JP3613663B2 - Solar powered vehicle - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a vehicle equipped with a solar cell that can reduce a load on a generator by the solar cell.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a hybrid vehicle, a technique for mounting a solar cell has been proposed in order to supplement the amount of power generated by a generator and prevent overdischarge of a battery for driving the motor. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-251711 also has a battery and a capacitor mounted as a power source for driving an electric motor. When these charging voltages are lower than a predetermined voltage, a charging current is supplied from the solar cell side. A battery device for a hybrid vehicle that controls the charging voltage of the battery and the capacitor to be usable is disclosed.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the above-described conventional technology, the target charge amount of the battery is always fixedly set, and the optimal target charge amount is controlled according to the power generation state of the solar cell that changes depending on the environmental conditions and the like. It wasn't. For this reason, even if it generates with a solar cell, the amount of charge of the battery at that time may increase, and the state which cannot receive generated electric power in a battery may arise. Therefore, there is a problem that the power generation capacity of the solar cell cannot be fully utilized, and the fuel cost used for driving the generator cannot be sufficiently reduced.
[0004]
The present invention has been made in view of the above-described conventional problems, and its purpose is to determine the target charge amount of the battery according to the power generation state of the solar cell and to maximize the power generation capability of the solar cell. Another object of the present invention is to provide a solar cell-equipped vehicle capable of reducing the fuel cost for driving the generator.
[0005]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is an automobile equipped with a solar cell, for detecting a battery, a generator for charging the battery, a solar cell for charging the battery, and a charge amount of the battery. Charge amount detection means, a charge amount control means for determining the target charge amount of the battery and controlling the start and stop of the generator, and an atmospheric state detection means, and the charge amount control means of the atmospheric state detection means The target charge amount is changed according to the predicted weather condition .
[0006]
Moreover, in another aspect of the present invention, a vehicle equipped with a solar cell, a battery, a generator for charging the battery, a solar cell for charging the battery, and a charge amount of the battery are detected. A charge amount detection unit; a charge amount control unit that determines a target charge amount of the battery and controls start and stop of the generator; and a vehicle attitude detection unit. The charge amount control unit detects the vehicle attitude detection unit. The target charge amount is changed according to the value .
[0013]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention (hereinafter referred to as embodiments) will be described with reference to the drawings.
[0014]
FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a configuration of a vehicle equipped with a solar cell according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, power is supplied from a battery 12 to a driving device 10 configured by a motor or the like. Charging current is supplied to the battery 12 from the generator 14 and the solar cell 16 driven by the internal combustion engine, and charging is performed. Further, the charge amount of the battery 12 is detected by the charge amount detection means 18.
[0015]
The charge amount of the battery 12 detected by the charge amount detection means 18 is input to the charge amount control means 20. The charge amount control means 20 is configured to control the start and stop of the generator 14 according to the charge amount of the battery 12 input from the charge amount detection means 18. That is, the charge amount control means 20 determines the target charge amount of the battery 12 and controls the start and stop of the generator 14 according to the target charge amount. The target charge amount in this case is about 60% when the conventional solar cell 16 is not mounted. However, in order to fully utilize the power generation capacity of the solar cell 16, this target charge amount is It is preferable to set a lower value. For example, it can be considered to be about 40%. In this way, even if the target charge amount is set low, the generated current by the solar cell 16 can be charged even when the automobile is left unused for a relatively long period of time and the generator 14 cannot be driven. 12 can be prevented from being overdischarged. For this reason, it is possible to sufficiently avoid a situation in which the running of the solar cell equipped vehicle is adversely affected by the insufficient charge amount of the battery 12 or the running is impossible.
[0016]
Further, since the amount of power generated by the solar cell 16 changes depending on the time of day, the weather of the day, the vehicle posture, etc., the charge amount control means 20 detects or predicts the change in the amount of power generated by the solar cell 16 due to these, The target charge amount is changed as appropriate. For example, the amount of power generated by the solar cell 16 becomes high during daylight hours and can hardly be expected at night. Therefore, the charge amount control means 20 changes the target charge amount according to the time. That is, the target charge amount is lowered during the daytime and increased at nighttime. As a result, the power generated by the solar cell 16 can be sufficiently received by the battery 12 during the daytime, and the amount of power generated by the generator 14 is increased at night to prevent overdischarge of the battery 12.
[0017]
It is also preferable that the charge amount control means 20 grasps the output amount of the solar battery 16 and changes the target charge amount according to the output amount. As the output amount of the solar cell 16, for example, the charge amount control means 20 can calculate and use an average output amount within a predetermined time.
[0018]
FIG. 2A shows an example of a change in the target charge amount of the battery 12 set by the charge amount control means 20 according to the time as a table α. FIG. 2B shows an example in which the charge amount control unit 20 changes the target charge amount according to the time average output amount of the solar battery 16 as the table β. The time average output amount shown in FIG. 2B is an average value of the output amount of the solar cell 16 for 30 minutes, for example.
[0019]
As the target charge amount as described above, the table α shown in FIG. 2A and the table β shown in FIG. 2B may be used alone, but the charge amount control is performed by the following calculation formula. The means 20 may be configured to calculate the target charge amount of the battery 12.
[0020]
[Expression 1]
Target charge amount = MIN (60%, value of table α + value of table β)
That is, according to the above formula, according to the time and the time average output amount of the solar cell 16, the sum of the value obtained from the table α and the value obtained from the table β is compared with a certain value, for example, 60%, The smaller one is set as the target charge amount. As described above, by setting the target charge amount of the battery 12 as low as possible, more power generation current from the solar cell 16 can be received by the battery 12, and the generator 14 can be stopped accordingly. The fuel cost used for power generation can be reduced.
[0021]
Further, when the navigation device 22 is mounted on a vehicle equipped with a solar battery, the charge amount control means 20 changes the target charge amount of the battery 12 based on the navigation information held by the navigation device 22. Is also suitable. As the navigation information, information on the state of the road that affects the power generation amount of the solar cell 16 such as the presence or absence of a tunnel or the presence or absence of a shade by a building or a mountain can be considered. Thereby, the electric power generation amount of the solar cell 16 can be predicted based on the change of the individual sunlight incident conditions for each road, and the optimal target charge amount can be set by the predicted value.
[0022]
Further, when the communication means 24 is mounted on the solar cell equipped vehicle, the charge amount control means 20 changes the target charge amount based on the weather-related information obtained by the communication means 24. Is also suitable. Thereby, it is possible to accurately predict the power generation amount of the solar cell 16 according to not only the time but also the weather information of the day, and thereby the optimum target charge amount can be set. In addition, it is also preferable to mount an atmospheric state detection means 26 for predicting the weather from the humidity or atmospheric pressure on the solar cell equipped vehicle. By the atmospheric state detection means 26, the charge amount control means 20 changes the target charge amount of the battery 12 according to the weather state predicted from the detected values such as humidity and atmospheric pressure. Thereby, the optimal target charge amount according to the weather of the day predicted by the atmospheric state detection means 26 can be set.
[0023]
Moreover, since the solar cell 16 is mounted on a vehicle, the incident angle of sunlight changes and the amount of power generation also changes depending on the vehicle posture such as the vehicle direction and the inclination angle. Therefore, if the vehicle posture detection means 28 is mounted on the vehicle, the charge amount control means 20 predicts the power generation amount of the solar cell 16 according to the vehicle posture detected thereby, and sets the optimum target charge amount. it can.
[0024]
The above-described vehicle equipped with a solar cell according to the present invention includes not only a hybrid vehicle but also a vehicle running on a fuel cell, a generator 14 or a fuel cell, and a battery 12. Any type of automobile that can use the generated current from the solar cell 16 can be applied. Thereby, a part of charging current of the battery 12 can be supplemented by the solar cell 16, and the cost of the fuel for driving the generator 14 and the fuel cell can be reduced.
[0025]
Furthermore, it is also preferable that the target charge amount of the battery 12 described above can be set by the user by a manual method. For example, when the vehicle is not used for a while after stopping, it is not necessary to set the target charge amount high even at night. This is because the battery can be sufficiently charged by the current generated by the solar cell 16 during the daytime of the next day or the day after next day. In such a case, the power generation capability of the solar cell 16 can be used more efficiently, for example, when the user manually sets the target charge amount low.
[0026]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, since the optimum target charge amount can be set by the charge amount control means, the output characteristics of the solar cell can be utilized to the maximum.
[0027]
Moreover, it can be set as the optimal target charge amount according to the change in the amount of incident sunlight due to the transition of time.
[0028]
Moreover, if the target charge amount is changed according to the output amount of the solar cell, the power generation capability of the solar cell can be fully utilized, and overdischarge of the battery can be prevented.
[0029]
Moreover, if the target charge amount is changed based on information such as road environment obtained from the navigation device or weather information obtained from the communication means, the target charge amount can be set to a more appropriate value.
[0030]
In addition, if the atmospheric state detection means is mounted on the vehicle, the optimum target charge amount can be set according to the predicted weather value detected thereby.
[0031]
If the vehicle attitude detection means is also mounted on the vehicle, it is possible to set an optimum target charge amount according to the vehicle attitude such as the vehicle orientation and the inclination angle.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a configuration of a vehicle equipped with a solar cell according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a target charge amount pattern set by a charge amount control unit shown in FIG. 1;
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Drive apparatus, 12 Battery, 14 Generator, 16 Solar cell, 18 Charge amount detection means, 20 Charge amount control means, 22 Navigation apparatus, 24 Communication means, 26 Atmospheric state detection means, 28 Vehicle attitude detection means.

Claims (2)

Battery,
A generator for charging the battery;
A solar cell for charging the battery;
Charge amount detecting means for detecting the charge amount of the battery;
A charge amount control means for determining a target charge amount of the battery and controlling start and stop of the generator;
Atmospheric state detection means;
Equipped with a,
The vehicle equipped with a solar cell , wherein the charge amount control means changes the target charge amount according to the weather condition predicted by the atmospheric condition detection means . Battery,
A generator for charging the battery;
A solar cell for charging the battery;
Charge amount detecting means for detecting the charge amount of the battery;
A charge amount control means for determining a target charge amount of the battery and controlling start and stop of the generator;
Vehicle attitude detection means;
With
The vehicle equipped with a solar cell, wherein the charge amount control means changes a target charge amount according to a detection value of the vehicle attitude detection means .

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