CN114056172A

CN114056172A - Method for determining a charging device being engaged with a vehicle and corresponding device

Info

Publication number: CN114056172A
Application number: CN202010771858.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 吕俏也; 徐骁玺; 肖玮
Original assignee: Daimler AG
Current assignee: Mercedes Benz Group AG
Priority date: 2020-08-04
Filing date: 2020-08-04
Publication date: 2022-02-18

Abstract

The present invention relates to the field of vehicle charging. In particular, the invention relates to a method for determining a charging device being physically engaged with a target vehicle, said method comprising at least the steps of: a) selecting at least one primary candidate charging device based on a current geographic location of a target vehicle after the charging device is physically engaged with the target vehicle; and b) type-by-type screening out secondary candidate charging devices that may be physically engaging with the target vehicle from the at least one primary candidate charging device in accordance with screening conditions that differ depending on the type of charging device, wherein the type of charging device is determined in accordance with the charging device's ability to express that it is in a physically engaged but inactive state of charge. The invention also relates to a corresponding device, a corresponding vehicle-side device and a corresponding charging device-side device. According to the invention, a plug-and-charge automatic charging process is realized without manually matching the vehicle with the charging device.

Description

Method for determining a charging device being engaged with a vehicle and corresponding device

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a method for determining a charging device that is physically engaging a target vehicle. The invention also relates to a device for determining a charging apparatus being physically engaged with a target vehicle, a corresponding vehicle-side device and a corresponding charging apparatus-side device.

Background

Currently, a user of an electric vehicle needs to perform many active operations when charging the electric vehicle. For example, when an electric vehicle attempts to charge at a charging post, a user of the electric vehicle must scan a two-dimensional code of the charging post to match the electric vehicle and the charging post. This is because there is not feasible communication channel between the electric vehicle and the charging pile in the current process of charging the electric vehicle through the charging pile, and if there is no process of scanning the two-dimensional code by the user, there is no way for the application program of the electric vehicle to know which specific charging pile to charge on, or for the charging pile to know which specific electric vehicle is charging. However, such a staking process is not only cumbersome and time consuming for the user.

Therefore, it is desirable to provide a simple and efficient pile driving method.

Disclosure of Invention

The object of the present invention is achieved by providing a method for determining a charging device being physically engaged with a target vehicle, the method comprising at least the steps of:

a') selecting at least one primary candidate charging device based on a current geographic location of a target vehicle upon physical engagement of the charging device with the target vehicle; and

b') filtering out secondary candidate charging devices that may be physically engaging the target vehicle from the at least one primary candidate charging device in accordance with a filtering condition related to an operating state of the charging device.

According to an alternative embodiment, the screening condition satisfied by the secondary candidate charging device is: it changes from the idle state to a state in which it is physically engaged but charging is not initiated at the point in time when it is physically engaged with the target vehicle.

According to an alternative embodiment, whether the charging device satisfies the screening condition is determined by the following method: the last historical state recorded by the charging device prior to the point in time is an idle state and after the point in time is in a physically engaged but inactive charging state.

According to an alternative embodiment, the number of secondary candidate charging devices is counted and the only secondary candidate charging device is activated to start the charging process if said number is equal to 1, and if said number is not equal to 1, the charging device that is being physically engaged with the target vehicle is not considered successfully determined.

According to another aspect, the object of the invention is also achieved by a method for determining a charging device being physically engaged with a target vehicle, said method comprising at least the steps of:

a) selecting at least one primary candidate charging device based on a current geographic location of a target vehicle after the charging device is physically engaged with the target vehicle; and

b) a secondary candidate charging device that may be physically engaging the target vehicle is screened type-by-type from the at least one primary candidate charging device according to screening conditions that differ depending on the type of charging device, wherein the type of charging device is determined according to the charging device's ability to express that it is in a physically engaged but inactive state of charge.

According to an alternative embodiment, the charging device capable of directly generating status information indicating that it is in a physically engaged but not activated charging state is pre-labeled as a charging device of the first type, and step b) comprises: screening out, from a first type of charging device of the at least one primary candidate charging device, as a first type of secondary candidate charging device, a charging device that meets the following conditions: the last historical state it recorded before the point in time of physical engagement with the target vehicle is the idle state and after that point in time is in the physically engaged but not initiating state of charge.

According to an alternative embodiment, charging devices that cannot directly generate said status information, but that can support a pre-start operation, are pre-marked as charging devices of the second type, and step b) comprises:

b1) performing the pre-boot operation on a second type of charging device of the at least one primary candidate charging device whose last historical state is an idle state; and

b2) a charging device that responds specifically to the pre-start operation is screened out as a second type of secondary candidate charging device, wherein the specific response indirectly indicates that the charging device is in a physically engaged but not activated state of charge.

According to an alternative embodiment, the number of secondary candidate charging devices of said first type and the number of secondary candidate charging devices of said second type are counted and summed, and if said sum is equal to 1, the only secondary candidate charging device is activated to start the charging process, if said sum is greater than 1, it is considered that the determination of the charging device being physically engaged with the target vehicle was not successful.

According to an alternative embodiment, the number of remaining charging devices of said primary candidate charging devices, other than the charging devices of the first and second type, is counted in the case where said sum is equal to zero, and if this number is equal to 1, the only remaining primary candidate charging device is activated to start the charging process, and if this number is not equal to 1, the charging device that is being physically engaged with the target vehicle is not considered successfully determined.

According to an alternative embodiment, charging devices that neither can directly generate the status information nor support the pre-start operation are pre-marked as charging devices of a third type, and step b) comprises: counting the number of secondary candidate charging devices of the first and second type and the number of primary candidate charging devices of the third type respectively and summing these three numbers, if the sum is equal to 1, activating the unique secondary candidate charging device or the unique primary candidate charging device of the third type to start the charging process, if the sum is not equal to 1, then it is considered that the charging device that is being physically engaged with the target vehicle is not successfully determined.

According to an alternative embodiment, the posterior procedure is performed after the screened charging device is activated, said posterior procedure comprising at least the following steps: it is confirmed whether the vehicle side detects the start of charging, and if the vehicle side does not detect the start of charging, the activated charging device is caused to stop the charging process.

According to an alternative embodiment, the user is informed that the automatic matching failed and a manual matching is required to start the charging process without successfully determining the charging device that is being physically engaged with the target vehicle and/or after the charging device that was activated in step c) is stopped.

According to a further aspect, the object of the invention is achieved by an apparatus for determining a charging device being physically engaged with a target vehicle, comprising a processor and a computer-readable storage medium communicatively connected to the processor, the computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program which, when executed by the processor, implements a method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the apparatus is particularly configured as a server communicatively connected to a vehicle-side apparatus and a charging device-side apparatus, the server being particularly configured to be able to determine, based on historical information of the charging device, a level of capability of the charging device in expressing that it is in a physically engaged but not initiating charging state and to store the determined level of capability as an attribute assigned to the respective charging device.

According to yet another aspect, the object of the invention is achieved by a vehicle-side device in communicative connection with the device, the vehicle-side device being configured to transmit a current geographical position of the vehicle to the device upon physical engagement of the vehicle with the charging apparatus.

According to yet another aspect, the object of the invention is achieved by a charging apparatus-side device communicatively connected to the device, the charging apparatus-side device being configured to be able to transmit to the device a real-time operating state of a charging apparatus, the real-time operating state comprising an idle state, a charging state and a state of being physically engaged but not initiating charging.

The invention realizes that: the method and the device can liberate the user from complex matching steps, realize the operation mode of plug and charge and provide great convenience for the user.

Further advantages and advantageous embodiments of the inventive subject matter are apparent from the description, the drawings and the claims.

Drawings

Further features and advantages of the present invention will be further elucidated by the following detailed description of an embodiment thereof, with reference to the accompanying drawings. The attached drawings are as follows:

fig. 1 shows a schematic block diagram of a system for determining a charging device that is being physically engaged with a target vehicle according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 shows a block flow diagram of a method for determining a type of a charging device according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates, in a system flow diagram, one exemplary manner of implementing the method of the present invention by way of a server;

FIG. 4 illustrates a block flow diagram of a method for determining a charging device that is physically engaging a target vehicle, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 shows a block flow diagram of a method for determining a charging device that is being physically engaged with a target vehicle, according to another example embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 6 illustrates in a system flow diagram an exemplary embodiment of a method of the present invention implemented by a system according to the present invention;

FIG. 7 shows a block flow diagram of one step of a method according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 8 shows a block flow diagram of another step of a method according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 9 illustrates a block flow diagram of a method for determining a charging device that is physically engaging a target vehicle, according to yet another exemplary embodiment of the present invention; and is

Fig. 10 shows a system flow diagram of a method for determining a charging device that is physically engaging with a target vehicle, according to an example embodiment of the invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make the technical problems, technical solutions and advantageous effects of the present invention more apparent, the present invention will be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and exemplary embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the invention and do not limit the scope of the invention. In the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals refer to the same or equivalent parts.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic block diagram of a system 1 for determining a charging device that is physically engaged with a target vehicle according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The system 1 comprises at least one vehicle-side device 2, at least one charging-apparatus-side device 3, and a server 4 communicatively connected to the vehicle-side device 2 and the charging-apparatus-side device 3. The vehicle-side apparatus 2 is configured to transmit at least one of the following information to the server 4 after the vehicle to which it corresponds is physically engaged with one charging device: real-time geographic location, engagement time, and type of charging interface engaged (e.g., ac/dc), etc. The charging-apparatus-side device 3 is configured to be able to transmit at least one of the following information of the charging apparatus to the server 4: identity information, location information, operational status information (e.g., idle state, charging state, or, possibly, physically engaged but charging not enabled), interface type information (e.g., ac/dc), etc. The server 4 includes a storage device 41 that stores various information including those described above collected over a time span, for example, over the past year, for example, from the vehicle-side apparatus 2 and the charging device-side apparatus 3. In an exemplary embodiment, a database is established based on at least the information collected from the charging device-side apparatus 3 to enable query, retrieval, update, modification, and addition/deletion of the charging device information.

In an exemplary embodiment, in an aspect, the server 4 may passively receive and in turn store information including historical status data of the charging device fed periodically (e.g., at time intervals of 1-10 seconds) by the charging device-side apparatus 3, for example, for use in determining the last historical status of the charging device in steps S30 and S30' (see explanation below). On the other hand, the server 4 may actively grasp the real-time state of the charging device by sending a data acquisition request to the charging device-side apparatus 3, for example, as performed in step S21 (see fig. 6) explained below.

In particular, the server 4 is configured to determine the capability level of the charging device in expressing that the charging device is in the physically engaged but non-activated charging state based on the historical state information of the charging device and pre-store the determined capability level as an attribute assigned to each charging device.

For convenience of expression, in the context of this document, the state of the charging device that has been physically engaged but charging has not been initiated is also referred to as an intermediate state, and accordingly, the state information generated by the charging device corresponding to such a state is also referred to as intermediate state information.

Fig. 2 shows a block flow diagram of a method 100 for determining a type of charging device associated with the capability level according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention.

In step S1, one charging device is selected as the charging device to be marked.

In step S2, it is determined whether there is state information that the charging device has been physically engaged but charging is not started, that is, the intermediate state information, among the historical state information for a past time span (for example, for a past six months or longer).

If intermediate state information is present, indicating the capability of the charging device to directly generate intermediate state information to directly express that it is in an intermediate state, in which case the charging device is marked as a first type representing a high capability level in step S3.

On the other hand, if no intermediate state information is present in the history state information of the charging device, it is determined whether it supports a pre-start operation (see description below) based on its history information at step S4. If so, it indicates that the charging device, although not being able to directly generate intermediate state information, is able to indirectly express that it is in an intermediate state by responding to a pre-start operation (e.g., generating a specific error code), in which case it is marked as a second type representing a level of energy in step S5.

In contrast, if the charging device does not support the pre-start operation, it is marked as the third type representing a low level of capability in step S6 because the charging device has neither the ability to directly generate intermediate state information nor indirectly express that it is in an intermediate state in response to the pre-start operation.

After the type marking of the charging device is completed, the above process is repeated until the type marking is completed for all the charging devices.

Further, the type flag of the charging device may be updated based on newly acquired charging device information.

Fig. 3 shows in a schematic flow chart an exemplary way of implementing the method 100 by means of the server 4.

In step S1000, at the server 4, the first type of charging devices are identified by referring to the history state information of each charging device recorded by the storage device 41 and the types of these charging devices are stored. For the remaining charging devices that are not marked as the first type in this step, the server 4 issues a request to the charging device-side apparatus 3 to batch-query history information of the entire remaining charging devices over a past period of time in step S2000. In step S3000, the charging-apparatus-side device 3 returns a query result in response to the request. Next, in step S4000, a charging device that supports the pre-boot operation is identified and marked as a second type based on the returned query result. The remaining charging devices that are not labeled as the second type, for example, those charging devices that do not return any query result or cannot be identified as supporting the pre-start operation based on the returned query result, are labeled as the third type in step S5000. All charging devices registered at the server 4 are thus pre-marked with a specific type for subsequent screening in order to match the vehicle with the charging device.

The type tag is stored in the database, for example, in association with the identity information of the charging device.

Fig. 4 shows a block flow diagram of a method 200 for determining a charging device that is being physically engaged with a target vehicle, according to an example embodiment of the invention. As shown in fig. 4, in step S10, at least one, and in particular, a plurality of charging devices are selected as primary candidate charging devices based on the current geographic location of a target vehicle after a charging device is physically engaged with the target vehicle.

According to an exemplary embodiment, the charging device is configured as a charging post, in particular a utility charging post, with a charging gun, the physical engagement corresponding to the insertion of a charging connector of the charging gun into a charging interface of the vehicle, respectively. Also, the physical engagement of the charging device with the vehicle may be performed manually, partially automatically, or fully automatically.

According to an exemplary embodiment, step S10 includes (see fig. 6):

in step S11, after the charging device has completed physical engagement with the target vehicle, the vehicle-side apparatus 2 built in the target vehicle transmits the current geographic position of the vehicle (e.g., GPS data) and the optionally engaged charging interface type to the server 4.

In step S12, the server 4 delimits a geographical range with the current geographical position of the target vehicle as a reference point, and selects all charging devices located within the geographical range as primary candidate charging devices. The geographic range should be defined to be large enough to accommodate positioning errors of the vehicle and charging device while necessarily including a charging device physically connected to the target vehicle. In one example, all charging devices within a preset threshold, such as 500 or 800 meters, from the current geographic location of the target vehicle are selected as primary candidate charging devices. Preferably, based on the current geographic location of the vehicle, a charging device closest to the geographic location is searched, and then a circle with a radius R of R1+ R2 is defined as the geographic range with the current geographic location as an origin, where R1 is a distance between the closest charging device and the current geographic location, which varies according to an actual search situation, and R2 is a preset enlarged radius to avoid missing a correct charging device.

In another example, if the location data of the vehicle shows that it is within a parking lot or a geofence, all charging devices within the parking lot or the geofence are selected as primary candidate charging devices.

Next, in step S30, a secondary candidate charging device that is likely to be physically engaging with the target vehicle is screened from the at least one primary candidate charging device according to a screening condition related to the operating state of the charging device. In an exemplary embodiment, the screening condition satisfied by the secondary candidate charging device is: it changes from an idle state to a state in which charging is physically engaged but not initiated at a particular timestamp, wherein the timestamp corresponds to the point in time at which the charging device is physically engaged with the target vehicle.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, whether the charging device satisfies the screening condition is determined in the following manner: the last historical state recorded by the charging device prior to the timestamp is an idle state and after the timestamp is in a state of being physically engaged but charging is not initiated.

For this reason, step S20 is preferably performed before step S30: obtaining a last historical status of the at least one primary candidate charging device prior to the timestamp and their current real-time status. For this, the server 4 may exemplarily send a data acquisition request to the charging apparatus-side device 3 to retrieve data about the real-time status and optionally the last historical status, as shown in step S21 in fig. 6. Additionally or alternatively, the last history status may be obtained by accessing the database, since the charging apparatus-side device 3 always sends relevant data to the server 4 instantaneously or periodically (e.g. at time intervals of 1-10 seconds). In this case, in particular, only the last history state whose occurrence time is shorter than the time stamp by a preset time threshold value can be used as the valid last history state for performing the step S30 and S30', S31 and S32 explained below, because the last history state recorded in the server 4 may not be fed back to the server 4 if it occurs too early because of technical reasons such as network, hardware infrastructure, etc. the true last history state of the charging device is not fed back to the server 4. Preferably, the preset time threshold is set to be not shorter than a time interval at which the charging-apparatus-side device 3 actively and periodically feeds the status data to the server 4. According to an exemplary embodiment, the time point at which the server 4 receives the current geographical location from the vehicle-side device may be taken as the time stamp. Alternatively, the point of time of engagement of the charging device with the target vehicle, which is recorded by the vehicle-side apparatus, may be transmitted to the server 4 to serve as the time stamp. In this case, it may be necessary to synchronize clocks of the server 4, the vehicle-side apparatus 2, and the charging apparatus-side apparatus 3.

Next, the number U of secondary candidate charging devices screened in step S30 is counted in step S40, and if the number U is exactly equal to 1, the unique secondary candidate charging device is considered to be the charging device physically connected to the target vehicle and then the charging process of the unique secondary candidate charging device is initiated. If the number U is not equal to 1, such as U being greater than 1 or equal to zero, then it is deemed that the charging device being physically engaged with the target vehicle was not successfully determined. In this case, the user may be notified of the automatic matching failure and informed that he needs to manually match the charging device, for example, by scanning a QR code in step S120.

Alternatively, after the automatic matching fails, a list of all charging piles around the target vehicle may be provided to the user through a human-machine interface of the vehicle or the smartphone to let the user select which charging device the target vehicle is being connected to.

Fig. 5 shows a block flow diagram of a method 200' for determining a charging device that is being physically engaged with a target vehicle, according to another example embodiment of the invention. The same steps of the method 200' and the method 200 have the same reference numerals S10, S20, S70, S90 and S120, and reference may be made to the description above with reference to fig. 4 for these same steps, which are not repeated herein.

In step S30', a secondary candidate charging device that is likely to be physically engaged with the target vehicle is screened type by type from the at least one primary candidate charging device under screening conditions that differ from type to type of charging device, wherein, as explained above, the type of charging device is determined by the ability of the charging device to express that it is in a physically engaged but un-activated state of charge and includes the following three types: a first type capable of directly generating intermediate state information representing that it is in a physically engaged but un-initiated state of charge, a second type that is not capable of directly generating intermediate state information but supports pre-initiation operations, and a third type that is neither capable of directly generating intermediate state information nor supports pre-initiation operations.

Step S30' includes (see fig. 7): in step S31, a secondary candidate charging device of a first type is screened from a charging device of the first type of the at least one primary candidate charging device according to a first screening condition associated with the first type, wherein the first screening condition is: the timestamp corresponding to the point in time when the charging device and the target vehicle are physically engaged has a state change from an idle state to a physically engaged but un-initiated state of charge. In one example, step S31 is performed as: screening out, from the first type of charging devices of the at least one primary candidate charging device, as secondary candidate charging devices, charging devices that meet the following conditions: its last historical state prior to the timestamp is an idle state and the current real-time state is a physically engaged but not initiated charging state.

In step S32, a second type of secondary candidate charging device is screened from a second type of charging device of the at least one primary candidate charging device according to a second screening condition associated with the second type, wherein the second screening condition is: the last historical state of the charging device is an idle state and can be responsive to a specific immediate pre-start operation. This particular response indirectly reflects that the charging device is currently in an intermediate state. The specific response includes, for example, returning a specific error code.

Specifically, step S32 may include (see fig. 8): screening out a charging device of which the last history state is an idle state from a second type of charging devices of the at least one primary candidate charging device in step S321; in step S322, a pre-start operation is performed on the charging device screened in step S321 and then a charging device that makes a specific response to the pre-start operation is further screened out as a secondary candidate charging device of the second type in step S323.

Additionally, step S321' may optionally be performed between step S321 and step S322: it is determined whether the number of charging devices of the second type of primary candidate charging devices whose last history state is an idle state is greater than a preset threshold, and if not, step S322 is executed. If the preset threshold is exceeded, a jump is made to step S90 (also shown in fig. 4-5 and 9) to request the user to perform a manual match, since performing a pre-start operation on an excessively large number of charging devices involves considerable effort and may cause significant burden and wear on the charging devices. Illustratively, the preset threshold value is, for example, several hundreds, such as 500 or more.

Further, the pre-boot operation may be exemplarily performed as: the charging device is caused to briefly deliver a small current to the vehicle and monitor the electrical state of the circuit within the charging connector of the charging device when the current is emitted. If the electrical state indicates that the charging connector is electrically conductive with the vehicle-side charging interface, it means that the charging device has been physically engaged with the vehicle. Accordingly, such an electrical state corresponds to the specific response indicating that the charging device is in the intermediate state. In addition, any suitable operation that can be tried out whether the charging device is in the intermediate state or not as will occur to those skilled in the art is within the scope of the pre-start operation of the present application.

In step S40', the number x of the first type of secondary candidate charging devices screened in step S31 and the number y of the second type of secondary candidate charging devices screened in step S32 are counted. These two numbers are summed M ═ x + y in step S50'. Then, it is determined whether the sum M is equal to 1 in step S60', and if it is exactly equal to 1, it is considered in step S70 that it is successful to find the charging device that is physically engaged with the target vehicle and to cause the charging device to start the charging process, thereby implementing a "plug-and-charge" charging manner. If not, then in step S80', a determination is made as to whether M is equal to zero. If not, i.e., M is greater than 1, it is deemed that the charging device that is physically engaged with the target vehicle was not successfully found (S90). Conversely, if equal to zero, the number z of charging devices of the third type of the at least one primary candidate charging device is counted in step S100 'and it is determined in step S110' whether z is exactly equal to 1, if so, the automatic matching is successful (S70), otherwise, the automatic matching is failed (S90) and the above step S120 is skipped.

In the method 200' according to the present invention, the decision of the matching success is made in case the sum of the number of secondary candidate charging devices of the first and second type is equal to 1 without considering the charging device of the third type, which is a trade-off between the accuracy of the automatic staking and the average staking calculation rate. In practice, the number of charging devices of the third type is very limited, and the probability of connecting to the target vehicle exactly one of this limited number is even very low. Thus, conditionally ignoring the third type of charging device may effectively reduce the average calculation time per stake opening without actually compromising the accuracy of the automatic stake opening. Even more, in an alternative embodiment, steps S80 ', S100 ' and S110 ' may be omitted, and if M is not equal to 1, the stub matching failure is directly determined, thereby simplifying the stub calculation procedure.

Furthermore, as can be seen by comparing the method 200 shown in FIG. 4 with the method 200 'shown in FIG. 5, the method 200' of FIG. 5 has the following beneficial features: the method 200' takes into account that not all charging devices can actually provide intermediate state information, and thus performs special pre-classification on the charging devices and further adopts a type-by-type screening manner, so that all types of charging devices on the current market can be covered, thereby significantly improving the success rate and accuracy rate of automatic matching.

Fig. 9 shows a block flow diagram of a method 200 "for determining a charging device that is physically engaging a target vehicle, according to yet another example embodiment of the invention. The same steps of the method 200 ″ as the method 200 'shown in fig. 5 have the same reference numerals S10, S20, S30', S70, S90 and S120, and the same steps can be referred to the description made above with reference to fig. 4 to 8, and are not repeated herein.

In step S40 ″, not only the number x of the secondary candidate charging devices of the first type and the number y of the secondary candidate charging devices of the second type but also the number z of the charging devices of the third type among the primary candidate charging devices are counted as in step S30'. The sum N ═ x + y + z is then calculated in step S50 ″. Next, in step S60 ″, it is determined whether the sum N is equal to 1. If N is exactly equal to 1, the automatic matching is successful and the screened-out only secondary candidate charging device or only primary candidate charging device of the third type is activated (S70), and if N is greater than 1 or equal to zero, the automatic matching is failed (S90).

From the above, it can be seen that, unlike method 200', method 200 "constantly takes into account the presence of the third type of charging device, thereby ensuring that the correct charging device is automatically activated to the greatest extent.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, an optional step S15 may be performed between steps S10 and S20: charging devices that do not match the type of the physically engaged charging interface of the target vehicle are filtered out from the primary candidate charging devices, and a subsequent filtering step S30' is performed based on the filtered remaining primary candidate charging devices. For example, an ac charging device of the primary candidate charging devices is filtered out if the engaged charging interface of the target vehicle is a dc interface, and conversely, a dc charging device of the primary candidate charging devices is filtered out if the engaged charging interface of the target vehicle is an ac interface. For this purpose, the vehicle-side device in the target vehicle may transmit the type of the engaged charging interface together when transmitting the current geographical position to the server 4 in step S11 (see fig. 6). By the method, the calculation amount of subsequent screening can be effectively reduced.

Additionally or alternatively, the above-described steps S30 'or S100' may comprise: filtering out from the third type of charging devices of the at least one primary candidate charging device the charging devices whose last historical state prior to the timestamp is a charging state, in particular filtering out the charging devices whose last historical state is an idle state, to form a third type of secondary candidate charging devices. Accordingly, the number z to be subsequently counted should be the number of the third type of secondary candidate charging devices screened out thereby.

Additionally or alternatively, another optional step may be performed between steps S10 and S20: filtering out the charging devices with the last historical state as a charging state from the at least one primary candidate charging device, in particular filtering out the charging devices with the last historical state as an idle state, so as to form the basis of subsequent filtering.

Additionally, a posteriori routine 300 (see fig. 10) is optionally performed after the screened-out unique charging device is activated (i.e., after S70). The posterior routine 300 includes: in step S3200, it is confirmed whether the vehicle side detects the start of charging. If it is confirmed that the vehicle side has detected the start of charging, the charging process is continued in step S3500. On the contrary, if the vehicle side does not detect the start of charging, it means that it is possible that the wrong charging device is started or the started charging device is currently stopped or suspended for service, in which case the started charging device is stopped in step S3400 on the one hand and the above-described step S90 is performed on the other hand.

In one example, step S3200 includes: the server 4 sends an instruction to the vehicle-side apparatus 2 to request it to detect whether the charging process is actually started, simultaneously with or shortly after the start of the automatic matching charging device is commanded. The vehicle-side apparatus 2 performs detection in response to the instruction. If the vehicle-side apparatus 2 confirms that the charging process has started, the charging process is continued, otherwise the server 4 is reported, for example, in the form of an error code, that no charging current is received, and in response to this report, the server 4 sends an instruction to stop the charging process of the automatically started charging device to the charging-device-side apparatus 3. Then, the automatically matched charging device stops the charging operation.

In another example, step S3200 may be performed in the following manner: such that the vehicle-side apparatus 2 is preset to transmit a charge start signal to the server 4 upon detection of charging, and to execute step S90 if the server 4 does not receive the charge start signal after commanding the start of the automatically matched charging device (S70) or after requesting the vehicle-side to detect whether the charging process is actually started (S3100).

Further, although it is shown in fig. 6 that the user is notified by the vehicle-side device in the case where the automatic matching fails, alternatively, the server 4 may push a signal of the automatic matching failure to the mobile terminal and notify the user via the mobile terminal.

In one example according to the present invention, charging devices that support the "plug-and-play"

methods

200, 200', and 200 "according to the present invention may be provided with numeric or physical tags, for example, to enable a user to easily identify these charging devices when querying online (e.g., searching for a charging post location via a cell phone APP or car machine system) or on site.

According to the invention, a plug-and-charge automatic charging process is realized without manually matching the vehicle with the charging device.

Although some embodiments have been described, these embodiments have been presented by way of example only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. The appended claims and their equivalents are intended to cover all such modifications, substitutions and changes as fall within the true scope and spirit of the invention.

Claims

1. A method for determining a charging device that is being physically engaged with a target vehicle, the method comprising at least the steps of:

2. The method of claim 1,

the screening condition that the secondary candidate charging device satisfies is: it changes from the idle state to a state in which it is physically engaged but charging is not initiated at the point in time when it is physically engaged with the target vehicle.

3. The method of claim 2,

determining whether the charging device satisfies the screening condition in the following manner: the last historical state recorded by the charging device prior to the point in time is an idle state and after the point in time is in a physically engaged but inactive charging state.

4. The method according to any of the preceding claims,

counting the number of secondary candidate charging devices, and if the number is equal to 1, activating the unique secondary candidate charging device to begin the charging process, and if the number is not equal to 1, deeming that the charging device that is being physically engaged with the target vehicle was not successfully determined.

5. A method for determining a charging device that is being physically engaged with a target vehicle, the method comprising at least the steps of:

6. The method of claim 5,

pre-tagging a charging device capable of directly generating status information indicating that it is in a physically engaged but un-activated charging state as a charging device of a first type, and wherein step b) comprises: screening out, from a first type of charging device of the at least one primary candidate charging device, as a first type of secondary candidate charging device, a charging device that meets the following conditions: the last historical state it recorded before the point in time of physical engagement with the target vehicle is the idle state and after that point in time is in the physically engaged but not initiating state of charge.

7. The method of claim 6,

pre-tagging charging devices that cannot directly generate the status information but can support a pre-start-up operation as charging devices of a second type, and step b) comprises:

8. The method of claim 7,

counting and summing the number of secondary candidate charging devices of said first type and the number of secondary candidate charging devices of said second type, and if said sum is equal to 1, activating the only secondary candidate charging device to start the charging process, if said sum is greater than 1, then it is considered that the determination of the charging device being physically engaged with the target vehicle was not successful.

9. The method of claim 8,

counting the number of remaining charging devices of said primary candidate charging devices other than the first and second type charging devices in the case where said sum is equal to zero, activating the only remaining primary candidate charging device to start the charging process if the number is equal to 1, and considering that the determination of the charging device being physically engaged with the target vehicle has not been successful if the number is not equal to 1.

10. The method according to any one of claims 7 to 9,

the specific response comprises generating a specific error code or exhibiting a specific electrical state; and/or

Step b1) includes: counting a total number of the second type charging devices of the at least one primary candidate charging device whose last historical state is an idle state, and performing the pre-starting operation if the total number is smaller than a preset threshold, otherwise ending the method.

11. The method of claim 7,

pre-tagging a charging device that is neither capable of directly generating the status information nor supporting the pre-start operation as a charging device of a third type, and step b) comprises: counting the number of secondary candidate charging devices of the first and second type and the number of primary candidate charging devices of the third type respectively and summing these three numbers, if the sum is equal to 1, activating the unique secondary candidate charging device or the unique primary candidate charging device of the third type to start the charging process, if the sum is not equal to 1, then it is considered that the charging device that is being physically engaged with the target vehicle is not successfully determined.

12. The method according to any one of claims 4, 8-9, 11,

executing an a posteriori procedure (300) after the screened charging device is activated, the posterior procedure comprising at least the steps of:

c) it is confirmed whether the vehicle side detects the start of charging, and if the vehicle side does not detect the start of charging, the activated charging device is caused to stop the charging process.

13. The method according to any one of claims 4, 8-9, 11, 12,

notifying the user that the automatic matching failed and that a manual matching is required to start the charging process without successfully determining the charging device that is being physically engaged with the subject vehicle and/or after the charging device that was activated in step c) is stopped.

14. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 3 and 6 to 7,

and taking the time when the current geographic position from the vehicle-side device (2) is received by the server (4) as the time point.

15. Method according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the following steps are performed between step a) and step b), or step a ') and step b'):

d) filtering out charging devices from the at least one primary candidate charging device that do not match the charging interface of the target vehicle and taking the filtered remaining primary candidate charging devices as a screening basis for step b) or b'); and/or

e) Filtering out the charging devices with the last historical status as a charging status from the at least one primary candidate charging device and taking the filtered remaining primary candidate charging devices as a screening basis for step b) or b').

16. The method according to any of the preceding claims,

performing step a) or a') in the following manner: defining a geographical range with the current geographical position as a reference point, and selecting all charging devices within the geographical range as the primary candidate charging devices, wherein the defining the geographical range comprises: drawing a circle with a preset radius by taking the reference point as an origin; and/or taking the range of the parking lot or the geo-fence where the current geographic position is as the geographic range; and/or

Only the last history state occurring at a time shorter than a predetermined time threshold from said point in time can be used as valid last history state for performing step b) or b').

17. An apparatus for determining a charging device being physically engaged with a target vehicle, the apparatus comprising a processor and a computer-readable storage medium in communicative connection with the processor, the computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program which, when executed by the processor, implements a method according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the apparatus is particularly configured as a server (4) in communicative connection with a vehicle-side device (2) and a charging device-side device (3), the server (4) being particularly configured to be able to determine, based on historical information of the charging device, a level of capability of the charging device in expressing that it is in a physically engaged but not initiating charging state and to store the determined level of capability as an attribute assigned to the respective charging device.

18. A vehicle-side apparatus (2) communicatively connected to the apparatus of claim 17, the vehicle-side apparatus (2) being configured to transmit the current geographical position of the vehicle to the apparatus upon physical engagement of the vehicle with the charging device.

19. A charging apparatus-side device (3) communicatively connected to the apparatus of claim 17, the charging apparatus-side device (3) being configured to be able to transmit to the apparatus a real-time operating status of a charging apparatus, the real-time operating status comprising an idle status, a charging status and a physically engaged but not initiated charging status.