BATTERY PACK OPTIMIZATION TRANSPORT PLANNING METHOD

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention relate to a method for transport assignment planning and a system for transport assignment planning. More specifically, embodiments of the method comprise receiving a transport assignment having a start point and an end point, receiving vehicle information about the status of a plurality of electric vehicles in a vehicle fleet. The vehicle information comprises a state of charge for each battery pack of each vehicle. Further, route information is received about a plurality of possible road routes between the start point and the end point. The route information includes information about expected power consumption for each vehicle for each route. Next, a number of required charge cycles for each vehicle for each road route is determined and based on this determination, a road route and a vehicle are assigned such that an assigned vehicle and route is selected from a sub-group of electric vehicles which can complete the transport assignment with a number of charge cycles that is below a predefined threshold. Embodiments of the invention enable optimizing battery pack performance and thereby increasing the lifetime for the battery packs of autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles in a transport environment.

Claims

1. A method for transport assignment planning comprising: receiving a transport assignment, wherein the transport assignment comprises a geographical start point and a geographical end point; receiving vehicle information about the status of a plurality of electric vehicles in a vehicle fleet, each vehicle comprising at least one battery pack, wherein the vehicle information comprises a state of charge for each battery pack; receiving route information about a plurality of geographical road routes between the geographical start point and the geographical end point, wherein the route information comprises information about expected power consumption for each vehicle for each geographical road route; determining a number of required charge cycles for each electric vehicle for each geographical road route based on the received vehicle information and the route information; and assigning a geographical road route and an electric vehicle for carrying out the transport assignment based on the determined number of required charge cycles such that the assigned electric vehicle is selected from a sub-group of electric vehicles which can complete the transport assignment with a number of charge cycles that is below a predefined threshold.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of assigning a geographical road route and an electric vehicle for carrying out the transport assignment is such that the assigned electric vehicle is the electric vehicle which can complete the transport assignment with a lowest number of charge cycles out of the plurality of electric vehicles.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: sending information about the transport assignment and information about the assigned geographical road route to the assigned electric vehicle.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the route information is retrieved from a database.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle information further comprises a state of health for each battery pack.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of electric vehicles is/are semiautonomous and wherein the route information further comprises information about portions of each of the geographical road routes where there is a need for remote assistance, the method further comprising: receiving assistance availability information comprising information about an availability of remote assistance, and wherein the step of assigning a geographical road route is further based on the received assistance availability information and the received route information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the transport assignment comprises information about the freight and wherein the vehicle information further comprises information about freight capacity.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the transport assignment comprises a time range for pickup and a time range for delivery, and wherein the method further comprises: evaluating which of the plurality of electric vehicles are capable of performing the transport assignment using which geographical road route(s) within the time range for pickup and the time range for delivery.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving charging station data comprising information about availability at each charging station present along each geographical road route; estimating a required charging time for each electric vehicle based on the vehicle information and the route information; wherein the step of assigning a geographical road route and an electric vehicle is further based on the estimated required charging time and the charging station data.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving information about electricity prices, and wherein the step of assigning a geographical road route and an electric vehicle is further based on the information about electricity prices such that the total cost of the transport assignment is below a predefined threshold.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle information comprises information about a current position or expected position of each electric vehicle, and wherein the geographical road routes include relocating each of the electric vehicles from the current position or the expected position to the geographical start point.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising: adding the received transport assignment to a list comprising at least one transport assignment, and wherein the step of assigning a geographical road route and an electric vehicle for carrying out the transport assignment is carried out for all the transport assignments in the list such that a total number of charge cycles for all transport assignments is below a predefined threshold.

13. A system for transport assignment planning comprising a controller configured to: receive a transport assignment, wherein the transport assignment comprises a geographical start point a geographical end point; receive vehicle information about the status of a plurality of electric vehicles in a vehicle fleet, each vehicle comprising at least one battery pack, wherein the vehicle information comprises a state of charge for each battery pack; receive route information about a plurality of geographical road routes between the geographical start point and the geographical end point, wherein the route information comprises information about expected power consumption for each vehicle for each geographical road route; determine a number of required charge cycles for each electric vehicle for each geographical road route based on the received vehicle information and the route information; and assign a geographical road route and an electric vehicle for carrying out the transport assignment based on the determined number of required charge cycles such that the assigned electric vehicle is selected from a sub-group of electric vehicles which can complete the transport assignment with a number of charge cycles that is below a predefined threshold.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the control unit is further configured to send information about the transport assignment and information about the assigned route to the assigned electric vehicle.

15. The system of claim 13, further comprising a database comprising the route information about the plurality of geographical road routes.

16. The method of claim 2, further comprising: sending information about the transport assignment and information about the assigned geographical road route to the assigned electric vehicle.

17. The system of claim 14, further comprising a database comprising the route information about the plurality of geographical road routes.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0028] For exemplifying purposes, the invention will be described in closer detail in the following with reference to embodiments thereof illustrated in the attached drawings, wherein:

[0029] FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a system for transport assignment planning in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

[0030] FIG. 2 is a flow chart representation of a method for transport assignment planning in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0031] In the following detailed description, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described. However, it is to be understood that features of the different embodiments are exchangeable between the embodiments and may be combined in different ways, unless anything else is specifically indicated. Even though in the following description, numerous specific details are set forth to provide a more thorough understanding of the present invention, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well known constructions or functions are not described in detail, so as not to obscure the present invention.

[0032] FIG. 1 shows a schematic overview illustration of a system for transport assignment planning in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The system has a controller 10, here schematically represented by a cloud based system, which is configured to receive a transport assignment (e.g. from an external source). The controller 10 is preferably realized as a software controlled processor. However, the controller may alternatively be realized wholly or partly in hardware. The transport assignment comprises at least a geographical start point and a geographical end point. In this example, the start point will be represented by a first building 101, where a pick-up of a package is scheduled. The geographical end point will be represented by a warehouse building 200 to which the package is to be delivered. The other buildings 102, 103 indicated in the figure may be associated with other (future or historical) transport assignments.

[0033] Further, the controller 10 is configured to receive vehicle information about the status of a plurality of electric vehicles A, B, C in a vehicle fleet. Each vehicle A, B, C accordingly has one or more batteries, in the following referred to as a battery pack for simplicity. The received vehicle information includes at least a state of charge for each battery pack. However, in the received vehicle information may further comprise additional information such as a state of health for each battery pack (i.e. how worn out the battery is), freight capacity for each vehicle A, B, C, etc. Here, a first electric vehicle A has a state of charge at 95%, a second electric vehicle has a state of charge at 30% and a third electric vehicle C has a state of charge at 85%. For simplicity, it can be assumed that each vehicle holds the same amount of cargo and a state of health of each battery pack is at the same level.

[0034] Moving on, the controller 10 is further configured to receive route information about a plurality of geographical road routes 201, 202, 203 between the geographical start point 101 and the geographical end point (naturally the skilled reader realizes that there are more possible routes in the illustrated embodiment, however, for the sake of brevity the number is here reduced to three routes). The route information includes information about expected power consumption for each separate geographical road route as well as information about available charging stations along each separate geographical road route. For example, the expected power consumption may be 140 kWh for the first route 201, 125 kWh for the second route 202, and 225 kWh for the third route 203. Even though the first route 201 appears to be shorter than the second route 202, the expected power consumption for the first route 201 is higher due to an inclined passage 11. Thus the expected power consumption is not only based on distance but may include several additional parameters such as topography, traffic, weather (temperature), etc. in order to improve the accuracy of the estimation.

[0035] Further, the vehicle information further includes information about the current position of each electric vehicle A, B, C. Thus, in the present example, the geographical road routes, 201, 202, 203 further include relocating each of the electric vehicles from their current positions to the geographical start point 101. Consequently, the expected power consumption will be lower for the vehicle closest to the geographical starting point 101 and higher for the vehicles located further away from the geographical start point 101. It is assumed that the expected power consumption for relocating each vehicle A, B, C to the geographical start point 101 is 100 kWh for the first vehicle A, 10 kWh for the second vehicle B, and 30 kWh for the third vehicle C.

[0036] Accordingly, based on the received vehicle information and route information, the controller is configured to determine (or estimate) a number of required charge cycles for each electric vehicle for each separate geographical road route. In the present example, a 250 kWh battery capacity is assumed for each vehicle A, B, C. In order to further improve the accuracy of the estimation of the number of required charge cycles for each electric vehicle, the controller may be configured to retrieve historical data about energy consumption for each vehicle A, B, C as well as weight of the cargo (current weight as well as total including the package to be picked up). Thus, continuing with the above discussed example, the determined charge cycles are presented in Table 1 below.

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Required charge cycles for each vehicle to complete each route. Vehicle Route A B C 201 0.96 0.6 0.68 202 0.9 0.54 0.62 203 1.3 0.94 1.02

[0037] Further, a geographical road route 201, 202, 203 and an electric vehicle A, B, C for carrying out the transport assignment is assigned by the controller 10. The assignment is, based on the number of required charge cycles, and performed such that the assigned electric vehicle A, B, C is selected from a sub-group of electric vehicles which can complete the transport assignment with a number of charge cycles that is below a predefined threshold (dynamic or static). Preferably, the controller is configured to select the geographical road route 201, 202, 203 and the electric vehicle A, B, C which results in the lowest number of charge cycles.

[0038] The predefined charge cycle threshold may be set to 1 resulting in that two of the above nine options are unavailable. As mentioned, there may be other constraints such as delivery time, re-charging needs, operator availability (in-case of semi-autonomous vehicles) which will further affect the available options. In the present example, the second electric vehicle B will need to be re-charged, thus it will need to pass via the charging station 22, and is therefore constricted to the third route 203. However, the transport assignment includes a time range for pick-up and a time range for delivery, and the second vehicle B will not be able to complete the delivery in a timely manner since it can't stay within the time range for delivery, rendering vehicle

[0039] B unavailable after these constraints (re-charging and delivery time) have been considered.

[0040] Further, the second route 202 includes a passage 12 which passes by a school 31 and therefore requires operational assistance, and in this example, there will be no available assistance during the time slot that the third vehicle C is expected to pass through this passage 12 along the second route 202, wherefore this option is determined as unavailable by the controller 10 as well. Consequently, based on the above, the resulting assigned electric vehicle and route are the third vehicle C and first route 201, as illustrated in Table 2 below. It should be noted that the values are mere estimations serving to elucidate the inventive concept and not necessarily to scale in reference to the associated figure.

TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 Resulting available options after some contingencies have been evaluated based on Table 1. Vehicle Route A B C 201 0.96 0.68 202 0.9 203

[0041] However, as mentioned in the foregoing, the assigning step may be based on additional parameters as already exemplified. For example, the received transport assignment discussed above, i.e. from the first building 101 to the end point 200, may be added to a list 300 comprising one or more pending transport assignments. In more detail, the pending transport assignment may be from a different geographical start point, e.g. a second pick-up location 102 to the same geographical end point, i.e. warehouse 200. Thus, the controller 10 may be configured to account for a plurality of transport assignments, included in the list 300, when assigning a geographical road route and an electric vehicle for carrying out the transport assignment, such that the total number of charge cycle for all transport assignments is below a predefined threshold. In this example, the controller 10 is configured to take the lowest number of total charge cycles for completing both transport assignments.

[0042] For the sake of brevity, the possible options for completing the second transport assignment are limited to two, namely by means of the third vehicle C using a single route (not shown) or by means of the first vehicle A using a different single route (not shown). Here we can assume that the determined number of charge cycles for the first vehicle is 1,2 and for the third vehicle C the determined number of charge cycles is 0.5. Accordingly, based on these additional parameters and the prerequisite that the vehicles and routes resulting in the lowest number of total charge cycles for completing both transport assignments are to be selected, the controller is configured to assign the first vehicle A and the second route 202 for the first transport assignment (from the first building 101 to the warehouse 200) and the third vehicle C and the single route (not shown) for the second transport assignment (from the second building 102 to the warehouse 200). This accordingly results in a total number of charge cycles of 1.4 as compared to 1.88 if the third vehicle would have been used for the first transport assignment and the first vehicle A for the second transport assignment.

[0043] Thus, by including pending transport assignments when assigning an electric vehicle A, B, C and a road route 201, 202, 203, the lifetime of the battery packs of the vehicles can be even further increased, thereby reducing vehicle maintenance needs and saving costs.

[0044] FIG. 2 is a flow chart representation of a method for transport assignment planning in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The method includes receiving S1 a transport assignment 20, where the transport assignment 20 comprises a geographical start point and a geographical end point. Moreover, the transport assignment may include a time range for pickup and a time range for delivery, as illustrated by the hourglass 30.

[0045] Further, the method includes a step of receiving S2 vehicle information 21 about the status of a plurality of electric vehicles in a vehicle fleet, each vehicle having at least one battery pack. The vehicle information 21 comprises at least a state of charge for each battery pack (each vehicle). However, the vehicle information 21 may further include state of health 25 for each battery pack, current or expected position of the electric vehicle, freight capacity, etc.

[0046] Next, the method includes a step of receiving route information 22 about a plurality of geographical road routes between the geographical start point and the geographical end point. The route information 22 comprises information about expected power consumption and may also include information about available charging stations close to each geographical road route. Based on the received S2 vehicle information 21 and the received S3 route information 22, a number of required charge cycles 23 for each electric vehicle is determined S4. Additionally, in some embodiments, estimated charging time 28 may be determined in this step S4.

[0047] Further, there is a step of assigning S5 a geographical road route and an electric vehicle 24 for carrying out the transport assignment based on the determined S4 number of required charge cycles 23 such that the assigned electric vehicle is selected from a sub-group of electric vehicles (in the vehicle fleet) which can complete the transport assignment 20 with a number of charge cycles that is below a predefined threshold. Furthermore, the assignment S5 of a geographical road route and an electric vehicle for carrying out the transport assignment 20 may be such that the assigned electric vehicle is the electric vehicle which can complete the transport assignment 20 with the lowest number of charge cycles out of the plurality of electric vehicles.

[0048] However, in order to further improve accuracy of the estimated number of charge cycles 23, the method may further comprise a step of receiving S3.1 additional parameters or additional information (such as e.g. assistance availability information 26 and charging station data 27, other pending transport assignments).

[0049] For example, at least one of the plurality of electric vehicles may be semi-autonomous, meaning that they are generally autonomous but may be momentarily operated by a remote operator. Accordingly, the route information may further include information about each of the geographical road routes where there is a need for remote assistance, such the assigning S5 a geographical road route and electric vehicle is further based on the received assistance availability information 26.

[0050] Further, the method may comprise an additional step of sending S6 information about the transport assignment and information about the assigned geographical road route to the assigned electric vehicle 29. This communication may either be targeted or broadcasted to all the vehicles associated with the system controller in order to increase redundancy.

[0051] The invention has now been described with reference to specific embodiments. However, several variations of the electrical motor control system and method are feasible. As already exemplified, other parameters may be added in the evaluation and assignment in order to select a preferred vehicle A, B, C from the sub-group such as e.g. state of health for the batteries, pending transport assignments, delivery times, etc. Such and other obvious modifications must be considered to be within the scope of the present invention, as it is defined by the appended claims. It should be noted that the above-mentioned embodiments illustrate rather than limit the invention, and that those skilled in the art will be able to design many alternative embodiments without departing from the scope of the appended claims. In the claims, any reference signs placed between parentheses shall not be construed as limiting to the claim. The word comprising does not exclude the presence of other elements or steps than those listed in the claim. The word a or an preceding an element does not exclude the presence of a plurality of such elements.