the access requirement is not fulfilled the at least one output module is adapted to ask the driver to place the vehicle in a nominal physical location among at least one nominal physical location, and in the alternative event that the physical access requirement is fulfilled the at least one computing unit is adapted to control the vehicle and move it automatically from the actual physical location to a selected charging station among the at least one charging station and automatically arrange it in a charging position.

9. The system according to claim 8, comprising a communication system, which is adapted to exchange information between the vehicle, the output module, the at least one charging station and/or a computing unit of the charging park.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

[0040] Embodiments are presented schematically with the aid of the drawing and shall be described schematically and at length with reference to the drawing.

[0041] FIG. 1 shows in schematic representation an example of a charging park and one embodiment of a system for carrying out an embodiment of a method.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0042] The figures are described in connection with each other. The same reference numbers are associated with the same components.

[0043] Grounds 4 are shown schematically from the example of the charging park in FIG. 1, on which multiple charging stations 6 are arranged, configured and/or designated here as charging points, of which only one is shown here, having a charging interface 8. Furthermore, the charging park comprises a computing unit 16 and multiple sensors 18, here being cameras, for optical registration of the grounds 4 of the charging park, only one such sensor 18 being shown here.

[0044] The computing unit 16 and the sensors 18 are also configured as components of the embodiment of the system described herein. Further components of the embodiment of the system described herein are a computing unit, not further shown here, of a vehicle 10 which is arranged here on the grounds 4, an output module configured as a display field or display, and a computing unit, not further represented, of a terminal device 20 of a driver of the vehicle 10. It is proposed that the output module configured as a display field is touch sensitive, there being two input fields 24a, 24b manually operated by the driver on the display field of the output module.

[0045] With the embodiment of the method described herein, an electrical charging process is carried out for a drive battery of the vehicle 10, not further shown. This drive battery of the vehicle comprises at least one battery module and thus in one embodiment also multiple battery modules as electrical energy accumulator for at least one electric machine to drive the vehicle. For this vehicle 10, a forward travel direction 14 is indicated by an arrow in FIG. 1. On an outer wall of the vehicle 10, being a right side outer wall, given the forward travel direction 14, there is arranged a charging interface 12 for the drive battery.

[0046] In the embodiment of the method, it is first of all proposed that the vehicle 10 is situated outside the grounds 4 and thus outside the charging park. As soon as an electrical charging of the drive battery is needed on account of a low state of charge, a performing of the charging process is initiated either automatically by the computing unit of the vehicle 10 or by the driver through an entry on his terminal device 20. In the embodiment of the method it is assumed that multiple charging parks exist, being distributed in space. As soon as the performing of the charging process is initiated, a request to carry out the charging process is sent by the computing unit of the vehicle 10 or by the terminal device 20 to a computing unit not otherwise shown, such as a server, for all the charging parks.

[0047] Taking into account an original position of the vehicle 10 outside the grounds 4, the computing unit selects for all the charging parks a charging park having the shortest distance from the original position of the vehicle 10 and/or one which can be reached in the shortest span of time. Furthermore, the vehicle 10 and/or its driver is navigated to the grounds 4 of the selected charging park. Moreover, the vehicle 10 is arranged on the grounds 4 at an actual location, shown here, resulting from an actual physical position of the vehicle 10 on the grounds 4 and an actual physical orientation of the vehicle 10 inside the charging park, this actual orientation being given here by the forward travel direction 14 and an interface position of the charging interface 12 on the outer wall of the vehicle 10. Once the vehicle 10 comes to a halt and/or is halted at the actual location, the driver is told through the output module of the terminal device 20, in one optional embodiment, whether or not a charging valet (CHAVA) service or a payment service can be used by him and whether an additional action is necessary by him before performing the charging process. It is proposed in this case that the actual location of the vehicle 10 on the grounds 4 is detected by the sensors 18 relative to the charging stations 6. On this basis, the computing unit 16 verifies whether or not this actual location fulfills a physical access requirement.

[0048] If the access requirement is fulfilled, the driver and any other passengers of the vehicle 10 can disembark from it. Furthermore, it is possible here for a first input field 24a on the display field of the terminal device 20 to be occupied with the function “approach charging station.” As soon as the driver operates and/or activates this first input field 24a, the vehicle 10 moves from the actual location in the direction of a selected charging station 6 and is arranged in a charging position. For this, it is proposed that the vehicle 10 is navigated by the computing unit 16 of the charging park and/or its own computing unit to a charging position of the prescribed charging position and arranged in a prescribed physical charging orientation relative to the charging station 6.

[0049] If, however, upon checking the actual location in consideration of the access requirement by the computing unit 16 it is revealed alternatively that this access requirement is not fulfilled, the output module of the terminal device 20 of the driver is activated and the driver is told to move the vehicle 10 from the actual location to a nominal location, there being provided for this nominal location a nominal position on the grounds 4 and a nominal orientation of the vehicle 10 relative to the charging station 6. In the embodiment of the method shown here, it is proposed that, as shown by FIG. 1, the charging interface 12 of the vehicle 10 is facing away from the charging station 6. In this case, it is proposed that the driver be asked, for the nominal location, to at least turn the vehicle 10 around and/or turn it and arrange it in a nominal orientation in which the charging interface 12 of the vehicle 10 is facing the charging station 6 or its charging interface 8. After the vehicle 10 has been moved by the driver, taking into consideration the nominal location, a check is done to see whether or not the new resulting actual location fulfills the access requirement. If this is not the case, the driver is asked once more to place the vehicle 10 in the nominal location. Once the vehicle 10 has been arranged by its driver in the prescribed nominal location and the new actual location fulfills the access requirement, it is automatically moved from the new actual location and arranged in the prescribed charging position relative to the charging station 6.

[0050] It is possible that the access requirement for the actual location of the vehicle 10 is not fulfilled if there are too many obstacles on the grounds 4 between the actual location and the charging position, preventing an autonomous and/or automatic moving of the vehicle 10 to the charging position. In a further conceivable embodiment of the method, it is possible that at the time when the vehicle 10 has been arranged by the driver in the actual location all the charging stations 6 on the grounds 4 of the charging park are occupied by other vehicles. As soon as one of these charging stations 6 is free for the vehicle 10, a check will be made, taking into consideration a charging position for this now freed up charging station, to see whether or not the access requirement is fulfilled starting from the actual location of the vehicle 10. Furthermore, it is conceivable that the driver at first cannot use for his vehicle 10 the charging valet service or payment service. In this case, it is necessary for the driver to use the terminal device 20 to exchange the necessary information with the computing unit 16 in order to support the proposed charging valet services. Furthermore, it is possible for the driver to present through the output module of the terminal device 20 an authorization of the charging process and an option for payment of the charging process.

[0051] Once the vehicle 10 has reached the prescribed charging position and/or is arranged appropriately in this, it is possible to present to the driver, through the display field of the terminal device 20, instructions on connecting the charging interface 8 of the charging station 6 to the charging interface 12 of the vehicle 10 across a power transmission element configured as a charging cable, while the driver himself can organize a connection for the transfer of the electrical energy from the charging interface 8 of the charging station 6 to the charging interface 12 of the vehicle 10 in the charging cable. Alternatively it is also possible to organize a connection between the charging interfaces 8, 12 via a charging robot as a further component of the charging park and the system.

[0052] If the vehicle 10 has multiple charging interfaces 12 on its outer wall and the selected charging station 6 likewise has multiple charging interfaces 8, it is possible to connect a respective charging interface 12 of the vehicle 10 across a respective power transmission element to a respective charging interface 8 of the charging station 6 and to supply the drive battery of the vehicle with electrical energy from the charging station 6 synchronously through multiple power transmission elements.

[0053] Once the charging process is concluded, it is possible for the driver to remove the charging cable between the charging interfaces 8, 12, and a corresponding short message is likewise presented for this on the output module. Alternatively it is possible for the charging cable to be removed automatically by the charging robot.

[0054] Furthermore, it is possible for the driver to activate on the display field a second input field 24b, containing the function “exit charging station.” In this case, the vehicle 10 is automatically moved away from its charging position and then arranged in an actual location which allows the driver to once again enter the vehicle 10 and leave the grounds 4 of the charging park with the vehicle 10. However, if this is not possible, the driver will be asked to himself remove the vehicle from the charging position. This is conceivable, for example, when there are too many obstacles present on the path provided for the vehicle 10 to leave the grounds 4, preventing an automatic driving of the vehicle 10.

[0055] German patent application no. 10 2022 103472.0, filed Feb. 15, 2022, to which this application claims priority, is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

[0056] Aspects of the various embodiments described above can be combined to provide further embodiments. In general, in the following claims, the terms used should not be construed to limit the claims to the specific embodiments disclosed in the specification and the claims, but should be construed to include all possible embodiments along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.