Prediction of battery power requirements for electric vehicles
An efficient way of predicting the power requirements of electric vehicles is proposed based on a history of vehicle power consumption, speed and acceleration as well as road information. By using this information and the operator's driving pattern, a model extracts the vehicles history of speed and acceleration, which in turn enables the prediction of the vehicle's future power requirements. That is, the power requirement prediction is achieved by combining a real-time power requirement model and the estimation of vehicle's acceleration and speed.
1. A computer-implemented method for managing power consumption of battery cells in a vehicle as it traverses a route, the route being divided into a plurality of road segments, comprising:
defining, by a battery manager, a power requirement model for battery cells powering the vehicle, where the power requirement model having one or more coefficients and outputs a power requirement for the battery cells as a function of velocity of the vehicle, acceleration of the vehicle and slope of road;
identifying, by the battery manager, a given road segment from the plurality of road segments;
estimating, by the battery manager, coefficients for the power requirement model using a linear regression method;
determining, by the battery manager, slope for the given road segment;
predicting, by the battery manager, acceleration of the vehicle in the given road segment;
calculating, by the battery manager, velocity of the vehicle in the given road segment;
predicting, by the battery manager, power requirement for the battery cells in the given road segment, where the power requirement is predicted using the estimated coefficients, the slope for the given road segment, the predicted acceleration, the calculated velocity and the power requirement model; and
configuring, by the battery manager, the battery cells in accordance with the predicted power requirement while the vehicle traverses the given road segment, where the battery manager is implemented by a computer processor.
2. The method of claim 1 further comprises monitoring the vehicle as it traverses the route and, upon entering the given road segment, configuring the battery cells in accordance with the predicted power requirement.
3. The method of claim 1 further comprises monitoring the vehicle as it traverses the route and, upon entering the given road segment, predicting power requirement for the battery cells in a next road segment.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying a given road segment further comprises segmenting road along the route in accordance with slope of the road and speed limit along the road.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the power requirement model is further defined as
P total ( a,V ,θ)= c 1 ·a·V+c 2 ·V 3 +c 3 ·sin θ· V+c 4 ·V
where V is velocity of the vehicle, a is acceleration of the vehicle, θ is road slope, and c 1 , c 2 , c 3 and c 4 are coefficients.
6. The method of claim 1 further comprises determining slope for the given road segment from a topographical map.
7. The method of claim 1 further comprises predicting acceleration of the vehicle in a given road segment based on relative speed between the vehicle and another vehicle traversing the route, speed limit for given road segments.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein configuring the battery cells further comprises allocating battery cells to an electric load of the vehicle based in part on the predicted power requirement for the battery cells.