WO2011080017A2 - Device for distributing the electrical energy available in a vehicle, and corresponding method - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a device for distributing electrical energy available in a motor vehicle to a plurality of control modules (21, 22, 31, 32) for the operation of the components (41, 42) on-board the vehicle, the operation of each component (41, 42) being correlated to a degree of criticality linked to the safety of said vehicle. Said device comprises at least: a module (10) for treating the electrical energy, that can generate at least one voltage adapted to the power supply of the control modules (21, 22, 31, 32); and a programmable power switch (91, 92) that can link at least one control module (21, 22, 31, 32) to the treatment module (10) according to at least the service life situation of the vehicle and the degree of criticality of the operation of the component (41, 42) associated with the control module (21, 22, 31, 32) in said service life situation of the vehicle.

Description

 DEVICE FOR DISTRIBUTING ELECTRICAL ENERGY

AVAILABLE IN A VEHICLE AND CORRESPONDING METHOD

Technical area

The invention relates to the optimized management of the electric energy available in a motor vehicle. The invention relates more particularly to the distribution of electrical energy to energy-consuming electronic modules embedded in a vehicle.

The invention finds particular application in motor vehicles of the electric type, or thermal and electrical type (also called "full hybrid" or "hybrid plugin"), for which an optimization of the consumption of electrical energy available on board of the vehicle is sought. State of the art

A motor vehicle is in particular equipped with several bodies such as mirrors, opening, active dampers, heat engine, electric motor, and other similar accessories participating in particular in the operation of the vehicle, the safety or comfort of the occupants of the vehicle.

In general, each member is controlled by a computer (or ECU, acronym for "Electronic Control Unit" or Electronic Control Unit). In addition, an organ can be set in motion by means of an actuator controlled by one of the computers. These actuators and computers are powered by a voltage generator, such as a battery (or a voltage converter DC / DC - AC / DC) delivering a voltage of the order of 13.5 volts for example, boarded the vehicle, and are therefore consumers of electrical energy.

Conventionally, the voltage generated by the battery 5 is distributed to all the computers 21, 22, 23 and actuators 31, 32, 33 for the operation of the members 41, 42, 43 on board the vehicle, via processing modules 1 1 , 12, 13 of said battery voltage, as illustrated in FIG. 1. Each of the processing modules 1 1, 12, 13 thus supplies a computer 21, 22,

23 as well as the actuator 31, 32, 33 controlled by said computer 21, 22, 23, and makes it possible to filter and regulate the voltage of the battery 5. Each processing module 1 1, 12, 13 is notably provided with means noise filtering device present in the voltage delivered by the battery, as well as means for storing the energy for the transient phases (starting the thermal engine or starting and stopping electric motors of the three-phase motor type, switching battery voltage and alternator voltage, etc.). For example, each processing module 1 1, 12, 13 comprises a diode 61, 62, 63 of polarity reversal protection, a capacitor 71, 72, 73 chemical for the storage of energy and a regulator 81, 82 , 83 DC-DC converter type. The calculator 21, 22, 23,

24 is connected to the output of the regulator 81, 82, 83 voltage and is supplied with a voltage of 5.8 volts for example. The actuator 31, 32, 33 is connected to the output of the diode 61, 62, 63 and is supplied with a voltage of 12 volts for example.

In this solution, there are therefore at least as many diodes, storage capacities and regulators as computers or on-board devices in the vehicle, inducing, in addition to a significant consumption of electrical energy, a manufacturing cost important.

In order to optimize the energy consumption induced by the operation of the on-board members, a solution of the prior art consists in classifying the organs according to their degree of criticality related to the safety of the vehicle in certain life situations of the vehicle ( or phases of vehicle life or vehicle mission), such as for example a driving phase, a starting phase, an acceleration phase, a braking phase, or a stopping phase of the vehicle with the engine running. For example, during the taxiing phase, two groups of organs can be distinguished: the safety (or priority) organs whose operation is essential to the safety of the occupants of the vehicle, and the unsafe devices (or comfort equipment and servitude) whose operation is not essential for the safety of the occupants of the vehicle. The security calculators controlling these security organs are, for example, the central cabin computer, the engine or heat engine calculator, the underhood computer (USM), the computer for the power steering, the computer for trajectory control, the battery charge calculator (BMS) for electric motors of electric or hybrid vehicles. The unsafe computers controlling these unsafe devices are for example the computers of the opening (such as window regulators, sunroof, motorized trunk door), the calculators for adjusting the seats, the ignition control computer of the daylights. Of course, the list of these safe and unsafe devices is not exhaustive and depends on the equipment on board the vehicle.

To reduce the consumption of electrical energy, document F 2 91 1 697 proposes a method of monitoring the controls relating to the non-security organs that are not very active during the vehicle's driving phase. These unsafe controls are for example the control of a window regulator or the control of a sunroof. This monitoring is based in particular on a delay (or time-out) at the end of which, if no request from the user is recorded, the computers of these organs are put into sleep mode (or sleep mode) so to reduce their power consumption, these organs being reactivated only during a new request by the user. Similarly, the document WO 2008-079084 proposes a solution based on the activation or not of more or less priority organs as a function of a programmable delay. In the two solutions presented above, although the power consumption is reduced by the standby computers associated with non-secure organs, when activating these bodies, the power consumption related to electronic components integrated into the processing modules is not negligible. In addition, the realization of this solution is complex because it requires at least the establishment of a management of the communication bus and the CAN messenger (acronym for "control area network"). Furthermore, these solutions of the prior art do not reduce the cost of manufacture. In this context, the present invention is intended to provide another less complex solution for reducing on the one hand the consumption of electrical energy available on board the vehicle, and on the other hand to reduce the cost of manufacture. Presentation of the invention

The invention thus relates to a device for distributing electrical energy available on board a motor vehicle of electric type (or EV acronym for Electric Vehicle), or thermal and electric (or "full hybrid" or "Plugin hybrid electric vehicle PHEV" or electrical grid), to a plurality of control modules for the operation of the organs embedded in said vehicle, said operation of each of the organs being correlated to a degree of criticality related to the safety of said vehicle. According to the invention, the dispensing device comprises at least:

a module for processing said electrical energy, able to generate at least one voltage suitable for supplying said control modules; and a programmable power switch capable of connecting at least one of said driving modules to said processing module as a function at least of the life situation of the vehicle (or of the vehicle's life phases or of the vehicle's mission profiles) and of the degree of criticality of the operation of the member associated with said control module in said life situation of the vehicle (or vehicle life phases or vehicle mission profiles).

In other words, unlike the prior art in which the computers or actuators are powered via separate processing modules, inducing the use of a plurality of diodes and storage capacities and regulators, at least in number equal to that of the organs, the solution of the invention proposes to replace all the processing modules of the prior art by a single processing module to supply all the control modules. The connection of a control module to the processing module depends in particular on the life situation of the vehicle, as well as the degree of criticality of the operation of the associated member in said life situation. Thus, a single processing module supplying all the control modules of the members, the use of electronic components is reduced compared to the solutions of the prior art requiring, for example, as many protection diodes as control modules or control modules. bodies on board the vehicle.

In another variant, it is possible to separate the processing module supplying a type of control modules such as computers, and the processing module supplying another type of control modules such as actuators.

Advantageously, said plurality of control modules comprises calculators and actuators, said computers controlling the actuators, the actuators actuating the members, said processing module is able to generate on a first output a voltage suitable for powering the computers, and to generate on a second output a voltage adapted to the supply of the actuators. Preferably, the energy distribution device further comprises: a first programmable power switch adapted to connect at least one of the computers to the first output of the processing module, at least according to the life situation of the vehicle (or the vehicle life phases or the vehicle mission profiles); ) and the degree of criticality of the operation of the member associated with said computer in said vehicle life situation; and

a second programmable power switch capable of connecting at least one of the actuators to the second output of the processing module, at least as a function of the life situation of the vehicle (or of the vehicle life phases or the vehicle mission profiles) ) and the degree of criticality of the operation of said associated member in said vehicle life situation.

 Thus, by a separate distribution of energy on the one hand to power consumers such as actuators and on the other hand to low-power consumers such as microcontrollers, the power consumption of these various components is further optimized. .

 For example, the available electrical energy is a voltage delivered by a battery embedded in said vehicle.

The processing module may comprise at least:

 a reverse polarity protection diode;

a storage capacity able to store energy during the start-up phase of the vehicle and to filter the noises present in the electrical energy of the network; and

 a DC voltage converter (or "DC-DC converter"). The invention also relates to a vehicle comprising at least:

 - a battery ;

 a device for distributing energy as presented previously; and

a plurality of computers and actuators powered via said distribution device intended to drive members embedded in said vehicle. The invention also relates to a method of distributing electrical energy available in a motor vehicle, for the power supply of a plurality of control modules embedded in said vehicle. The method comprises at least steps of:

- Generation of a voltage adapted to the power of the control modules;

- checking the life situation of the vehicle (or the vehicle's life phases or the vehicle's mission profiles);

 - checking the degree of criticality of the operation of each organ in said vehicle life situation; and

- For each organ, depending on the degree of criticality of their operation in the life situation of the vehicle, supplying the control module associated with said body with said adapted voltage.

Brief description of the drawings

Other features and advantages of the invention will emerge clearly from the description which is given below, by way of indication and in no way limitative, with reference to the appended figures, in which:

 - Figure 1, described above, is a schematic representation of a prior art electrical energy distribution system;

 FIG. 2 is a schematic representation of a system for distributing electrical energy according to one embodiment of the invention; and

 FIG. 3 is a schematic representation of a system for distributing electrical energy according to another embodiment of the invention.

Detailed presentation of a particular embodiment

With reference to FIG. 2, a system for distributing electrical energy embedded in a vehicle, notably comprises:

a battery 5 delivering, for example, a voltage of the order of 13.5 volts; a device 1 for distributing energy according to a first embodiment of the invention, for example delivering a filtered and regulated voltage of the order of 5.8 volts; and

 - Control modules such as computers 21, 22, 23, 24 (safe and unsafe) driving organs (not shown) whose operation is correlated to a degree of criticality related in particular to the safety of the vehicle in a situation of life given.

The dispensing device 1 comprises in particular:

a processing module 10 for the voltage delivered by the battery 5, able to generate a suitable voltage (of the order of 5.8 volts, for example) for powering the computers 21, 22, 23, 24; and

 a programmable power switch 91, able to connect the computers 21, 22, 23, 24 to the processing module 10 as a function of the life situation of the vehicle (or of the vehicle life phases or of the vehicle mission profiles) and the degree of criticality of the operation of the component associated with the control module in the life situation of the vehicle (or the vehicle life phases or the vehicle mission profiles). The processing module 10 notably comprises:

 a diode 60 for protection of polarity inversion;

 a storage capacity 70 (for example a chemical capacity) capable of storing energy during the starting phase of the vehicle and of filtering the noises present in the electrical energy of the network; and

a voltage converter 80 of continuous-DC type delivering a voltage suitable for powering the computers.

The programmable power switch 91 is controlled by a control unit 90, and is able to connect the computers 21, 22, 23, 24 to the controller according to their degree of criticality and the life situation of the vehicle. The method of distributing electrical energy may comprise steps of:

 - Generation of a voltage adapted to the power of the control modules;

- checking the life situation of the vehicle (or the vehicle's life phases or the vehicle's mission profiles);

 - checking the degree of criticality of the operation of each member in said life situation of the vehicle (or vehicle life phases or mission profiles of the vehicle); and

 - For each organ, depending on their degree of criticality in the life situation of the vehicle (or vehicle life phases or mission profiles of the vehicle), supply the computer associated with said body with said adapted voltage.

For example, during the rolling phase, the security computers are constantly powered, while the unsecured computers are powered according to a logic called "activation benefits" which can consist of a logic that:

 - feeds the BCM (English acronym for Body Control Module) cabin calculator after the door has been knocked down;

- supplies the sunroof calculator after the wake up of the BCM cabin computer;

 - cuts the power supply of the trunk door computer when the vehicle speed is above 7 km / h for example. Thus, in this particular example, during the rolling phase, the power supply of the computers 21, 22, 23, 24 is centralized by the single distribution device, and the distribution of the energy is variable according to the type of calculator (depending on whether it is safe or unsafe) and the life situation in which the vehicle is located.

With reference to FIG. 3, another system for distributing electrical energy embedded in a vehicle, notably comprises: a battery 5 delivering, for example, a voltage of the order of 13.5 volts;

 a device 1 for distributing energy according to a second embodiment of the invention, for example delivering a filtered and regulated voltage of the order of 5.8 volts;

- Control modules such as computers 21, 22 and actuators 13, 32, the actuators 31, 32 being controlled by the computers 21, 22 and the members 41, 42 being set in motion by the actuators 31, 32, the operation of a member 41, 42 being correlated to a degree of criticality related in particular to the safety of the vehicle in a given life situation.

The dispensing device according to this other embodiment comprises in particular:

 a module 10 for processing the voltage delivered by the battery, capable of generating a first adapted voltage (of the order of 5.8 volts, for example) for powering the computers, and a second adapted voltage (of the order of 12 volts for example) for the supply of the actuators;

 a first power switch 91 programmable by a control unit 90, able to connect the computers 21, 22 to the first output of the processing module as a function, in particular, of the life situation of the vehicle (or of the vehicle's life phases or vehicle mission profiles) and the degree of criticality of the functioning of the associated bodies; and

 a second power switch 92 programmable by the same control unit 90, able to connect the actuators 31, 32 to the second output of the processing module as a function, in particular, of the life situation of the vehicle (or of the vehicle's life phases) or mission profiles of the vehicle) and the degree of criticality of the functioning of the associated bodies.

The example of the exposed power strategy for the first embodiment can also be applied to this second embodiment.

Thus, unlike the prior art in which the computers and / or actuators are powered via separate processing modules, inducing no only a significant consumption of electronic components present in the processing modules, but also a significant manufacturing cost, the solution of the invention proposes to replace all the processing modules of the prior art by a single module processing to supply all the control modules. Thus, the use of electronic components being reduced, the manufacturing cost as well as the consumption of the electrical energy available on board the vehicle is also reduced. In addition, this solution allows the implementation of a power strategy depending on the degree of criticality of the functioning of the organs in a vehicle life situation, to optimize and reduce the consumption of energy electric. In addition, the reduction of the electrical energy consumption induces a reduction of the carbon dioxide emission that is harmful to the environment, and the reduction in the number of processing modules makes it possible to save considerable space in the vehicle.

Claims

1. Device for distributing electrical energy available on board a motor vehicle, to a plurality of control modules (21, 22, 31, 32) 5 intended for the operation of members (41, 42) embedded in said vehicle, said operation of each of said members (41, 42) being correlated to a degree of criticality related to the safety of said vehicle, characterized in that it comprises less:  a processing module (10) for said electrical energy, capable of generating at least one voltage adapted to powering said control modules (21, 22, 31, 32); and  a programmable power switch (91, 92) capable of connecting at least one of said driving modules (21, 22, 31, 32) to said processing module in function (10) at least of the vehicle's life situation and the degree of criticality The operation of the member (41, 42) associated with said control module (21, 22, 31, 32) in said vehicle life situation. 2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that said plurality of control modules comprises calculators (21, 22) and actuators (31, 32), said computers (21, 22) controlling the actuators (31, 32), the actuators (31, 32) actuating the members (41, 42), said processing module (10) is able to generate on a first output a voltage adapted to the supply of the computers (21, 22), and to generate on a second output a voltage adapted to the supply of the actuators (31, 32), and in that the device of The distribution (1) of the energy further comprises:  a first programmable power switch (91) capable of connecting at least one of the computers (21, 22) to the first output of the processing module (10) at least as a function of the vehicle's life situation and the degree of criticality of the functioning of the body (41, 42) associated with the audit Calculator (21, 22) in said vehicle life situation; and a second programmable power switch (92) capable of connecting at least one of the actuators (31, 32) to the second output of the module of treatment (10) at least according to the vehicle life situation and the degree of criticality of the operation of said member (41, 42) associated in said vehicle life situation. 3. Device according to one of claims 1 or 2, characterized in that the available electrical energy is a voltage delivered by a battery (5) embedded in said vehicle. 4. Device according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the processing module (10) comprises at least:  a diode (60) for reversing polarity protection;  storage capacity (70) capable of storing energy during a vehicle start-up phase and filtering the noises present in the electrical energy of the network; and a voltage converter (80) continues. 5. Motor vehicle comprising at least:  - a battery (5);  - A device (1) for distributing energy according to one of claims 1 to 4; and  - A plurality of computers (21, 22) and actuators (31, 32) supplied via said distribution device (1) for controlling members (41, 42) embedded in said vehicle. 6. A method of distributing the electrical energy available in a motor vehicle, intended for the power supply of a plurality of control modules (21, 22, 31, 32) embedded in said vehicle, characterized in that includes at least steps of:  - generating a voltage adapted to the power of the control modules (21, 22, 31, 32); - verification of the vehicle's life situation; - checking the degree of criticality of the operation of each organ in said vehicle life situation; and  for each member (41, 42), according to the degree of criticality of their operation in the life situation of the vehicle, supplying the control module (21, 22, 31, 32) associated with said member (41, 42) with said adapted voltage.