Adaptive power supply for electric cars

Abstract

An electric car draws lots of power that needs to be on board the moving vehicle. An adaptive power supply can combine a variety of sources of electrical energywhich may include an internal combustion engineand use those different sources to efficiently produce the electrical power required. An adaptive power supply provides optimal performance by sensing changing conditions, often hundreds of times per second, and then adapting itself to those conditions in order to optimize efficiency at each particular instant during a car's operation. Those conditions may include changes in user inputs, machine operating conditions, and machine operating parameters. Having multiple sources of electrical power allows effective control of more independent power parameters, enabling greater freedom to adapt to optimize efficiency. That gives adaptive power supplies that are cheaper, smaller, lighter, more powerful, and more efficient than conventional designs.

Claims

1. A power supply that produces only electrical power and supplies that electrical power at a desired voltage and current that may change over time, where the power supply includes at least: two or more electrical power sources, an actuator that can change at least one operating parameter in at least one of the electrical power sources, a sensor that can sense at least one operating condition related to the power supply, and a controller that includes computer hardware and software and that produces the electrical power at the desired voltage and current by using the actuator to adapting the power supply to the at least one operating condition as the at least one operating condition changes over time.

2. The power supply of claim 1 where at least one of the electrical power sources is a generator powered by an internal combustion engine with at least one cylinder that can be selectively fired.

3. The power supply of claim 1 where at least one of the electrical power sources is a generator powered by an internal combustion engine with at least one cylinder with a variable combustion ratio.

4. The power supply of claim 1 where at least one of the electrical power sources is a battery.

5. The power supply of claim 1 where at least one of the electrical power sources is a supercapacitor.

6. The power supply of claim 1 where at least one of the electrical power sources is regenerative braking of an electric car.

7. The power supply of claim 2 where the internal combustion engine has a combustion cycle that can be varied during operation.

8. The power supply of claim 7 where the combustion cycle can be varied during operation by varying the timing of the opening and closing of intake or exhaust valves.

9. The power supply of claim 2 where the internal combustion engine has a forced induction system that can dynamically vary the pressure of the air entering the cylinders of the engine.

10. A power supply that produces only electrical power, that includes at least two different electrical power sources and that produces the electrical power at a desired voltage and current by adapting to at least one condition that may change over time, where at least one of the electrical power sources is a generator powered by an internal combustion engine, and where the speed of the internal combustion engine is regulated to produce the desired voltage and the torque is regulated to produce the desired current.

11. The power supply of claim 10 where the internal combustion engine has at least one cylinder that can be selectively fired.

12. The power supply of claim 10 where the internal combustion engine has at least one cylinder with a variable combustion ratio.

13. A controller for a power supply that produces only electrical power and that controls at least two different electrical power sources to produce the electrical power at a desired voltage and current, where the controller adapts to at least one condition that may change over time, where at least one of the electrical power sources is a generator powered by an internal combustion engine, where the internal combustion engine has at least one cylinder that can be selectively fired, and where the speed and torque of the internal combustion engine are regulated to produce the desired voltage and current.

14. The power supply of claim 1 where the power supply is a load-following power supply which senses the amount of the electrical load and changes the voltage and/or current produced by at least one of the electrical power sources in order to follow the electrical load as the electrical load changes.

15. The power supply of claim 1 where at least one of the electrical power sources is a generator powered by an internal combustion engine.

Description

DRAWINGS

[0196] FIG. 1 shows a (humorous) prior art example of how an electric car can get electricity on board.

[0197] FIG. 2 shows a variety of sources of electricity to power an electric car.

[0198] FIGS. 3A and 3B show how power can be transformed by both mechanical (FIG. 3A) and electrical (FIG. 3B) means.

[0199] FIG. 4 shows a block diagram how a motor/generator can convert between mechanical and electrical power.

[0200] FIG. 5 shows a block diagram of how one example of an adaptive power supply can process information from sources like sensors to decide what sources of electricity it will use to provide the needed electricity with the best performance at each moment.

[0201] FIG. 6 shows one example of an adaptive power supply with two electrical power sources.

[0202] FIG. 7 shows one example of an algorithm used by an adaptive power supply to control two sources of electricity.

[0203] FIG. 8 shows an examples of how an engine/generator and a battery can be adaptively selected between using a load following scheme to provide the current needed to drive a car over an example course.