JP2020029179A - Remaining travelling distance calculation device - Google Patents

Abstract

To calculate a remaining travelling distance appropriately reflecting a remaining battery level and predicted power generation by an internal combustion engine in a vehicle that acquires electric power for a travelling amount by the supply of electric power from a battery and the supply of electric power generated by the power generation using an internal combustion engine.SOLUTION: A remaining travelling distance calculation device includes reference remaining power calculation means 1 for calculating a reference remaining power amount W on the basis of a remaining battery power amount WB of a battery B and a remaining engine power amount WE that can be generated by an engine E and a generator G using remaining fuel in a fuel tank T. The reference remaining power amount W is obtained as a weighted average of the remaining battery power amount WB and the remaining engine power amount WE. When the remaining battery power amount WB is larger than a predetermined threshold S, the weight XB of the remaining battery power amount WB is set to be large, and when the remaining battery power amount WB is less than the predetermined threshold S, the weight XE of the remaining engine power amount WE is set to be large. The remaining travelling distance calculation means calculates a remaining travelling distance by dividing the reference remaining power amount W by a reference power consumption rate E calculated by reference power consumption rate calculation means 2.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a remaining travelable distance calculation device used for a vehicle such as an automobile.

  In recent years, in vehicles such as automobiles, vehicles that run using an electric motor (for example, electric vehicles) have become widespread. As a technique for calculating and displaying the remaining travelable distance of such a vehicle, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-163, in a so-called series hybrid vehicle, in a so-called series hybrid vehicle, the amount of stored power of a battery and the amount of remaining fuel in a fuel tank of a power generation engine are determined. A control device for calculating the remaining travelable distance based on both is disclosed. Patent Literature 2 discloses that a vehicular cruising distance estimating apparatus includes a first sampling period and a longer second sampling period as sampling periods for calculating power consumption, and a predetermined initial condition. Is satisfied (when charging of the battery is completed), an apparatus capable of appropriately estimating the cruising distance by using the second sampling period instead of the first sampling period is disclosed. Have been.

JP 2012-101616 JP 2013-27166A

  By the way, a vehicle that travels using an electric motor is provided with an internal combustion engine (gasoline engine) and a generator in addition to a battery that supplies power to the drive motor, and the power generated by the generator can be supplied to the drive motor. Something was done. In the calculation of the remaining mileage in such a vehicle, both the remaining battery power and the expected power generation by the internal combustion engine are appropriately considered, and as a result, the driver of the vehicle can be encouraged to perform an appropriate charging action. Is desirable.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle that obtains travel power by supplying power generated by power supply using an internal combustion engine and power supply from a battery. An object of the present invention is to provide a remaining travelable distance calculation device capable of calculating a remaining travelable distance that appropriately reflects a remaining battery power and an estimated power generation by an internal combustion engine.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention adopts the following solution. That is, according to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a remaining travelable distance calculation device that calculates a remaining travelable distance of a vehicle that runs using an electric motor driven by electric power from a battery and electric power generated by an internal combustion engine. A battery power remaining amount detecting means for detecting a remaining battery power amount which is a remaining power amount of the battery; and an engine power remaining amount which is an electric power which can be generated by the internal combustion engine using a remaining fuel amount stored in the vehicle. Engine power remaining amount calculation means for calculating an amount, based on the battery power remaining amount and the engine power remaining amount, reference power remaining amount calculation means for calculating a reference power remaining amount used for calculating a remaining travelable distance, A remaining travelable distance calculating means for calculating a remaining travelable distance of the vehicle based on the reference power remaining amount and cumulative data of a power consumption rate of the vehicle; Remaining amount calculating unit, when the remaining battery power is higher than a predetermined threshold value, to reduce the specific gravity of the engine remaining power in the calculation of the reference power remaining.

  According to the above solution, when the remaining battery power is equal to or greater than the predetermined threshold, the remaining battery power is reflected in the calculation of the remaining travelable distance with priority over the remaining engine power. Is reduced, it is possible to appropriately prevent the driver from neglecting to charge by indicating the margin due to the presence of the remaining amount of engine power to the driver, and in the case where power generation by the internal combustion engine is limited. Electron shortage can be prevented. On the other hand, if the remaining battery power is less than the predetermined threshold, the remaining power of the engine is reflected in the calculation of the remaining travelable distance, so the driver recognizes that the remaining travelable distance is shorter than necessary. No matter what, you can make an appropriate operation plan.

Preferred embodiments based on the above solution are as described in claim 2 and the following claims. That is, the predetermined threshold value is a power value at which the vehicle cannot travel a required distance only with the remaining battery power (corresponding to claim 2). In this case, the driver can recognize the decrease in the battery power remaining amount without relying on the engine power remaining amount. Therefore, even when the operation of the internal combustion engine is restricted, the driver can be prompted to appropriately charge the battery. Can be.
When the remaining battery power is less than the predetermined threshold, the remaining travelable distance is calculated using only the remaining engine power (corresponding to claim 3). In this case, when the remaining battery power falls below the predetermined threshold, the calculation of the remaining travelable distance is switched to the calculation based on only the remaining engine power, so that the appropriate remaining travelable distance can be effectively calculated.

  When the remaining battery power is less than the predetermined threshold, the shortage of the remaining battery power is notified to the driver of the vehicle (corresponding to claim 4). In this case, the driver can appropriately recognize that the remaining battery power is insufficient simply by being able to run with the remaining engine power, and promptly prompts charging.

  According to the present invention, when the remaining battery power is equal to or greater than the predetermined threshold, the remaining battery power is reflected in the calculation of the remaining travelable distance with priority over the remaining engine power. In the case where the decrease in the remaining travelable distance due to the decrease in the engine power is appropriately calculated and the power generation due to the remaining amount of the engine power is limited, the power shortage based on the expected power generation by the internal combustion engine can be appropriately prevented.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a control system of the present invention and a part of a configuration of a vehicle. The figure which shows the relationship between the remaining battery power, the remaining engine power, and the reference remaining power when the remaining battery power is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold. The figure which shows the relationship between the remaining battery power, the remaining engine power, and the reference remaining power when the remaining battery power is less than a predetermined threshold. The figure which shows the outline | summary of the accumulated data of a power consumption rate. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a control procedure of an example of control in calculating a remaining travelable distance according to the present invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a part of a configuration of a vehicle including a remaining travelable distance calculation device of the present invention and an example of a control system. As shown in the figure, the vehicle has both a battery B for supplying electric power to an electric motor as driving means and an engine E which is an internal combustion engine for supplying electric power generated by driving a generator G to the electric motor. In the present embodiment, the vehicle is a vehicle (a so-called series hybrid vehicle) that includes only an electric motor as a driving unit and supplies electric power for traveling from the battery and the internal combustion engine to the electric motor.

  The control system includes a controller U configured using, for example, a microcomputer. The controller U includes, as means (program) for calculating the remaining travelable distance, a reference power remaining amount calculation means 1, a reference power consumption calculation means 2, and a remaining travelable distance calculation means 3.

  The reference electric power remaining amount calculating means 1 is a means for calculating a reference electric power remaining amount used for calculating a remaining travelable distance. Here, the reference remaining power is not the total remaining power that can be used by the vehicle as running power, but the remaining power that is appropriately adjusted according to the remaining power of the battery B.

  In calculating the reference remaining power, the reference remaining power calculator 1 first obtains a detection signal of the remaining power of the battery B (the remaining battery power WB) detected by the remaining battery detector 4, A detection signal of the remaining amount of fuel in the fuel tank T detected by the remaining fuel amount detection means 5 is obtained, and the amount of power (engine power remaining amount WE) that can be generated by the engine E and the generator G using this remaining amount of fuel. ) Is calculated.

The power amount obtained by multiplying the remaining battery power WB and the remaining engine power WE by the respective weights (the weight XB of the remaining battery power and the weight XE of the remaining engine power) is added to the reference remaining power W. Become. That is, the reference remaining power W is calculated by the following equation (1).
W = XB · WB + XE · WE (1)
The weight XB of the remaining battery power and the weight XE of the remaining engine power are changed depending on whether the remaining battery power WB is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold S. That is, when the remaining battery power is equal to or greater than the predetermined threshold S, the specific gravity of the remaining engine power WE in the calculation of the remaining travelable distance is reduced. Here, the predetermined threshold value S is a value that makes it impossible for the vehicle to travel to a required point (for example, the nearest charging point) using only the remaining battery power WE when the remaining battery power WE is equal to or less than the predetermined threshold. .

  As described above, when the remaining battery power WB is equal to or greater than the predetermined threshold S, the specific gravity of the remaining engine power WB is reduced in the calculation of the reference remaining power W (and the calculation of the remaining travelable distance), and the battery power is reduced. Since the remaining amount WB is reflected to be larger than the remaining amount of engine power WE, when the remaining amount of battery power decreases, the driver is provided with a margin due to the presence of the remaining amount of engine power, and the driver is charged. Can be appropriately prevented from being neglected, and a power shortage when power generation by the engine E is restricted can be prevented.

  On the other hand, when the remaining battery power WB is less than the predetermined threshold value S, the engine power remaining is greatly reflected in the calculation of the reference power remaining W (and the calculation of the remaining travelable distance). As described above, it is not recognized that the remaining travelable distance is short (the remaining power is small), and an appropriate operation plan can be made. In this case, the driver may be notified by, for example, the display means D that the remaining battery power WB is lower than the predetermined threshold S and the power is actually running short.

Next, an example of setting weights for each of the remaining battery power and the remaining engine power will be described with reference to FIGS. In this setting example, when the remaining battery power WB is equal to or greater than the predetermined threshold value S (when the remaining battery power has a margin), as shown in FIG. 9, the weight of the remaining battery power WB at the reference remaining power W is increased by setting the weight XE of the remaining engine power to 0.1. That is, the reference power remaining amount W is represented by the following equation (2).
W = 0.9WB + 0.1WE (2)
On the other hand, when the remaining battery power WB is less than the predetermined threshold value S (when the remaining battery power has no margin), as shown in FIG. By setting the weight XE of the remaining power to 0.9, the engine remaining power WE is appropriately reflected in the reference remaining power W. That is, the reference power remaining amount W is represented by the following equation (3).
W = 0.1WB + 0.9WE (3)
The above setting example is an example. For example, when the remaining battery power WB is less than the predetermined threshold S, the weight XB of the remaining battery power is set to 0 and the weight XE of the remaining engine power is set to 1 ( That is, only the engine power remaining amount WE is set as the reference power remaining amount W).

  The reference electricity cost calculation means 2 is a means for calculating a reference electricity cost, which is a power consumption rate used for calculating a remaining travelable distance of the vehicle. The reference electricity cost calculation means 2 calculates the reference electricity cost E based on the data acquired from the data storage means M. As will be described later, the remaining travelable distance is calculated as a value W / E obtained by dividing the reference power remaining amount W by the reference power consumption E.

  The data storage means M is composed of, for example, an external storage device, and the power consumption rate (power consumption for each traveling distance) of the vehicle traveling distance for each predetermined cycle (for example, for every 1 km) is accumulated in time series. It is stored as FIG. 4 schematically shows the accumulated data stored in the data storage unit M. In the accumulated data, the power consumption rate in the cycle closest to the present time is the current power consumption e (i), and the unit past power consumption e (i-j) continues before the current power consumption e (i). Will be composed. Here, i and j are natural numbers, i is the number of data stored up to that point (the number of stored cycles), and j is how many cycles before the current power consumption the unit past power consumption. Is shown.

  In calculating the reference electricity cost, first, a past electricity cost ep is calculated from a series of unit past electricity costs e (ij). Specifically, the unit past electricity cost e (i-1) one cycle before the current electricity cost e (i) may be used as the past electricity cost ep, or the unit past electricity cost for a plurality of cycles before the current electricity cost e (i). May be used as the past electricity cost ep.

The reference power consumption is calculated as a weighted average (weighted power consumption) of the current power consumption ec (= e (i)) and the past power consumption ep. That is, the reference power consumption E is calculated as a weighted average of the past power consumption ep and the current power consumption ec, where the contribution α of the past power consumption ep and the contribution β of the current power consumption ec are weighted to the past power consumption ep and the current power consumption ec, respectively. You. The specific calculation formula is as the following formula (4).
E = (α · ep + β · ec) / (α + β) (4)
Note that the contribution rate α of the past power consumption ep and the contribution β of the current power consumption ec in the calculation of the reference power consumption are, for example, as the reference power remaining amount W decreases, the ratio of the contribution rate β of the current power consumption to the contribution α of the past power consumption becomes smaller. You may set so that it may become large. Thereby, when the reference power remaining amount W (remaining power available for traveling) is small and the running power is likely to be insufficient, the current power consumption ec is greatly considered in the calculation of the remaining travelable distance, and the driving at that time is considered. An accurate remaining travelable distance that appropriately reflects the state, the traveling environment, and the like is calculated. On the other hand, when the reference power remaining amount W is sufficient (when there is a margin before the power shortage), the past power consumption ep (that is, the history of the power consumption rate in the past than the current power consumption ep) is calculated in the remaining travelable distance. ) Is greatly taken into account, so that the calculated remaining travelable distance has high stability that is hardly fluctuated by temporary changes in the driving state, the traveling environment, and the like at the time of calculation. Therefore, the calculation of the remaining travelable distance can be executed in a form that achieves both optimum stability and accuracy in accordance with the reference power remaining amount W at the time of calculation.

The remaining travelable distance calculation means 3 divides the reference power remaining power W calculated by the reference power remaining power calculation means 1 by the reference power consumption E calculated by the reference power consumption calculation means, so that the remaining travelable distance L = W. / E is calculated. The calculated remaining travelable distance L is displayed on display means D (for example, a liquid crystal display provided on an instrument panel of the vehicle), and is indicated to the driver of the vehicle.

  Next, an example of control of the remaining travelable distance calculation in the controller U will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In the remaining travelable distance calculation, first, in step S1, data of the remaining battery power is obtained, and in step S2, data of the remaining fuel is obtained. calculate. In step S3, a reference power consumption is calculated based on the accumulated data of the power consumption rate (current power consumption and past power consumption).

  In step S4, it is determined whether the remaining battery power WB is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold S. If the remaining battery power WB is equal to or greater than the predetermined threshold S, the process proceeds to step S5, where the weight XB of the remaining battery power is set to 0. 9 and the weight XE of the remaining engine power is set to 0.1, respectively, and the process proceeds to step S8.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S4 that the remaining battery power WB is not equal to or greater than the predetermined threshold S, the process proceeds to step S6, where the weight XB of the remaining battery power is set to 0.1, and the weight XE of the remaining engine power XE. Is set to 0.9, respectively. In the following step S7, the driver is notified that the remaining battery power WB is less than the predetermined threshold value S, and the process proceeds to step S8.

  In step S8, the remaining travelable distance is calculated by dividing the reference remaining power W by the reference power consumption E. In step S9, the calculated remaining travelable distance is displayed on the display device D, and the round process ends.

  As described above, the embodiments of the present invention have been described. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and can be appropriately modified within the scope described in the claims.

  INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention can be used to calculate a remaining travelable distance in a vehicle driven by an electric motor.

B Battery E Engine G Generator T Fuel tank U Controller 1 Reference electric power remaining amount calculating means 2 Reference electric cost calculating means 3 Remaining travelable distance calculating means 4 Battery remaining amount detecting means 5 Fuel remaining amount detecting means M Data storage means D Display means

Claims (4)

In a remaining travelable distance calculation device that calculates a remaining travelable distance of a vehicle that travels using an electric motor driven by electric power from a battery and electric power generated by an internal combustion engine,
Battery power remaining amount detecting means for detecting a remaining amount of battery power, which is the remaining power of the battery,
Engine power remaining amount calculation means for calculating an engine power remaining amount that is power that can be generated by the internal combustion engine using the remaining fuel amount stored in the vehicle,
Based on the remaining battery power and the remaining engine power, a reference power remaining amount calculating unit that calculates a reference remaining power used for calculating a remaining travelable distance,
Based on the reference power remaining amount and the accumulated data of the power consumption rate of the vehicle, the vehicle further includes a remaining travelable distance calculation unit that calculates a remaining travelable distance of the vehicle,
The remaining travelable distance calculating device, wherein the reference power remaining amount calculation means reduces the specific gravity of the engine power remaining amount in the calculation of the reference power remaining amount when the battery power remaining amount is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold. The remaining travelable distance calculation device according to claim 1,
The remaining travelable distance calculation device according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined threshold value is an electric power value at which the vehicle cannot travel a required distance only with the remaining amount of battery power. The remaining travelable distance calculation device according to claim 1 or 2,
When the remaining battery power is less than a predetermined threshold, the remaining travelable distance calculating device calculates the remaining travelable distance using only the engine power remaining. The remaining travelable distance calculating device according to claim 1, wherein
When the remaining battery power is less than the predetermined threshold, the remaining travelable distance calculating device notifies the driver of the vehicle of the shortage of the remaining battery power.

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