US-12627166-B2 - Charge/discharge control system and charge/discharge control method

US12627166B2US 12627166 B2US12627166 B2US 12627166B2US-12627166-B2

Abstract

The present invention is to provide a charge/discharge control system and a charge/discharge control method capable of performing, in real time, highly accurate analysis of an internal state of a battery that is actually operating in a vehicle, and capable of performing control on the battery with a high accuracy based on the analysis, for improvement of safety. A battery charge/discharge control system 1 includes: an image acquirer 10 arranged in an inside of a battery 100 configured as a liquid battery, and configured to capture an image of the inside of the battery 100 ; a transferer 30 configured to transfer data of the image captured by the image acquirer 10 and a control signal; and controllers 14 and 50 configured to perform charge/discharge control on the battery based on the data of the image transferred from the transferer 30.

Inventors

Hideki Sakai
Atsushi Sakurai
Tatsuya Hattori
Yuji Isogai

Assignees

HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20230116
Priority Date: 20220215

Claims (9)

1 . A battery charge/discharge control system comprising: an image acquirer arranged in an inside of a battery configured as an all-solid battery, the image acquirer being configured to capture an image of the inside of the battery; a transferer configured to transfer data of the image captured by the image acquirer and a control signal; and a controller configured to perform charge/discharge control on the battery based on the data of the image transferred from the transferer, the controller includes an inside-battery controller arranged in the inside of the battery and an outside-battery controller arranged outside the battery, and the transferer transfers, by wireless communication, the data of the image captured by the image acquirer to the outside of the battery, the outside-battery controller transfers, by wireless communication, the control signal indicating a result of a determination based on the data of the image to the inside of the battery using the transferer, and the inside-battery controller performs, in response to reception of the control signal, charge/discharge control on the battery based on the control signal.
2 . A battery charge/discharge control system comprising: an image acquirer arranged in an inside of a battery configured as a liquid battery, the image acquirer being configured to capture an image of the inside of the battery; a transferer configured to transfer data of the image captured by the image acquirer and a control signal; and a controller configured to perform charge/discharge control in the battery based on the data of the Image transferred from the transferer, the controller includes an inside-battery controller arranged in the inside of the battery and an outside-battery controller arranged outside the battery, and the transferer transfers, by wireless communication, the data of the image captured by the image acquirer to the outside of the battery, the outside-battery controller transfers, by wireless communication, the control signal indicating a result of a determination based on the data of the image to the inside of the battery using the transferer, and the inside-battery controller performs, in response to reception of the control signal, charge/discharge control on the battery based on the control signal.
3 . The battery charge/discharge control system according to claim 2 , wherein the image acquirer and the transferer are isolated, by an isolation member that has resistance to an electrolytic solution forming part of the battery and that is capable of transmitting transmission radio waves, from the electrolytic solution in the inside of the battery.
4 . The charge/discharge control system according to claim 3 , wherein the image acquirer comprises a light source and an image sensor, and the light source and the image sensor are covered with a part of the isolation member, the part being capable of transmitting transmission radio waves.
5 . The battery charge/discharge control system according to claim 4 , wherein an entirety of the isolation member is covered with thin film laminate, and the part capable of transmitting transmission radio waves includes one of polyethylene, modified polyethylene, polypropylene, modified polypropylene and an ionomer; and the isolation member includes a connection part that is electrically connected to the battery, the connection part being connected by heat welding and having a structure capable of preventing intrusion of the electrolytic solution to the light source and image sensor side in an inside of the isolation member.
6 . The battery charge/discharge control system according to claim 1 , wherein power is supplied from the battery to the image acquirer, the transferer and the controller.
7 . The battery charge/discharge control system according to claim 1 , wherein the transferer comprises an inside-battery transceiver arranged in the inside of the battery, the battery comprises a casing having a thick part and a thin part, and the inside-battery transceiver is arranged near the thin part.
8 . A battery charge/discharge control method comprising: capturing an image of an inside of a battery; transferring data of the captured image; making determination as to a state of the battery based on the data of the image in real time and transferring a control signal indicating a result of the determination; and performing charge/discharge control on the battery based on the control signal, during the transferring data of the captured image, an inside-battery controller arranged in the inside of the battery performs a control to transfer, by wireless communication, the data of the image captured by the image acquirer to the outside of the battery, during the transferring of the control signal indicating the result of the determination, an outside-battery controller arranged outside the battery performs a control to transfer, by wireless communication and to the inside of the battery, the control signal indicating the result of the determination based on the data of the image, during the performing charge/discharge control on the battery, the inside-battery controller performs, in response to reception of the control signal, charge/discharge control on the battery based on the control signal.
9 . The battery charge/discharge control method according to claim 8 , wherein the determination is made by an ECU of a vehicle.

Description

This application is based on and claims the benefit of priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2022-021440, filed on 15 Feb. 2022, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a charge/discharge control system and a charge/discharge control method. Related Art A conventional charge/discharge control system and charge/discharge control method ensure safety, by determining a deterioration state of a battery in real time, according to a battery deterioration determination model constructed based on experiments and the like in advance in a battery ECU installed in a vehicle, and on the basis of a voltage, a current and a temperature of the battery in operation that are inputted from various kinds of sensors, and performing charge/discharge at a rate appropriate for a remaining battery capacity of the battery (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2012-85452). For example, in a case of a battery with a high degree of deterioration, it is possible to prevent the battery from being brought into an unsafe state by stopping charge/discharge. Recently, it has been attempted to improve the accuracy of charge/discharge control by grasping a deterioration state of a battery in more detail by combining the above method with a method of optically observing a state of the inside of the battery from the outside of the battery (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2014-116251, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2020-038756, Japanese Patent No. 6414501 and Specification of Chinese Patent Application, Publication No. 109870112.) Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2012-85452Patent Document 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2014-116251Patent Document 3: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2020-038756Patent Document 4: Japanese Patent No. 6414501Patent Document 5: Specification of Chinese Patent Application, Publication No. 109870112 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In the above conventional technologies, for example, if an observation window is provided on a battery case, the battery case is expected to decrease in resistance to a load that can be caused by an active material-induced or electrolytic-solution-induced change in internal pressure accompanying battery charge/discharge decreases. As other methods for analyzing the inside of an actually operating battery without cutting the battery, an X-ray CT method, an electromagnetic induction method and the like are proposed. However, in view of the fact that sufficient resolution cannot be obtained for a pack structure of an actually operating battery in the present circumstances, and that the structure size for the methods is too large and inappropriate for implementation in an actual vehicle, it is unlikely for the methods to contribute to improvement of the accuracy of charge/discharge control for an actual vehicle. As another method, it is conceivable to construct a more detailed model from a conventional model for estimating a state of an actually operating battery, based on performance estimation results obtained using a pseudo battery imitating the material composition of an actually operating battery (e.g., a small laminated cell or coin cell battery) under conditions imitating operation of a vehicle, and based on research and development results obtained by way of in-situ observations, thereby contributing to improvement of the accuracy of battery control for battery deterioration prediction and the like by an ECU. In this case, however, it is expected that there may be a case where sufficient battery control cannot be performed depending on conditions because conditions of the actually operating battery in a vehicle and conditions of the pseudo-battery do not completely mutually match. An object of the present invention is to provide a charge/discharge control system and a charge/discharge control method capable of performing, in real time, highly accurate analysis of an internal state of a battery that is actually operating in a vehicle, and capable of performing control on the battery with a high accuracy based on the analysis, for improvement of safety during charge/discharge of the battery. In order to achieve the above object, an embodiment of the present invention provides a battery charge/discharge control system including: an image acquirer arranged in an inside of a battery configured as an all-solid battery, the image acquirer being configured to capture an image of the inside of the battery; a transferer configured to transfer data of the image captured by the image acquirer and a control signal; and a controller configured to perform charge/discharge control on the battery based on the data of the image transferred from the transferer. Further, an embodiment of the present invention provi