Materials handling and other vehicles with functional responses to runtime calculation

1 . A removable battery assembly comprising a battery cell storing electrical energy, a visual display on the battery assembly, and a battery management system that is programmed to:

input or generate a state of charge signal representing a state of charge (SOC) of the battery assembly;

implement a first Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (EWMA) signal filter F 1 to calculate a succession ( 0 I C , 1 I C , 2 I C , . . . ) of contemporary current calculations I C wherein the contemporary current calculations advance by a time interval t 1 and comprise

I

C

=

[

(

A

×

β

1

)

]

+

[

B

×

(

1

-

β

1

)

]

and wherein A comprises an average current load on the battery over the time interval t 1 , B comprises a predetermined current load or a historic EWMA current calculation that precedes the average current load of A, temporally, and β 1 comprises a first weighting parameter;

implement a second EWMA signal filter F 2 to calculate a runtime current I R , wherein the runtime current calculation comprises

I

R

=

[

(

C

×

β

2

)

]

+

[

D

×

(

1

-

β

2

)

]

and where C comprises an average, over a time envelope t E , of a plurality of the succession ( 0 I C , 1 I C , 2 I C , . . . ) of contemporary current calculations I C from the first EWMA signal filter F 1 , D comprises a historic EWMA current calculation that precedes temporally at least one of the plurality of the succession ( 0 I C , 1 I C , 2 I C , . . . ) of contemporary current calculations I C from the first EWMA signal filter F 1 , and β 2 comprises a second weighting parameter; and

implement a remaining runtime calculation R comprising

R

=

SOC

/

I

R

wherein the visual display on the battery assembly is configured to automatically change as a function of the runtime calculation R.

2 . The removable battery assembly of claim 1 wherein the visual display on the battery comprises a visual runtime display that is configured to progressively change as a function of the runtime calculation R.

3 . The removable battery assembly of claim 1 wherein the battery management system is programmed to reduce the time envelope tr of the second EWMA signal filter F 2 when the SOC of the battery assembly falls below a first SOC threshold.

4 . The removable battery assembly of claim 3 wherein the battery management system is programmed to further reduce the time envelope tr of the second EWMA signal filter F 2 when the SOC of the battery assembly falls below a second SOC threshold that is lower than the first SOC threshold.

5 . The removable battery assembly of claim 4 wherein the first SOC threshold is between approximately 10% and approximately 30% and the second SOC threshold is between approximately 5% and approximately 20%.

6 . The removable battery assembly of claim 1 wherein:

β

2

<

β

1

.

7 . The removable battery assembly of claim 1 wherein:

1.5

β

2

<

β

1

.

8 . The removable battery assembly of claim 1 wherein the battery management system is programmed to implement the first EWMA signal filter F 1 with B comprising a historic EWMA current calculation that is an average of the average current load A and one or more previously calculated EWMAs of battery assembly current load.

9 . The removable battery assembly of claim 1 wherein the battery management system is programmed to calculate successive runtime currents IR 1 , IR 2 , IR 3 , etc., by temporally advancing sampling periods associated with the average C and the historic EWMA current calculation D of the second EWMA signal filter F 2 .

10 . The removable battery assembly of claim 9 wherein the sampling periods associated with the average C and the historic EWMA current calculation D of the second EWMA signal filter F 2 are both advanced by the time interval t 1 to calculate the successive runtime currents IR 1 , IR 2 , IR 3 , etc.

11 . The removable battery assembly of claim 1 wherein:

the battery management system is programmed to implement the first EWMA signal filter F 1 with B comprising a historic EWMA current calculation that is an average of the average current load A and one or more previously calculated EWMAs of battery assembly current load;

the battery management system is programmed to calculate successive runtime currents IR 1 , IR 2 , IR 3 , etc., by temporally advancing sampling periods associated with the average C and the historic EWMA current calculation D of the second EWMA signal filter F 2 ; and

the sampling periods associated with the average C and the historic EWMA current calculation D of the second EWMA signal filter F 2 are both advanced by the time interval t 1 to calculate the successive runtime currents IR 1 , IR 2 , IR 3 , etc.

12 . A removable battery assembly comprising a battery cell storing electrical energy, a visual display on the battery assembly, and a battery management system that is programmed to:

input or generate a state of charge signal representing a state of charge (SOC) of the battery assembly,

implement a first Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (EWMA) signal filter F 1 to calculate a succession ( 0 I C , 1 I C , 2 I C , . . . ) of contemporary current calculations I C ,

implement a second EWMA signal filter F 2 to calculate a runtime current I R , wherein the runtime current calculation I R comprises the contemporary current calculations I C from the first EWMA signal filter F 1 , and

implement a remaining runtime calculation R comprising

R

=

S

⁢

O

⁢

C

/

I

R

wherein the visual display on the battery assembly is configured to automatically change as a function of the runtime calculation R.

13 . The removable battery assembly of claim 12 wherein the visual display on the battery comprises a visual runtime display that is configured to progressively change as a function of the runtime calculation R.