KR20100061305A - Electric golf cart - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An electric golf cart is provided to simply manage the lifetime of the battery by displaying the lifetime of the battery based on the comparison of a use cycle and a lifetime charge cycle. CONSTITUTION: A discharge amount production unit(20d) produces the amount of discharge of the battery with a plurality of use units. A reference discharge production unit produces a reference discharge amount based on statistics about the discharge amount of the battery with the plurality of use units. A lifetime charge number obtaining unit(20e) obtains the charge number according to the lifetime of the battery based on the reference discharge amount. A data storing unit stores data about the relation between the reference discharge amount and the charge number.

Description

Electric golf cart {ELECTRIC GOLF CART}

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electric golf cart, and more particularly to the life management of a drive battery.

In golf courses, golf carts are often used to move players. The electric golf cart is equipped with a battery and a motor, and a motor rotating by electric power supplied from the battery is used as a power source. Such an electric golf cart has the outstanding characteristic that a running sound is small compared with using an engine as a power source. The battery is, for example, a lead storage battery, a nickel hydrogen storage battery, a nickel cadmium storage battery, a lithium ion battery, or the like, and any one has a finite lifetime. For this reason, it is desirable to detect the arrival of a battery in advance, and to notify the manager of an electric golf cart. In this respect, Patent Literature 1 below discloses a technology for determining the life of a battery used in an electric vehicle. According to this technique, the inherent deterioration value is determined for each charge / discharge cycle of the battery, and the deterioration of the battery is obtained by summing these intrinsic deterioration values.

[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-264303

However, according to the prior art, since the total value of the inherent deterioration values is regarded as deterioration of the battery, there is a problem that if an error is included in each intrinsic deterioration value, it accumulates and leads to a large error.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide an electric golf cart capable of simple and accurate battery life management.

In order to solve the said subject, the electric golf cart which concerns on this invention is a discharge amount calculation means which calculates the discharge amount of the battery per use unit for each of a plurality of use units, and each meeting calculated by the said discharge amount calculation means. A reference discharge amount calculating means for calculating a reference discharge amount based on a statistic about the discharge amount of a use unit, and the number of charges related to the life of the battery based on the reference discharge amount calculated by the reference discharge amount calculation means. And a means for acquiring the number of life cycle charges to be acquired.

In addition, in the electric golf cart according to the embodiment of the present invention, the use unit is a period from when the battery is charged to when it is next charged. The electric golf cart according to another embodiment of the present invention further includes data storage means for storing data indicating a relationship between the reference discharge amount calculated by the reference discharge amount calculation means and the number of charges of the battery. And the lifespan charge count acquiring means checks the reference discharge amount calculated by the reference discharge amount calculation means in comparison with the data stored in the data storage means, according to the life of the battery mounted on the electric golf cart. Obtain the number of charges.

Further, the electric golf cart according to still another embodiment of the present invention is characterized in that the number of charge counting means for counting the number of charges of the battery, the number of charges counted by the number of charge counting means, and the number of life charge counting means are obtained. And notifying means for making a notification to the user based on the number of charges acquired by the user.

In this embodiment, when the predetermined operation is performed with respect to the operation means of the electric golf cart, the notification means is acquired by the number of charges counted by the number of charge counting means and the number of lifetime charge number acquisition means. The user may be notified according to the comparison result of the number of charges. Further, the notification means, when a predetermined operation is performed on the operation means of the electric golf cart, the notification number of the number of charges counted by the number of charge counting means and the number of charges acquired by the lifetime charge number acquisition means The user may be notified according to the rain. The notifying means may notify the user by using the indicator of the remaining capacity of the battery.

EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION Hereinafter, one Embodiment of this invention is described in detail based on drawing.

1 is a side view of an electric golf cart according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, this electric golf cart 10 is a four-wheeled vehicle having a pair of left and right front wheels 12 and rear wheels 14, and a front seat 22 for two and a rear seat for three. 24 is provided. The rear wheel 14 is driven to rotate in the forward and reverse directions by the motor 16, and the driving power of the motor 16 is supplied from the drive battery 18 housed below the rear seat 24. As shown in FIG. The drive battery 18 is a some lead storage battery connected in series, for example. Moreover, the controller 20 comprised mainly on a microcomputer is accommodated in the back of the back seat 24, and this controller 20 controls the various equipment of the electric golf cart 10. As shown in FIG.

The direction of the front wheel 12 can be operated by the steering wheel 26 arrange | positioned in front of the front seat 22. As shown in FIG. In addition, the rotational speed of the motor 16 is operated by the acceleration pedal not shown in the figure arrange | positioned below the steering wheel 26. As shown in FIG. When the stepping angle of the accelerator pedal returns to zero during traveling, the disc brake is applied to the front wheel 12 and the rear wheel 14, and the regenerative brake by the motor 16 is also applied to the rear wheel 14. When the vehicle speed is sufficiently low, the motor 16 applies the electromagnetic brake to the rear wheel 14 as the parking brake. Also, when the brake pedal 28 disposed next to the accelerator pedal is stepped on, the disc brake is applied to the front wheel 12 and the rear wheel 14. In addition, the rotational direction of the motor 16 is switched to normal and reverse by the lever 29 disposed below the front seat 22. The operation panel 30 is provided in front of the front seat 22, and the operation amount 30 30 and the abnormal LED 30b which are mentioned later are accommodated in this operation panel 30, and the buzzer 30c in the vicinity of it. ) Is attached.

2 is a control block diagram related to the life management of the drive battery 18 in the electric golf cart 10. As shown in the figure, the controller 20 includes a charge / discharge accumulating unit 20a, a motor control unit 20b, a charge cycle calculating unit 20c, a single cycle discharge amount calculating unit 20d, and a battery life calculating unit 20e. The remaining amount calculating unit 20f is provided. The remaining amount calculating unit 20f includes a life display determining unit 20g and a battery remaining low abnormality determining unit 20h. These control elements are realized by executing the built-in program, for example, by the controller 20 configured around the microcomputer.

The motor control unit 20b rotationally drives the motor 16 by the electric power supplied from the driving battery 18. At this time, the voltage and current of the drive battery 18 are monitored by the charge / discharge accumulator 20a, and the charge / discharge accumulator 20a accumulates the discharge amount of the drive battery 18. As an integrated value of the discharge amount, a value obtained by integrating only the discharge amount supplied from the drive battery 18 to the motor 16 may be adopted, and the discharge amount supplied from the drive battery 18 to the motor 16 is made a positive value. On the contrary, the amount of charge supplied to the drive battery 18 from the motor 16 at the time of regenerative brake may be set as a negative value, and a value obtained by integrating these symbols may be employed. The one-use cycle discharge amount calculation unit 20d acquires the discharge amount per one use cycle by using the discharge amount calculated by the charge / discharge integration unit 20a, and this is used for a predetermined use cycle (here, for example, 50 circuits). Remember). Specifically, the single-use cycle discharge amount calculation unit 20d detects that the charging plug is connected to the electric golf cart 10 and the charging voltage is applied to the driving battery 18. Then, the charge / discharge amount is determined by the integrated value of the discharge amount of the drive battery 18 for a period from the time when the drive battery 18 is fully charged to the next charge start (this period is referred to as "one use cycle"). It acquires from the integration part 20a, and stores this. On the other hand, the charge cycle calculator 20c counts the number of charges of the driving battery 18.

The battery life calculating section 20e adds the discharge amounts for a predetermined use cycle stored in the one-use cycle discharge amount calculating section 20d to each other, and counts the number of charges counted by the charging cycle calculating section 20c (here, 50 times). ), And calculates the average amount of discharge per one use cycle. Here, this average discharge amount is called a reference discharge amount. In addition, the one-use cycle discharge amount calculation unit 20d sets the maximum amount among the stored discharge amounts for the predetermined use cycle as the reference discharge amount, or sets the intermediate value between the maximum and minimum amounts as the reference discharge amount. You may make it whole quantity. The battery life calculating section 20e determines the number of charges (life charge cycle) for which the driving battery 18 reaches its life, based on the reference discharge amount calculated in this way. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 3, the battery life calculation unit 20e stores a table indicating a relationship between the reference discharge amount Ah and the life charge cycle (times), and is calculated as described above. The life cycle of charging corresponding to the total quantity is obtained from the table.

The remaining amount calculating unit 20f determines the remaining capacity of the driving battery 18 according to the discharge amount of the driving battery 18 accumulated by the charge / discharge accumulating unit 20a. Then, the remaining amount LED 30a, which is an indicator of the remaining capacity, is turned on in accordance with this determination. Specifically, the remaining amount LED 30a is composed of a predetermined number of LEDs, and the number of lights is reduced as the remaining capacity is reduced. The life display determination unit 20g performs a life charge cycle notified from the battery life calculator 20e and a charge cycle (total charge) up to the present after the use of the drive battery 18 notified from the charge cycle calculator 20c. Cycle), the remaining life display using the remaining amount LED 30a is performed. This display may be performed only when various buttons or brake pedals 28 arranged on the operation panel 30 are operated in a specific procedure. The remaining life display is performed by, for example, turning on the number of LEDs corresponding to the ratio between the life charge cycle and the total charge cycle. In addition, when the total charge cycle becomes larger than the life charge cycle, the life indication determination unit 20g issues a life warning using the remaining amount LED 30a. For example, when the electric golf cart 10 is powered on, the remaining amount LED 30a flashes to notify the end of life. The battery residual quantity shortage abnormality determination unit 20h turns on the abnormal LED 30b or causes the buzzer 30c to light when the driving battery 18 exhibits the abnormal voltage.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a process of determining a life charge cycle in the controller 20. This process is executed when an unused drive battery 18 is mounted in the electric golf cart 10 and an initialization operation is instructed to the controller 20. First, the single-use cycle discharge amount calculation unit 20d detects completion of charging of the drive battery 18 (S101). For example, the completion of charging is judged by the fact that the charging current flowing through the drive battery 18 is weak or the voltage of the drive battery 18 rises to a predetermined voltage. Then, the charging completion number that is a variable is incremented by one (S102). The accumulated discharge amount stored in the charge / discharge integration unit 20a is initialized to 0 (S103). Then, until charge of the drive battery 18 is started (S105), the charge / discharge accumulating unit 20a accumulates the amount of discharge during driving of the drive battery 18 (S104). After that, when the charging of the driving battery 18 is started (S105), the one-use cycle discharge amount calculation unit 20d increments the number of charge start times as a variable by one (S106). In addition, the discharge amount accumulated in the charge / discharge integration unit 20a is acquired and stored. Further, the number of stored data which is a variable is incremented by one (S107). Until the number of stored data reaches 50 (S108), the processing of S109 to S111 is skipped and charging of the drive battery 18 is started (S112). On the other hand, if the number of stored data reaches 50, the battery life calculating section 20e calculates an average value of the 50 discharge amounts stored in the single-use cycle discharge amount calculating section 20d, and acquires the reference discharge amount (S109). The reference discharge amount is then checked in comparison with the table shown in FIG. 3 to obtain a life charge cycle (S110). Then, the number of stored data stored in the one-use cycle discharge amount calculation unit 20d is cleared to zero (S111).

5 is a flowchart showing a process of performing a life display by the remaining amount LEDs 30a. The processing shown in the same drawing is executed when the power button not shown in the drawing of the electric golf cart 10 is turned on. First, when the power supply is turned on (S201), the lifetime display determination unit 20g calculates a charging cycle (S202). The charging cycle is an average value of the number of charge completions updated in S102 of FIG. 4 and the number of charge start times updated in S106 of the same drawing. In addition, the charge completion number itself may be a charge cycle, and the charge start number itself may be a charge cycle. Next, it is determined whether or not the charge cycle calculated in S202 is greater than the life charge cycle calculated in S110 in FIG. 4 (S203). If large, life display is performed (S204). Specifically, all the LEDs included in the remaining amount LEDs 30a blink for a predetermined time. On the other hand, if the charge cycle is less than or equal to the life cycle, the process of S204 is skipped, and the remaining amount calculating unit 20f uses the remaining amount LED 30a to display the remaining amount of the drive battery 18 (S205). Thereafter, it is monitored whether or not the various buttons or brake pedals 28 arranged on the operation panel 30 are operated in a specific order (S206), and when such an operation is performed, the charging cycle calculated in S202, and FIG. The LEDs included in the remaining amount LEDs 30a are turned on for a predetermined time by the number corresponding to the ratio of the life charge cycles calculated in S110 (S207), and the flow returns to S205 again.

According to the electric golf cart 10 explained above, the life-cycle charging cycle of the drive battery 18 mounted in the electric golf cart 10 is suitably based on the results of the discharge amount in the initial 50 cycles of use. Can decide. The electric golf cart 10 takes a method of using the determined pattern, which runs one golf course for a predetermined number of times (usually once), and then charges it for the next day. The amount of discharge in the use cycle is approximately a constant amount determined according to the ups and downs of the golf course. In addition, the life of the drive battery 18 largely depends on the discharge amount in each use cycle. Therefore, in this embodiment, the reference discharge amount is calculated from the discharge amounts in the predetermined number of use cycles, and the life charge cycle is determined therefrom. And life display is performed by the comparison of a charge cycle (use cycle) and a life charge cycle. By doing in this way, the life of the drive battery 18 of the electric golf cart 10 can be managed simply and correctly.

1 is a side view of an electric golf cart according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a control block diagram related to life management.

3 is a diagram illustrating a table for life management.

4 is a flowchart showing a process of determining a life charge cycle.

5 is a flowchart showing a process of performing life display.

<Description of Symbols for Main Parts of Drawings>

10: electric golf cart 12: front wheel

14 rear wheel 16: motor

18: driving battery 20: controller

22: front seat 24: rear seat

26: steering wheel 28: accelerator pedal

29: lever 30: operation panel.

Claims (17)

Discharge amount calculating means for calculating the discharge amount of the battery per use unit for each of a plurality of use units; Reference discharge amount calculation means for calculating a reference discharge amount on the basis of a statistic about the discharge amount of each use unit calculated by the discharge amount calculation means; And And a life charge number acquiring means for acquiring the number of charges in accordance with the life of the battery based on the reference discharge amount calculated by the reference discharge amount calculating means. The method of claim 1, And wherein the use unit is a period from when the battery is charged to when it is next charged. The method according to claim 1 or 2, Data storage means for storing data indicating a relationship between the reference discharge amount calculated by said reference discharge amount calculating means and the number of charges of the battery; The number of charges for acquiring the lifespan of the battery mounted in the electric golf cart is obtained by the means for acquiring the lifespan charge number obtaining means by checking the reference discharge amount calculated by the reference discharge amount calculating means in comparison with the data stored in the data storage means. Electric golf cart, characterized in that to obtain. The method according to claim 1 or 2, Charge counting means for counting the number of charges of the battery; And And an informing means for making a notification to the user based on the number of charges counted by said number of charge counting means and the number of charges acquired by said life charge number acquiring means. The method of claim 4, wherein The notification means is based on a comparison result of the number of charges counted by the number of charge counting means and the number of charges acquired by the life cycle number acquiring means when a predetermined operation is performed on the operation means of the electric golf cart. An electric golf cart, wherein notification is provided to a user. The method of claim 4, wherein The notification means is a notification in accordance with the ratio of the number of charges counted by the number of charge counting means and the number of charges acquired by the lifetime charge number acquisition means when a predetermined operation is performed on the operation means of the electric golf cart. The electric golf cart characterized by the above-mentioned. The method of claim 5, And the notification means notifies the user by using the indicator of the remaining capacity of the battery. The method of claim 3, wherein Charge counting means for counting the number of charges of the battery; And And an informing means for making a notification to the user based on the number of charges counted by said number of charge counting means and the number of charges acquired by said life charge number acquiring means. The method of claim 8, The notification means is based on a comparison result of the number of charges counted by the number of charge counting means and the number of charges acquired by the life cycle number acquiring means when a predetermined operation is performed on the operation means of the electric golf cart. An electric golf cart, wherein notification is provided to a user. The method of claim 5, The notification means is provided according to the ratio of the number of charges counted by the number of charge counting means and the number of charges acquired by the service life count acquisition means when a predetermined operation is performed on the operation means of the electric golf cart. An electric golf cart, wherein notification is provided to a user. The method of claim 8, The notification means is a notification in accordance with the ratio of the number of charges counted by the number of charge counting means and the number of charges acquired by the lifetime charge number acquisition means when a predetermined operation is performed on the operation means of the electric golf cart. The electric golf cart characterized by the above-mentioned. The method of claim 9, The notification means is a notification in accordance with the ratio of the number of charges counted by the number of charge counting means and the number of charges acquired by the lifetime charge number acquisition means when a predetermined operation is performed on the operation means of the electric golf cart. The electric golf cart characterized by the above-mentioned. The method of claim 6, And the notification means notifies the user by using the indicator of the remaining capacity of the battery. The method of claim 9, And the notification means notifies the user by using the indicator of the remaining capacity of the battery. The method of claim 10, And the notification means notifies the user by using the indicator of the remaining capacity of the battery. The method of claim 11, And the notification means notifies the user by using the indicator of the remaining capacity of the battery. 13. The method of claim 12, And the notification means notifies the user by using the indicator of the remaining capacity of the battery.

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