CN-121989971-A - System and method for redundancy in runtime variants

Abstract

An electric vehicle, a method of operating an electric vehicle, and a method of manufacturing an electric vehicle are disclosed. A system includes a module configured to control an aspect of an electric vehicle, and a master controller including a variant manager. The variant manager is configured to retrieve a plurality of sets of redundant runtime variants from respective memory storage locations, wherein a set of runtime variants affects how the module controls aspects of the electric vehicle, determine a set of error-free runtime variants based on comparing the plurality of sets of redundant runtime variants, and apply the set of error-free runtime variants to the module. The electric vehicle may include a battery, and the module may be a battery management system configured to control the battery. Comparing the multiple sets of redundant runtime variants may include performing a cyclic redundancy check.

Inventors

• T. A. Chavka
• J. W.V. Jones

Assignees

• 瑞维安知识产权控股有限责任公司

Dates

Publication Date

20260508

Application Date

20251030

Priority Date

20250415

Claims (20)

1. 1. A system, the system comprising: a module configured to control an aspect of an Electric Vehicle (EV), and A master controller, the master controller comprising a variant manager, the variant manager is configured to: Retrieving a plurality of sets of redundant runtime variants from respective memory storage locations, wherein a set of runtime variants affects how the module controls the aspect of the EV; determining a set of error-free runtime variants based on comparing the sets of redundant runtime variants, and The set of error-free runtime variants is applied to the module.
2. 2. The system of claim 1, the system further comprising: The battery is provided with a battery cell, Wherein the module includes a battery management system configured to control the battery.
3. 3. The system of claim 1, wherein comparing the plurality of sets of redundant runtime variations comprises performing a cyclic redundancy check on the plurality of sets of redundant runtime variations.
4. 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the master controller is configured to launch the module to an initial state prior to applying the set of error-free runtime variants, wherein the initial state allows limited operation of the module.
5. 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the respective memory storage locations comprise at least one location at the module and at least one other location at the master controller.
6. 6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a communication bus to communicatively couple the module to the master controller.
7. 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the master controller comprises a lockstep enabled CPU core configured to execute the variant manager.
8. 8. The system of claim 1, wherein the variant manager is further configured to request the set of error-free runtime variants from a cloud-connected storage facility in response to determining that the retrieved sets of redundant runtime variants do not include the set of error-free runtime variants.
9. 9. A method of operating an Electric Vehicle (EV), the method comprising: retrieving a plurality of sets of redundant runtime variants from respective memory storage locations of the EV, wherein a set of runtime variants affects how a module controls aspects of the EV; determining a set of error-free runtime variants based on comparing the sets of redundant runtime variants, and The set of error-free runtime variants is applied to the module to control the aspect of the EV.
10. 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the EV comprises a battery and the module comprises a battery management system configured to control the battery.
11. 11. The method of claim 9, wherein comparing the plurality of sets of redundant runtime variations comprises performing a cyclic redundancy check on the plurality of sets of redundant runtime variations.
12. 12. The method of claim 9, further comprising launching the module to an initial state prior to applying the set of error-free runtime variants, wherein the initial state allows limited operation of the module.
13. 13. The method of claim 9, wherein the respective memory storage locations comprise at least one location at the module and at least one other location at a master controller.
14. 14. The method of claim 9, wherein applying the set of error-free runtime variants to the module comprises communicating the set of error-free runtime variants over a communication bus from a master controller comprising a variant manager to the module.
15. 15. The method of claim 9, wherein the retrieving, the determining, and the applying are performed by a lockstep enabled CPU core configured to execute a variant manager application.
16. 16. The method of claim 9, further comprising requesting the set of error-free runtime variants from a cloud-connected storage facility in response to determining that the retrieved sets of redundant runtime variants do not include the set of error-free runtime variants.
17. 17. A method of manufacturing an Electric Vehicle (EV), the method comprising: Loading a variant manager onto a first component of the EV, and Causing the variant manager to: Redundant writing of at least one set of runtime variants to a plurality of corresponding locations of a second component of the EV, and Determining whether each set of runtime variants stored at the plurality of respective locations of the second component of the EV are consistent.
18. 18. The method of claim 17, wherein the first component comprises a main controller board of the EV and the second component comprises a battery pack of the EV.
19. 19. The method of claim 18, wherein causing the variant manager to redundantly write the at least one set of runtime variants comprises: writing the at least one set of runtime variants to the first component of the EV, an Causing the first component of the EV to broadcast the at least one set of runtime variations to the plurality of respective locations of the second component of the EV.
20. 20. The method of claim 17, further comprising causing the variant manager to configure a core application of the EV based on the at least one set of runtime variants in response to determining that each set of runtime variants stored at the plurality of respective locations of the second component of the EV are consistent.

Description

System and method for redundancy in runtime variants Cross Reference to Related Applications The present disclosure claims the benefit of co-pending commonly assigned U.S. provisional patent application No. 63/717,191 filed on 6/11/2024, which provisional patent application is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Introduction to the invention The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for redundancy in runtime variants. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to redundantly storing multiple sets of runtime variant settings in multiple hardware locations, and to verifying the accuracy of selected runtime variant settings based on a comparison of redundancy values stored across the multiple hardware locations. Disclosure of Invention The software system may rely on variant-based configurations to achieve interoperability. For example, the core application may be configured to run with multiple sets of alignment settings. For a given core application, a particular set of alignment settings may be selected at different times, including when a system dependent on the application is built (e.g., a build-time change) or when a system dependent on the application is powered on (e.g., the system is awakened from a sleep state) (e.g., a run-time change). However, if a set of alignment settings is stored in memory and any aspect of the memory is corrupted, the core application may load the corrupted alignment settings, which may affect the performance of the system that depends on the core application. According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, an Electric Vehicle (EV) is configured to operate a Battery Management System (BMS) and other Electronic Control Units (ECU) (any of which may be referred to as a module) of the EV using at least one core application and at least one set of alignment settings. The EV is configured to store the set of alignment settings in a plurality of locations. When the core application is launched, installed, or otherwise instantiated, the set of calibration settings, the EV is configured to check a plurality of locations to confirm that the core application applied the set of calibration settings without any errors. For example, the plurality of locations may include any two or more of internal flash (e.g., DFLASH) memory of the CPU, external flash (e.g., EEPROM) memory, memory of a Telematics Control Module (TCM), or memory of the ECU. As another example, the plurality of locations may include at least two discrete locations on any one or more of the aforementioned locations. As another example, the plurality of locations may include at least one remote location (e.g., a cloud server communicatively coupled to the EV). For example, validating that the core application applies the set of calibration settings without any errors may include reading at least two sets of settings stored at respective locations and implementing an error checking mechanism, including an evaluation of a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) or checksum. As another example, validating that the core application applies the set of alignment settings without any errors may include reading at least three sets of settings stored at the respective locations and implementing a voting-based mechanism (e.g., to apply any settings returned by the maximum number of sets of settings). According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, an electric vehicle, a method of operating an electric vehicle, and a method of manufacturing an electric vehicle are disclosed. The electric vehicle includes a module configured to control aspects of the EV, and a master controller including a variant manager. The variant manager is configured to retrieve multiple sets of redundant runtime variants from respective memory storage locations, wherein one set of runtime variants affects aspects of how the module controls the EV, determine a set of error-free runtime variants based on comparing the multiple sets of redundant runtime variants, and apply the set of error-free runtime variants to the module. Drawings The foregoing and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will be apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like reference characters refer to like parts throughout, and in which: FIG. 1 illustrates an electric vehicle having a master controller and a memory, wherein the memory stores runtime variants at a plurality of locations, and the master controller is configured to verify the runtime variants; FIG. 2 is an illustrative flow chart of a method for providing redundancy in runtime variant-based calibration, and FIG. 3 is an exemplary flow chart of a method for manufacturing an electric vehicle having redundancy in calibration based on run-time variants. Detailed Description Electric Vehicles (EVs) typically include an electric motor system. The electric motor system may include a battery pack and a Battery Management