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US-20260124954-A1 - BATTERY MONITORING SYSTEM AND WIRELESS COMMUNICATION METHOD

US20260124954A1US 20260124954 A1US20260124954 A1US 20260124954A1US-20260124954-A1

Abstract

In a battery monitoring system, a receiver executes, in accordance with received control information transmitted from a transceiver, at least one control process. The receiver determines whether a communication quality of the communication channel used for transmission of the control information is favorable in response to reception of the control information. The receiver returns a result of the at least one control process to the transmitter upon determination that the communication quality of the communication channel is favorable, and does not return the result of the at least one control process to the transmitter upon determination that the communication quality of the communication channel is unfavorable.

Inventors

  • Yuto HONDA

Assignees

  • DENSO CORPORATION

Dates

Publication Date
20260507
Application Date
20251229
Priority Date
20230629

Claims (13)

  1. 1 . A battery monitoring system for monitoring a battery unit, the battery monitoring system comprising: a transmitter configured to wirelessly transmit control information through a selected communication channel from a plurality of communication channels; and a receiver comprising a control circuitry configured to cause the receiver to: receive the control information transmitted from the transmitter; execute, in accordance with the control information, at least one control process; determine whether a communication quality of the communication channel used for transmission of the control information in response to reception of the control information is favorable; and return a result of the at least one control process to the transmitter upon determination that the communication quality of the communication channel is favorable, the control circuitry being configured to cause the receiver not to return the result of the at least one control process to the transmitter upon determination that the communication quality of the communication channel is unfavorable, the transmitter comprising an evaluation circuitry configured to: determine whether the result of the at least one control process has been returned thereto from the receiver after transmission of the control information; and evaluate that the communication quality of the communication channel used for transmission of the control information is unfavorable upon determination that the result of the at least one control process has not been returned thereto from the receiver.
  2. 2 . The battery monitoring system according to claim 1 , wherein: the evaluation circuitry is configured to count, for each of the communication channels, the number of times the communication quality of the corresponding one of the communication channels is determined to be unfavorable; and the transmitter is configured to set at least one of the communication channels to be unselectable upon determination that the counted number of times the communication quality of the at least one of the communication channels is determined to be unfavorable is greater than or equal to a predetermined count threshold.
  3. 3 . The battery monitoring system according to claim 2 , wherein: the battery unit is installed in a vehicle; and the transmitter comprises a threshold setting circuitry configured to change the predetermined count threshold depending on at least one of a state of the vehicle or a communication speed between the transmitter and the receiver.
  4. 4 . The battery monitoring system according to claim 3 , wherein: the battery unit is installed in a vehicle; and the threshold setting circuitry is configured to change the predetermined count threshold upon at least one of (i) a speed of the vehicle as the state of the vehicle being determined to be higher than or equal to a predetermined speed or (ii) the vehicle is present in an environment in which external noise that causes an influence on wireless communication between the transceiver and the receiver.
  5. 5 . The battery monitoring system according to claim 1 , wherein: the plurality of communication channels include one or more connection-establishment communication channels and one or more battery-information exchange communication channels; the transmitter is configured to select one of the battery-information exchange communication channels upon transmission of the control information; and the evaluation circuitry is configured to evaluate that the communication quality of one of the battery-information exchange communication channels selected by the transmitter.
  6. 6 . The battery monitoring system according to claim 1 , wherein: the control circuitry of the receiver is configured to return the result of the at least one control process to the transmitter through one of the communication channels used for transmission of the control information by the transmitter.
  7. 7 . The battery monitoring system according to claim 1 , wherein: the transmitter is a battery control device configured to transmit, as the control information, control data that includes battery-information acquisition request; and the receiver is at least one battery monitoring device configured to: receive the control data as the control information transmitted from the transmitter; execute, as the at least one control process in accordance with the control data, an acquisition process of acquiring, from the battery unit, battery information on the battery unit; and return, as the result of the at least one control process, response data indicative of the acquired battery information to the receiver.
  8. 8 . The battery monitoring system according to claim 7 , wherein: the at least one battery monitoring device comprises multiple battery monitoring devices; and the battery control device comprises an abnormality determination circuitry configured to: determine whether no response data is returned thereto from a specified one of the multiple battery monitoring devices successively a predetermined number of times; and determine that an abnormality has occurred in the specified one of the multiple battery monitoring devices upon determination that no response data is returned thereto from the specified one of the multiple battery monitoring devices successively the predetermined number of times.
  9. 9 . The battery monitoring system according to claim 7 , wherein: the at least one battery monitoring device comprises multiple battery monitoring devices; and the battery control device comprises an abnormality determination circuitry configured to: determine whether no response data is returned thereto from the multiple battery monitoring devices successively a predetermined number of times; and determine that an abnormality has occurred in the battery monitoring system or the battery control apparatus upon determination that no response data is returned thereto from the multiple battery monitoring devices successively the predetermined number of times.
  10. 10 . A receiver for a battery monitoring system that monitors a battery unit, a transmitter of the battery monitoring system is configured to wirelessly transmit control information through a selected communication channel from a plurality of communication channels, the receiver comprising: a control circuitry configured to cause the receiver to: receive the control information transmitted from the transmitter; execute, in accordance with the control information, at least one control process; determine whether a communication quality of the communication channel used for transmission of the control information is favorable in response to reception of the control information; and return a result of the at least one control process to the transmitter upon determination that the communication quality of the communication channel is favorable, the control circuitry being configured to cause the receiver not to return the result of the at least one control process to the transmitter upon determination that the communication quality of the communication channel is unfavorable.
  11. 11 . A transmitter for a battery monitoring system that monitors a battery unit, a receiver of the battery monitoring system is configured (i) to execute, in accordance with control information, at least one control process, (ii) to determine whether a communication quality of a communication channel used for transmission of the control information is favorable in response to reception of the control information, (iii) to return a result of the at least one control process to the transmitter upon determination that the communication quality of the communication channel is favorable, and (iv) not to return the result of the at least one control process to the transmitter upon determination that the communication quality of the communication channel is unfavorable, the transmitter being configured to transmit the control information to the receiver through the communication channel, the transmitter comprising an evaluation circuitry configured to: determine whether the result of the at least one control process has been returned thereto from the receiver after transmission of the control information; and evaluate that the communication quality of the communication channel used for transmission of the control information is unfavorable upon determination that the result of the at least one control process has not been returned thereto from the receiver.
  12. 12 . A wireless communication program product for a battery monitoring system that comprises a transmitter and a receiver and monitors a battery unit, the program product comprising: one or more non-transitory storage media; and program instructions stored in the non-transitory storage media, the program instructions causing the receiver: to execute, in accordance with control information, at least one control process; to determine whether a communication quality of a communication channel used for transmission of the control information is favorable in response to reception of the control information; to return a result of the at least one control process to the transmitter upon determination that the communication quality of the communication channel is favorable; and not to return the result of the at least one control process to the transmitter upon determination that the communication quality of the communication channel is unfavorable, the program instructions causing the transmitter to: wirelessly transmit control information through a selected communication channel from a plurality of communication channels; determine whether the result of the at least one control process has been returned thereto from the receiver after transmission of the control information; and evaluate that the communication quality of the communication channel used for transmission of the control information is unfavorable upon determination that the result of the at least one control process has not been returned thereto from the receiver.
  13. 13 . A wireless communication method comprising: wirelessly transmitting, by a transmitter, control information through a selected communication channel from a plurality of communication channels; receiving, by a receiver, the control information transmitted by the transmitter; executing, by the receiver, at least one control process in accordance with the control information; determining, by the receiver, whether a communication quality of the communication channel used for transmission of the control information in response to reception of the control information is favorable; returning, by the receiver, a result of the at least one control process to the transmitter upon determination that the communication quality of the communication channel is favorable; not returning, by the receiver, the result of the at least one control process to the transmitter upon determination that the communication quality of the communication channel is unfavorable; determining, by the transmitter, whether the result of the at least one control process has been returned thereto from the receiver after transmission of the control information; and evaluating, by the transmitter, that the communication quality of the communication channel used for transmission of the control information is unfavorable upon determination that the result of the at least one control process has not been returned thereto from the receiver.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This present application is a bypass continuation application of currently pending international application No. PCT/JP2024/019635 filed on May 29, 2024 designating the United States of America, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, the international application being based on and claiming the benefit of priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2023-107030 filed on June 29, 2023, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates to battery monitoring systems, transmitters for a battery monitoring system, receivers for a battery monitoring system, wireless communication program products, and wireless communication methods. BACKGROUND In recent years, battery monitoring systems have been developed, which transmit or receive battery information through wireless communication. A secondary unit included in a battery monitoring system selected from these battery monitoring systems is configured to transmit, together with battery information, additional information to a primary unit; the additional information is associated with a reception condition through each communication channel. The primary unit determines the communication quality for each communication channel based on the received reception-condition information and uses the determined communication quality for each communication channel to select one or more of the communication channels for subsequent battery-information transmissions. Such a selected battery monitoring system is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 6514694. SUMMARY In such a conventional battery monitoring system, each time the secondary unit transmits the battery information to the primary unit, the secondary unit transmits the additional information associated with the reception condition through each communication channel to the primary unit. This may result in an increase in the amount of communication data transmitted from the secondary unit to the primary unit. An increase in the amount of communication data transmitted from the secondary unit to the primary unit may cause the communication speed between the primary and secondary units to slow, resulting in a higher communication error rate. In view of the above circumstances, the present disclosure seems to provide battery monitoring systems, transmitters for a battery monitoring system, receivers for a battery monitoring system, wireless communication program products, and wireless communication methods, each of which is capable of reducing the amount of communication data. A first exemplary aspect of the present disclosure provides a battery monitoring system for monitoring a battery unit. The battery monitoring system includes a transmitter configured to wirelessly transmit control information through a selected communication channel from a plurality of communication channels, and a receiver includes a control circuitry configured to cause the receiver to receive the control information transmitted from the transmitter, and execute, in accordance with the control information, at least one control process. The control circuitry is configured to cause the receiver to determine whether a communication quality of the communication channel used for transmission of the control information in response to reception of the control information is favorable, and return a result of the at least one control process to the transmitter upon determination that the communication quality of the communication channel is favorable. The control circuitry is configured to cause the receiver not to return the result of the at least one control process to the transmitter upon determination that the communication quality of the communication channel is unfavorable. The transmitter includes an evaluation circuitry configured to determine whether the result of the at least one control process has been returned thereto from the receiver after transmission of the control information, and evaluate that the communication quality of the communication channel used for transmission of the control information is unfavorable upon determination that the result of the at least one control process has not been returned thereto from the receiver. The first exemplary aspect prevents returning of the result of the at least one control process upon determination that the communication quality of the communication channel is unfavorable. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the vicious cycle in which the amount of communication data increases in order to indicate that the communication quality is unfavorable, thus suppressing further degradation of the communication quality. A second exemplary aspect of the present disclosure provides a receiver for a battery monitoring system that monitors a battery unit. A transmitter of the battery monitoring system is configured to wirelessly transmit control information through a selected com